She feared neither God nor devil, but she was afraid of the police.

She dreaded also certain mysterious and cruel persons, whom she had heard spoken of, who dwell near the Palais de Justice, and who experience a malicious pleasure in seeing pretty girls in trouble.
As she gave no promise of beauty, she was on the point of being placed in a shop, when an old and respectable gentleman, who had known her mamma some years previously, accorded her his protection.

This old gentleman, prudent and provident like all old gentlemen, was a connoisseur, and knew that to reap one must sow.

He resolved first of all to give his protege just a varnish of education.

He procured masters for her, who in less than three years taught her to write, to play the piano, and to dance.