Marie merely bowed her head in token of acquiescence. "Then we are
friends again. Come here, Marie, and kiss me. You must know that it
is my duty to take care of my own son. But I don't want to be angry
with you if I can help it; I don't indeed. When once you are Madame
Campan, you shall be my own child; and you shall have any room in the
house you like to choose--there!" And she once more imprinted a kiss
on Marie's cold forehead.

How they all got out of the room, and off to their own chambers, I
can hardly tell. But in five minutes from the time of this last kiss
they were divided. La Mere Bauche had patted Marie, and smiled on
her, and called her her dear good little Madame Campan, her young
little Mistress of the Hotel Bauche; and had then got herself into
her own room, satisfied with her own victory.

Nor must my readers be too severe on Madame Bauche. She had already
done much for Marie Clavert; and when she found herself once more by
her own bedside, she prayed to be forgiven for the cruelty which she
felt that she had shown to the orphan. But in making this prayer,
with her favourite crucifix in her hand and the little image of the
Virgin before her, she pleaded her duty to her son. Was it not
right, she asked the Virgin, that she should save her son from a bad
marriage? And then she promised ever so much of recompense, both to
the Virgin and to Marie; a new trousseau for each, with candles to
the Virgin, with a gold watch and chain for Marie, as soon as she
should be Marie Campan. She had been cruel; she acknowledged it.
But at such a crisis was it not defensible? And then the recompense
should be so full!

But there was one other meeting that night, very short indeed, but