Page 140 (1/2)

The young th, in her soft

white muslins and laces, upon a couch The baby was beside her, upon her

arm, where he had fallen asleep, at her breast The yellow nurse wo herself

Madaure over Desiree and kissed her,

holding her an instant tenderly in her arms Then she turned to the

child

"This is not the baby!" she exclaie spoken at Valhed Desiree, "at the way he has

grown The little cochon de lait! Look at his legs, er-nails Zandrine had to cut the Isn't it true, Zandrine?"

The woman bowed her turbaned head majestically, "Mais si, Mada Armand heard him

the other day as far away as La Blanche's cabin"

Madame Valmonde had never removed her eyes from the child She lifted it

and walked with it over to thethat was lightest She scanned the

baby narrowly, then looked as searchingly at Zandrine, whose face was

turned to gaze across the fields

"Yes, the child has grown, has changed," said Madame Valmonde, slowly,

as she replaced it beside its mother "What does Arlow that was happiness itself

"Oh, Armand is the proudest father in the parish, I believe, chiefly