Mademoiselle Le Mire (written in two words) received the father and daughter without rising, discoursed at great length of the rank she had lost, of her father, an old nobleman of Le Rouergue—­it is most extraordinary how many old noblemen Le Rouergue has produced!—­and of an unfaithful steward who had carried off their whole fortune.  She instantly aroused the sympathies of M. Chebe, for whom decayed gentlefolk had an irresistible charm, and he went away overjoyed, promising his daughter to call for her at seven o’clock at night in accordance with the terms agreed upon.

The apprentice was at once ushered into the still empty workroom.  Mademoiselle Le Mire seated her in front of a great drawer filled with pearls, needles, and bodkins, with instalments of four-sou novels thrown in at random among them.

It was Sidonie’s business to sort the pearls and string them in necklaces of equal length, which were tied together to be sold to the small dealers.  Then the young women would soon be there and they would show her exactly what she would have to do, for Mademoiselle Le Mire (always written in two words!) did not interfere at all, but overlooked her business from a considerable distance, from that dark room where she passed her life reading newspaper novels.

At nine o’clock the work-women arrived, five tall, pale-faced, faded girls, wretchedly dressed, but with their hair becomingly arranged, after the fashion of poor working-girls who go about bare-headed through the streets of Paris.

Two or three were yawning and rubbing their eyes, saying that they were dead with sleep.

At last they went to work beside a long table where each had her own drawer and her own tools.  An order had been received for mourning jewels, and haste was essential.  Sidonie, whom the forewoman instructed in her task in a tone of infinite superiority, began dismally to sort a multitude of black pearls, bits of glass, and wisps of crape.

The others, paying no attention to the little girl, chatted together as they worked.  They talked of a wedding that was to take place that very day at St. Gervais.

“Suppose we go,” said a stout, red-haired girl, whose name was Malvina.  “It’s to be at noon.  We shall have time to go and get back again if we hurry.”

And, at the lunch hour, the whole party rushed downstairs four steps at a time.

Sidonie had brought her luncheon in a little basket, like a school-girl; with a heavy heart she sat at a corner of the table and ate alone for the first time in her life.  Great God! what a sad and wretched thing life seemed to be; what a terrible revenge she would take hereafter for her sufferings there!

At one o’clock the girls trooped noisily back, highly excited.

“Did you see the white satin gown?  And the veil of point d’Angleterre?  There’s a lucky girl!”

Thereupon they repeated in the workroom the remarks they had made in undertones in the church, leaning against the rail, throughout the ceremony.  That question of a wealthy marriage, of beautiful clothes, lasted all day long; nor did it interfere with their work-far from it.