This was quite an affair, however, and the poor woman only made the venture because Celine had been fasting since the previous day.
Eugene Toussaint, the mechanician, a man of fifty, was her stepbrother, by the first marriage contracted by her father.

A young dressmaker whom the latter had subsequently wedded, had borne him three daughters, Pauline, Leonie and Hortense.

And on his death, his son Eugene, who already had a wife and child of his own, had found himself for a short time with his stepmother and sisters on his hands.

The stepmother, fortunately, was an active and intelligent woman, and knew how to get out of difficulties.

She returned to her former workroom where her daughter Pauline was already apprenticed, and she next placed Leonie there; so that Hortense, the youngest girl, who was a spoilt child, prettier and more delicate than her sisters, was alone left at school.