for her. What little amount of fighting he had had in him, had been
thoroughly vanquished before her arrival.

"I will have an answer, and that immediately," said Madame Bauche.
"I am not going to be betrayed into ignominy and disgrace by the
object of my own charity. Who picked you out of the gutter, miss,
and brought you up and fed you, when you would otherwise have gone to
the foundling? And this is your gratitude for it all? You are not
satisfied with being fed and clothed and cherished by me, but you
must rob me of my son! Know this then, Adolphe shall never marry a
child of charity such as you are."

Marie sat still, stunned by the harshness of these words. La Mere
Bauche had often scolded her; indeed, she was given to much scolding;
but she had scolded her as a mother may scold a child. And when this
story of Marie's love first reached her ears, she had been very
angry; but her anger had never brought her to such a pass as this.
Indeed, Marie had not hitherto been taught to look at the matter in
this light. No one had heretofore twitted her with eating the bread
of charity. It had not occurred to her that on this account she was
unfit to be Adolphe's wife. There, in that valley, they were all so
nearly equal, that no idea of her own inferiority had ever pressed
itself upon her mind. But now--!

When the voice ceased she again looked at him; but it was no longer a
beseeching look. Did he also altogether scorn her? That was now the
inquiry which her eyes were called upon to make. No; she could not
say that he did. It seemed to her that his energies were chiefly
occupied in pulling to pieces the tassel on the sofa cushion.