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Oudarde replied,-"We call her Sister Gudule"

"And I," returned Mahiette, "call her Paquette la Chantefleurie"

Then, laying her finger on her lips, she h theand look

Oudarde looked and beheld, in the corner where the eyes of the recluse were fixed in that sombre ecstasy, a tiny shoe of pink satin, eold and silver

Gervaise looked after Oudarde, and then the three woan to weep

But neither their looks nor their tears disturbed the recluse Her hands remained clasped; her lips azed at, broke the heart of any one who knew her history

The three wole word; they dared not speak, even in a low voice This deep silence, this deep grief, this profound oblivion in which everything had disappeared except one thing, produced upon therand altar at Christmas or Easter They remained silent, they meditated, they were ready to kneel It seemed to them that they were ready to enter a church on the day of Tenebrae

At length Gervaise, the most curious of the three, and consequently the least sensitive, tried to make the recluse speak: "Sister! Sister Gudule!"

She repeated this call three ti her voice each tilance, not a sigh, not a sign of life

Oudarde, in her turn, in a sweeter,voice,--"Sister!" said she, "Sister Sainte-Gudule!"

The saular woman!" exclaimed Gervaise, "and one not to be moved by a catapult!"

"Perchance she is deaf," said Oudarde

"Perhaps she is blind," added Gervaise

"Dead, perchance," returned Mahiette

It is certain that if the soul had not already quitted this inert, sluggish, lethargic body, it had at least retreated and concealed itself in depths whither the perceptions of the exterior organs no longer penetrated

"Then we must leave the cake on the ," said Oudarde; "some scamp will take it What shall we do to rouse her?"

Eustache, who, up to that e dog, which had just passed, suddenly perceived that his three conductresses were gazing at so possession of him in his turn, he climbed upon a stone post, elevated hi, shouting, "Mother, letchild's voice, the recluse trembled; she turned her head with the sharp, abrupt , fleshless hands cast aside the hair from her brow, and she fixed upon the child, bitter, astonished, desperate eyes This glance was but a lightning flash