So saying, the superior rose, and conducted her visitor to the door, with
all the forms of the most maternal kindness. At the moment she crossed
the threshold, she said to her: "Follow the passage, go down a few steps,
and knock at the second door on the right hand. It is the press-room, and
there you will find Florine. She will show you the way out. Adieu, my
dear daughter!"

As soon as Mother Bunch had left the presence of the superior, her tears,
until now restrained, gushed forth abundantly. Not wishing to appear
before Florine and the nuns in this state, she stopped a moment at one of
the windows to dry her eyes. As she looked mechanically towards the
windows of the next house, where she fancied she had seen Adrienne de
Cardoville, she beheld the latter come from a door in the building, and
advance rapidly towards the open paling that separated the two gardens.
At the same instant, and to her great astonishment, Mother Bunch saw one
of the two sisters whose disappearance had caused the despair of
Dagobert, with pale and dejected countenance, approach the fence that
separated her from Mdlle. de Cardoville, trembling with fear and anxiety,
as though she dreaded to be discovered.




CHAPTER VIII.

MOTHER BUNCH AND MDLLE. DE CARDOVILLE.

Agitated, attentive, uneasy, leaning from one of the convent-windows, the
work-girl followed with her eyes the movements of Mdlle. de Cardoville
and Rose Simon, whom she so little expected to find together in such a