"You've come on us at a bad moment, my dear," she said, "we're stumped.

Toussaint wasn't able to go back to the works till the day before yesterday, and he'll have to ask for an advance this evening." As she spoke, she looked at the other with no great sympathy, hurt as she felt by her slovenly appearance.

"And Salvat," she added, "is he still doing nothing ?" Madame Theodore doubtless foresaw the question, for she quietly lied: "He isn't in Paris, a friend has taken him off for some work over Belgium way, and I'm waiting for him to send us something." Madame Toussaint still remained distrustful, however: "Ah!" she said, "it's just as well that he shouldn't be in Paris; for with all these bomb affairs we couldn't help thinking of him, and saying that he was quite mad enough to mix himself up in them." The other did not even blink.

If she knew anything she kept it to herself.
"But you, my dear, can't you find any work ?" continued Madame Toussaint.
"Well, what would you have me do with my poor eyes?
It's no longer possible for me to sew." "That's true.

A seamstress gets done for.