"I have no money, Desiree--not even a sou."

"No money, mademoiselle? In the name of heaven, how are we to bury
your grandmother?"

"The handkerchief--"

Desiree shook her head, and saw that she must countermand most of
the orders. Still she was human, and she was a female. She could not
altogether desert one so helpless, in a moment of such extreme distress.
She reflected on the matter for a minute or two, and opened her mind.

"This handkerchief might sell for forty-five francs, mademoiselle," she
said, "and I will pay that much for it myself, and will charge nothing for
my services to-day. Your dear grandmother must have Christian burial,
that is certain, and poor enough will that be which is had for two
napoleons. What say you, mademoiselle--will you accept the forty five
francs, or would you prefer seeing the marchande de mode?"

"I can see no one now, Desiree. Give me the money, and do honor to
the remains of my dear, dear grandmother."

Adrienne said this with her hands resting on her lap in quiescent despair.
Her eyes were hollow and vacant, her cheeks bloodless, her mind
almost as helpless as that of an infant. Desiree laid down two
napoleons, keeping the five francs to pay for some necessaries, and
then she took me in her hands, as if to ascertain whether she had done
too much. Satisfied on this head, I was carefully replaced in the basket,
when the commissionaire went out again, on her errands, honorably