By chance, the woman to whom she applied was La
Chouette, and hardly had she spoken of the likeness which the counterfeit
would have to bear to the supposed _suppressed_ child, than the woman
recognized the very girl whom she had kept for years by her, or in view.
Yes, the offspring of Prince Rudolph and the countess was a common girl of
the town, known as Fleur-de-Marie (the Virgin's Flower), for her touching
religious beauty, as La Goualeuse (the Songstress), for her vocal ability,
and La Pegriotte (Little Thief), out of La Chouette's anger that she would
not be what she styled her.
She had long shunned her sad sisters in shame, and, indeed, in all her life
had known but one friend. This was a sewing-girl known as Rigolette, or
Miss Dimpleton, from her continual smiles; a maid with no strong ideas of
virtue, but preserved from the miry path which poor Fleur-de-Marie had been
forced to use, merely by being too hard-worked to have leisure to be bad.
Prince Rudolph entertained the most profound aversion for the mother of his
child, yet for the latter he mourned still, fifteen or eighteen years after
her reported decease. Weary of life, save for doing good, he took a deep
liking for playing the part of a minor providence, be it said in all
reverence.
Known to society as the grand-duke, otherwise Count Duren, he had humble
lodgings in No. 7, Rue du Temple, as a fan-painter, plain M.
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