left in any way subject to maternal authority.

Adolphe Bauche was the only one of her children of whom much was
remembered by the present denizens and hangers-on of the hotel, he
was the youngest of the number, and having been born only very
shortly before the return of Madame Bauche to Vernet, had been
altogether reared there. It was thought by the world of those parts,
and rightly thought, that he was his mother's darling--more so than
had been any of his brothers and sisters,--the very apple of her eye
and gem of her life. At this time he was about twenty-five years of
age, and for the last two years had been absent from Vernet--for
reasons which will shortly be made to appear. He had been sent to
Paris to see something of the world, and learn to talk French instead
of the patois of his valley; and having left Paris had come down
south into Languedoc, and remained there picking up some agricultural
lore which it was thought might prove useful in the valley farms of
Vernet. He was now expected home again very speedily, much to his
mother's delight.

That she was kind and gracious to her favourite child does not
perhaps give much proof of her benevolence; but she had also been
kind and gracious to the orphan child of a neighbour; nay, to the
orphan child of a rival innkeeper. At Vernet there had been more
than one water establishment, but the proprietor of the second had
died some few years after Madame Bauche had settled herself at the
place. His house had not thrived, and his only child, a little girl,
was left altogether without provision.

This little girl, Marie Clavert, La Mere Bauche had taken into her
own house immediately after the father's death, although she had most