The girl did not know very much, but appeared so willing and so modest in her requirements, that Madame Aubain finally said: "Very well, I will give you a trial." And half an hour later Felicite was installed in her house.
At first she lived in a constant anxiety that was caused by "the style of the household" and the memory of "Monsieur," that hovered over everything.

Paul and Virginia, the one aged seven, and the other barely four, seemed made of some precious material; she carried them pig-a-back, and was greatly mortified when Madame Aubain forbade her to kiss them every other minute.
But in spite of all this, she was happy.

The comfort of her new surroundings had obliterated her sadness.
Every Thursday, friends of Madame Aubain dropped in for a game of cards, and it was Felicite's duty to prepare the table and heat the foot-warmers.

They arrived at exactly eight o'clock and departed before eleven.
Every Monday morning, the dealer in second-hand goods, who lived under the alley-way, spread out his wares on the sidewalk.

Then the city would be filled with a buzzing of voices in which the neighing of horses, the bleating of lambs, the grunting of pigs, could be distinguished, mingled with the sharp sound of wheels on the cobble-stones.