“It is I, my dear daughter, who regret not to be able to attach you to the institution; but I am not altogether hopeless, that a person, already so worthy of interest, will one day deserve by her piety the lasting support of religious people.  Adieu, my dear daughter! go in peace, and may God be merciful to you, until the day that you return with your whole heart to Him!”

So saying, the superior rose, and conducted her visitor to the door, with all the forms of the most maternal kindness.  At the moment she crossed the threshold, she said to her:  “Follow the passage, go down a few steps, and knock at the second door on the right hand.  It is the press-room, and there you will find Florine.  She will show you the way out.  Adieu, my dear daughter!”

As soon as Mother Bunch had left the presence of the superior, her tears, until now restrained, gushed forth abundantly.  Not wishing to appear before Florine and the nuns in this state, she stopped a moment at one of the windows to dry her eyes.  As she looked mechanically towards the windows of the next house, where she fancied she had seen Adrienne de Cardoville, she beheld the latter come from a door in the building, and advance rapidly towards the open paling that separated the two gardens.  At the same instant, and to her great astonishment, Mother Bunch saw one of the two sisters whose disappearance had caused the despair of Dagobert, with pale and dejected countenance, approach the fence that separated her from Mdlle. de Cardoville, trembling with fear and anxiety, as though she dreaded to be discovered.

CHAPTER VIII.

Mother bunch and Mdlle.  De Cardoville.

Agitated, attentive, uneasy, leaning from one of the convent-windows, the work-girl followed with her eyes the movements of Mdlle. de Cardoville and Rose Simon, whom she so little expected to find together in such a place.  The orphan, approaching close to the fence, which separated the nunnery-garden from that of Dr. Baleinier’s asylum, spoke a few words to Adrienne, whose features at once expressed astonishment, indignation, and pity.  At this juncture, a nun came running, and looking right and left, as though anxiously seeking for some one; then, perceiving Rose, who timidly pressed close to the paling, she seized her by the arm, and seemed to scold her severely, and notwithstanding some energetic words addressed to her by Mdlle. de Cardoville, she hastily carried off the orphan, who with weeping eyes, turned several times to look back at Adrienne; whilst the latter, after showing the interest she took in her by expressive gestures, turned away suddenly, as if to conceal her tears.