But what could I do either for her or myself?  My store of money was almost all gone, for our joint expenses had cost more than I had anticipated, and I could very well see that I must not expect Madame Perrier to refund Minima’s fare.  There was perhaps enough left to carry me back to England, and just land me on its shores.  But what then?  Where was I to go then?  Penniless, friendless; without character, without a name—­but an assumed one—­what was to become of me?  I began to wonder vaguely whether I should be forced to make myself known to my husband; whether fate would not drive me back to him.  No; that should never be.  I would face and endure any hardship rather than return to my former life.  A hundred times better this squalid, wretched, foreign school, than the degradation of heart and soul I had suffered with him.

I could do no more for Minima than for myself, for I dared not even write to Mrs. Wilkinson, who was either an accomplice or a dupe of these Perriers.  My letter might fall into the hands of Richard Foster, or the woman living with him, and so they would track me out, and I should have no means of escape.  I dared not run that risk.  The only thing I could do for her was to stay with her, and as far as possible shield her from the privations and distress that threatened us both.  I was safe here; no one was likely to come across me, in this remote place, who could by any chance know me.  I had at least a roof over my head; I had food to eat.  Elsewhere I was not sure of either.  There seemed to be no other choice given me than to remain in the trap.

“We must make the best of it, Minima,” I whispered to the child, through the hum of lessons.  Her shrewd little face brightened with a smile that smoothed all the wrinkles out of it.

“That’s what father said!” she cried; “he said, ’Courage, Minima.  God will take care of my little daughter.’  God has sent you to take care of me.  Suppose I’d come all the way alone, and found it such a horrid place!”

CHAPTER THE NINTH.

A FRENCH AVOCAT.

December came in with intense severity.  Icicles a yard long hung to the eaves, and the snow lay unmelted for days together on the roofs.  More often than not we were without wood for our fire, and when we had it, it was green and unseasoned, and only smouldered away with a smoke that stung and irritated our eyes.  Our insufficient and unwholesome food supplied us with no inward warmth.  Coal in that remote district cost too much for any but the wealthiest people, Now and then I caught a glimpse of a blazing fire in the houses I had to pass, to get to our chamber over Monsieur Perrier’s workshop; and in an evening the dainty, savory smell of dinner, cooking in the kitchen adjoining, sometimes filled the frosty air.  Both sight and scent were tantalizing, and my dreams at night were generally of pleasant food and warm firesides.