elicited much sympathy. In order to help, some made large purchases of
him, paying ready money, others advanced or lent him money. All day
until the evening he was running about Paris collecting cheques,
bank-notes, and orders.

[Illustration: "HE NOW BROUGHT THE SUM THUS GAINED."]

In the evening, as he sat down to ascertain the result of the day's
efforts. Auguste came in with his wife and Andrée. To help his father,
the artist had parted with some of his pictures at a sacrifice, and he
now brought the sum thus gained.

Andrée, unconscious of the trouble of her elders, began to play with her
"Jéanne," a doll nearly as big as herself, which her grandfather had
given her some time previously, and which she loved, she said, "as her
own daughter."

But the child soon observed the sadness of her parents and her dear
grandfather, and she looked with earnest, inquiring gaze from one to the
other, trying to discover what was amiss. She saw her father lay down
his pocket-book, she watched her mother place upon the table her
bracelets, necklaces, ear-rings, and rings, while Mons. Sauvallier
thanked them with tears in his eyes. With a very thoughtful, serious
expression on her little face, the child turned towards her doll,
embraced it with the emotional fervour of a last adieu, then carried it
to her grandfather, saying, in sweet, resigned tones: "Take it,
grandpapa! You can sell her, too."

Mons. Sauvallier wept upon the neck of his little granddaughter,
murmuring, "You also, my angel? Oh, that miserable boy!"