It was an insane idea, and he was at first minded to prove this to her.  Then, on looking at her, she seemed to him so wretched, so painfully tortured, that without a word, making indeed but a kindly gesture of compassion, he consented.  And the cab carried them away.

The large room in which Norine and Cecile lived together was at Grenelle, near the Champ de Mars, in a street at the end of the Rue de la Federation.  They had been there for nearly six years now, and in the earlier days had experienced much worry and wretchedness.  But the child whom they had to feed and save had on his side saved them also.  The motherly feelings slumbering in Norine’s heart had awakened with passionate intensity for that poor little one as soon as she had given him the breast and learnt to watch over him and kiss him.  And it was also wondrous to see how that unfortunate creature Cecile regarded the child as in some degree her own.  He had indeed two mothers, whose thoughts were for him alone.  If Norine, during the first few months, had often wearied of spending her days in pasting little boxes together, if even thoughts of flight had at times come to her, she had always been restrained by the puny arms that were clasped around her neck.  And now she had grown calm, sensible, diligent, and very expert at the light work which Cecile had taught her.  It was a sight to see them both, gay and closely united in their little home, which was like a convent cell, spending their days at their little table; while between them was their child, their one source of life, of hard-working courage and happiness.

Since they had been living thus they had made but one good friend, and this was Madame Angelin.  As a delegate of the Poor Relief Service, intrusted with one of the Grenelle districts, Madame Angelin had found Norine among the pensioners over whom she was appointed to watch.  A feeling of affection for the two mothers, as she called the sisters, had sprung up within her, and she had succeeded in inducing the authorities to prolong the child’s allowance of thirty francs a month for a period of three years.  Then she had obtained scholastic assistance for him, not to mention frequent presents which she brought—­clothes, linen, and even money—­for apart from official matters, charitable people often intrusted her with fairly large sums, which she distributed among the most meritorious of the poor mothers whom she visited.  And even nowadays she occasionally called on the sisters, well pleased to spend an hour in that nook of quiet toil, which the laughter and the play of the child enlivened.  She there felt herself to be far away from the world, and suffered less from her own misfortunes.  And Norine kissed her hands, declaring that without her the little household of the two mothers would never have managed to exist.