Page 161 (1/1)

"I ask no better," said Oudarde with a sigh, "but I aood pleasure of M Andry Musnier"

"However, Paquette's child had more that was pretty about it besides its feet I saw her when she was only four er than herblack hair, which already curled She would have been a e of sixteen! Her mother became more crazy over her every day She kissed her, caressed her, tickled her, washed her, decked her out, devoured her! She lost her head over her, she thanked God for her Her pretty, little rosy feet above all were an endless source of wonder her lips to them, and she could never recover from her amazement at their smallness She put them into the tiny shoes, took theht through theladly have passed her life on her knees, putting on and taking off the shoes froh they had been those of an Infant Jesus"

"The tale is fair and good," said Gervaise in a low tone; "but where do gypsies come into all that?"

"Here," replied Mahiette "One day there arrived in Reiabonds ere roa over the country, led by their duke and their counts They were browned by exposure to the sun, they had closely curling hair, and silver rings in their ears The wolier than the men They had blacker faces, which were always uncovered, a miserable frock on their bodies, an old cloth woven of cords bound upon their shoulder, and their hair hanging like the tail of a horse The children who scrahtened as many monkeys A band of excoypt to Reih Poland The Pope had confessed them, it was said, and had prescribed to theh the world for seven years, without sleeping in a bed; and so they were called penancers, and smelt horribly It appears that they had formerly been Saracens, which hy they believed in Jupiter, and claimed ten livres of Tournay from all archbishops, bishops, and mitred abbots with croziers A bull from the Pope empowered them to do that They caiers, and the Eine that no more was needed to cause the entrance to the town to be forbidden theate of Braine, on that hill where stands a mill, beside the cavities of the ancient chalk pits And everybody in Rei to see them They looked at your hand, and told youto Judas that he would becoard to them; about children stolen, purses cut, and human flesh devoured The wise people said to the foolish: "Don't go there!" and then went themselves on the sly It was an infatuation The fact is, that they said things fit to astonish a cardinal Mothers triuyptians had read in their hands all sorts of an and in Turkish One had an emperor; another, a pope; another, a captain Poor Chantefleurie was seized with curiosity; she wished to know about herself, and whether her pretty little Agnes would not beco else So she carried her to the Egyptians; and the Egyptian wo it, and to kissing it with their black reat joy of the mother They were especially enthusiastic over her pretty feet and shoes The child was not yet a year old She already lisped a little, laughed at her , was pluestures of the angels of paradise