She knows no home but her little
nest with the Dauvrays. Her education is suited to her modest station
in life. The substantial payments and furtive visits of the woman
who is responsible for her, tell the priest there is here a mystery
to probe.
Josephine casts down her eyes when Pere Francois asks her sternly
if she has not traced the woman who is the only link between her
charge and the past. Interest against duty.
"I have followed her, mon pere, but I do not know her home. She
comes irregularly, sometimes on foot, sometimes in a carriage. I have
always lost all traces. She must have friends here, but I cannot
find them, for she was sent to us by others to give this child a
home."
"This must be looked into," murmurs the priest.
He interrogates the soldier and also Armand when he returns from
the lines, as the siege drags slowly on. They know nothing save
the fact of the child's being friendless. It may be right; it may
be wrong. "Voila tout." It's the way of Paris.
The priest is much disturbed in mind. Since his conversations with
Armand Valois he feels a vague unrest in his heart as to the young
artist's rights in Lagunitas. Does none of that great estate go to
Armand? Is this equitable? There must be some share of the domain,
which would legally descend to him.
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