The president had them silenced and continued, “Go on, please, and tell us how it all happened.”

Then she suddenly began to talk freely, relieving her pent-up heart, that poor, solitary, crushed heart—­laying bare her sorrow, her whole sorrow, before those severe men whom she had until now taken for enemies and inflexible judges.

“Yes, it was Monsieur Joseph Varambot, when he came on leave last year.”

“What does Mr. Joseph Varambot do?”

“He is a non-commissioned officer in the artillery, monsieur.  Well, he stayed two months at the house, two months of the summer.  I thought nothing about it when he began to look at me, and then flatter me, and make love to me all day long.  And I let myself be taken in, monsieur.  He kept saying to me that I was a handsome girl, that I was good company, that I just suited him—­and I, I liked him well enough.  What could I do?  One listens to these things when one is alone—­all alone—­as I was.  I am alone in the world, monsieur.  I have no one to talk to—­no one to tell my troubles to.  I have no father, no mother, no brother, no sister, nobody.  And when he began to talk to me it was as if I had a brother who had come back.  And then he asked me to go with him to the river one evening, so that we might talk without disturbing any one.  I went—­I don’t know—­I don’t know how it happened.  He had his arm around me.  Really I didn’t want to—­no—­no—­I could not—­I felt like crying, the air was so soft —­the moon was shining.  No, I swear to you—­I could not—­he did what he wanted.  That went on three weeks, as long as he stayed.  I could have followed him to the ends of the world.  He went away.  I did not know that I was enceinte.  I did not know it until the month after—­”

She began to cry so bitterly that they had to give her time to collect herself.

Then the president resumed with the tone of a priest at the confessional:  “Come, now, go on.”

She began to talk again:  “When I realized my condition I went to see Madame Boudin, who is there to tell you, and I asked her how it would be, in case it should come if she were not there.  Then I made the outfit, sewing night after night, every evening until one o’clock in the morning; and then I looked for another place, for I knew very well that I should be sent away, but I wanted to stay in the house until the very last, so as to save my pennies, for I have not got very much and I should need my money for the little one.”

“Then you did not intend to kill him?”

“Oh, certainly not, monsieur!”

“Why did you kill him, then?”

“It happened this way.  It came sooner than I expected.  It came upon me in the kitchen, while I was doing the dishes.  Monsieur and Madame Varambot were already asleep, so I went up, not without difficulty, dragging myself up by the banister, and I lay down on the bare floor.  It lasted perhaps one hour, or two, or three; I don’t know, I had such pain; and then I pushed him out with all my strength.  I felt that he came out and I picked him up.