But although the child cried, and acknowledged that she was perhaps wrong, she still retained deep within her a wild resentful temper.

She once related, with hearty laughter, that she had seen a gendarme fall off his horse and break his leg.

Apart from this, Miette only lived for Silvere.

When he asked her about her uncle and cousin, she replied that "She did not know;" and if he pressed her, fearing that they were making her too unhappy at the Jas-Meiffren, she simply answered that she worked hard, and that nothing had changed.

She believed, however, that Justin had at last found out what made her sing in the morning, and filled her eyes with delight.