On the contrary, she left it on the
table close to Miss Smith, and retreated to the farther side herself.
"Starving means being very, very hungry," said Cecile. "I know what
that means, just a little. It is a bad feeling. I am sorry. There is
a turkey egg waiting for me outside. I will fetch it for you in a
moment. But you are quite wrong in saying it was Satan sent me to
you. I don't know anything about Satan. It was the blessed, blessed
Jesus the Guide sent me. He came last night in a dream. He told me to
go to the Faubourg St. G---- and I should find an English lady, and
she would take great care of my Russia-leather purse. It was a true
warning, just as Joseph's dream was true. He was warned of God in a
dream, just as I was last night."
"And I am the only Englishwoman in the faubourg," said Miss Smith. "I
have lived here for ten years now, and I never heard of any other. I
teach, or, rather, I did teach English in a Pension de Demoiselles
close by, and I have been dismissed. I was thought too old-fashioned.
I can't get any more employment, and I had just broken into my last
franc piece when you came. I might have done without food, but Molly
was _so_ hungry. Molly is going to-morrow, and I shall be alone.
Yes, little English girl, you do right to reprove me. I, too, have
loved the Lord Jesus. Sit down! Sit down on that chair, and tell me,
in my own dear tongue, the story of that purse."
"I am not an English girl," said Cecile; "I am French; I come from
the south, from the Pyrenees; but my father brought me to England
when I was two years old, and I don't know any French.
Pages:
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214