With the vague instinct of abandoned children who seek to attach themselves to some one or some thing, Jeanne clung to Madame Desvarennes, who, ready to protect, and longing for maternity, took the child in her arms.  The gardener’s wife acted as guide during her visit over the property.  Madame Desvarennes questioned her.  She knew nothing of the child except what she had heard from the servants when they gossiped in the evenings about their late master.  They said Jeanne was a bastard.  Of her relatives they knew nothing.  The Count had an aunt in England who was married to a rich lord; but he had not corresponded with her lately.  The little one then was reduced to beggary as the estate was to be sold.

The gardener’s wife was a good woman and was willing to keep the child until the new proprietor came; but when once affairs were settled, she would certainly go and make a declaration to the mayor, and take her to the workhouse.  Madame Desvarennes listened in silence.  One word only had struck her while the woman was speaking.  The child was without support, without ties, and abandoned like a poor lost dog.  The little one was pretty too; and when she fixed her large deep eyes on that improvised mother, who pressed her so tenderly to her heart, she seemed to implore her not to put her down, and to carry her away from the mourning that troubled her mind and the isolation that froze her heart.

Madame Desvarennes, very superstitious, like a woman of the people, began to think that, perhaps, Providence had brought her to Cernay that day and had placed the child in her path.  It was perhaps a reparation which heaven granted her, in giving her the little girl she so longed for.  Acting unhesitatingly, as she did in everything, she left her name with the woman, carried Jeanne to her carriage, and took her to Paris, promising herself to make inquiries to find her relatives.

A month later, the property of Cernay pleasing her, and the researches for Jeanne’s friends not proving successful, Madame Desvarennes took possession of the estate and the child into the bargain.

Michel welcomed the child without enthusiasm.  The little stranger was indifferent to him; he would have preferred adopting a boy.  The mistress was delighted.  Her maternal instincts, so long stifled, developed fully.  She made plans for the future.  Her energy returned; she spoke loudly and firmly.  But in her appearance there was revealed an inward contentment never remarked before, which made her sweeter and more benevolent.  She no longer spoke of retiring from business.  The discouragement which had seized her left her as if by magic.  The house which had been so dull for some months became noisy and gay.  The child, like a sunbeam, had scattered the clouds.

It was then that the most unlooked-for phenomenon, which was so considerably to influence Madame Desvarennes’s life, occurred.  At the moment when the mistress seemed provided by chance with the heiress so much longed for, she learned with surprise that she was about to become a mother!  After sixteen years of married life, this discovery was almost a discomfiture.  What would have been delight formerly was now a cause for fear.  She, almost an old woman!