This plan was helped on by the renewed presence of Celeste the maid.  Eight years had elapsed since Valentine had been obliged to dismiss this woman for immorality; and during those eight years Celeste, weary of service, had tried a number of equivocal callings of which she did not speak.  She had ended by turning up at Rougemont, her native place, in bad health and such a state of wretchedness, that for the sake of a living she went out as a charwoman there.  Then she gradually recovered her health, and accumulated a little stock of clothes, thanks to the protection of the village priest, whom she won over by an affectation of extreme piety.  It was at Rougemont, no doubt, that she planned her return to the Seguins, of whose vicissitudes she was informed by La Couteau, the latter having kept up her intercourse with Madame Menoux, the little haberdasher of the neighborhood.

Valentine, shortly after her rupture with Santerre, one day of furious despair, when she had again dismissed all her servants, was surprised by the arrival of Celeste, who showed herself so repentant, so devoted, and so serious-minded, that her former mistress felt touched.  She made her weep on reminding her of her faults, and asking her to swear before God that she would never repeat them; for Celeste now went to confession and partook of the holy communion, and carried with her a certificate from the Cure of Rougemont vouching for her deep piety and high morality.  This certificate acted decisively on Valentine, who, unwilling to remain at home, and weary of the troubles of housekeeping, understood what precious help she might derive from this woman.  On her side Celeste certainly relied upon power being surrendered to her.  Two months later, by favoring Lucie’s excessive partiality to religious practices, she had helped her into a convent.  Gaston showed himself only when he secured a few days’ leave.  And so Andree alone remained at home, impeding by her presence the great general pillage that Celeste dreamt of.  The maid therefore became a most active worker on behalf of her young mistress’s marriage.

Andree, it should be said, was comprised in Ambroise’s universal conquest.  She had met him at her uncle Du Hordel’s house for a year before it occurred to the latter to marry them.  She was a very gentle girl, a little golden-haired sheep, as her mother sometimes said.  And that handsome, smiling young man, who evinced so much kindness towards her, became the subject of her thoughts and hopes whenever she suffered from loneliness and abandonment.  Thus, when her uncle prudently questioned her, she flung herself into his arms, weeping big tears of gratitude and confession.  Valentine, on being approached, at first manifested some surprise.  What, a son of the Froments!  Those Froments had already taken Chantebled from them, and did they now want to take one of their daughters?  Then, amid the collapse of fortune and household, she could find no reasonable objection to urge.  She