" As we descend to the Boulevard
Beauvoisine," said Madame Gournay, " we shall
pass by the Rue Chant-Oiseaux, which, a very
few years ago, was quite in the fields, and
at that time, where there now stand good
stone houses, there used to be only wretched
hovels. In one of these Gustaire's father, a
widower, with three children, lived : he had,
however, a few fields, and drove a little trade,
chiefly in horses, which you must have
observed by our fair is a rather extensive trade
here. He was a man who was but little liked
by his neighbours, whom he shunned in
consequence, and was very frequently away in
Brittany, of which province he was a native.
Gustaire, though almost a child, took care of
her two brothers, worked in the fields, and
did more than a grown woman to keep the
family comfortable ; but her father was not
fond of her, nor indeed of any of his children,
and they would have been much happier
without him, but that when he returned they
lived better than usual, as he took care of
himself, and generally had money.

"On one occasion when he came home, he
brought with him a large sack of chestnuts, of
which the boys were very fond, and which
they so freely indulged in, that he at last,
angrily, told Gustaire to lock up the
remainder, so that there might be some left to
be roasted, when he asked for them for his
supper. She put the sack away, therefore, in
the granary, and the disappointed urchins
were foiled. One of them, however, finding
where it was hidden, and unable to open the
mouth which his sister had carefully tied up,
cut a round hole with his knife, and abstracted
as many chestnuts as his daring little hand
could grasp. Gustaire, on finding this out,
afraid to let her father know of the
delinquency, mended the hole, and hid the bag in
another place, after soundly rating the boy
for his theft.

"There was a man named Flecher, a countryman
of Gustaire's father, who had established
himself at Rouen, as a workman at one of the
cotton manufactories, and was known to be a
bad character. He spent all the money he
earned, which was considerable, in dissipation;
he had been turned away from one
factory, but, having a good deal of skill, he
had not found any difficulty in getting a new
engagement, and could have lived well but
for his extravagance. This man took a fancy
to Gustaire, though he was nearly as old as
her father. The latter, thinking him well off,
rather encouraged his suit, much to the
young girl's annoyance, who had taken him
in particular aversion; and who, besides that,
felt inclined to listen to the addresses of a
young man about her own age, who often
helped her in her work, being a neighbour's
son.

"Flecher and her father, Ivan Braye,
became very great friends. From the time of
their association, the cottage of the latter was
frequently a scene of drunkenness and riot,
to avoid which Gustaire would often run to
the house of the curé with her knitting, and
sit in the kitchen with the good father's
bonne until she heard, by the loud singing of
the friends as they descended the hills, that
her father and his comrade were gone into
the town to finish their orgies.

"One night, later than usual, she had
left the curé's and returned home, when
she found the door left open, a candle burning
in the cottage kitchen, and the floor
strewn with chestnuts. She suspected her
brothers and went to the granary to see what
depredations they had committed; to her
vexation, she discovered that the sack was
gone.

"Her father, for whom she waited until
daylight, did not return, and as soon as the
children were up, she scolded them for the
renewal of their theft. Both protested that
they were innocent, and that they had longed
in vain for the forbidden fruit, the scattered
remains of which they took care to
appropriate. That same night, Gustaire sat up
for her father, but neither he nor his friend
Flecher came, nor did he return when several
days were passed. She began to feel uneasy
at this, as he generally mentioned, in
however surly a way, when he intended to be
absent long. Her brothers came in on the
fourth day after he was gone, having been at
the fair; and the news they had heard there,
was, that Flecher had left the town, having
quitted his employers at the cotton factory
at Darnetal without notice. She was not
sorry to hear this, but a vague uneasiness
took possession of her mind.

"' There has been a horrid murder in the
town,' said one of the boys, 'at least they
say so, though nobody has been found;
however, the police are looking out, and we shall
soon have more news of it.'

"At this moment the curé's bonne arrived
to look after Gustaire; surprised that she
had not, for several evenings, paid her usual
visit.

"' This is a sad business,' said she, ' the
person supposed to be murdered is a distant
cousin of M. le Curé ; he had seen him at the
fair, and had received a letter which he had
brought from le Mans for him; he had a
good deal of money, it was said, for he
intended to make large purchases in Rouennerie,
and as his stall of jewellery was very
attractive, no one could fail to remark, when
for two days he no longer came in the morning
to open it. It was not known where he
lodged in the town, but people getting uneasy,
the police began to inquire, and it was found
that he had slept in the Rue aux Juifs the
last night he was seen; but no notice had
been taken as to whether he left in the morning,
for the house was so full of lodgers and
in such a bustle that no one had time scarcely
to think. Certain it is that he has not
reappeared, and all the town thinks he has been
murdered.'