"And when your mother died you left Paris?"
"Because mother made me promise not to stay in Paris after she had gone, but to go North where my father's people live."
"When my mother died we had to sell our wagon and our donkey and the few things we had, and all this money was spent during her illness. When I left the cemetery after she was buried all the money I had was five francs thirty-five centimes, which was not enough for me to take the train. So I decided to make the journey on foot."
Monsieur Vulfran's fingers tightened over hers. She did not understand this movement.
"Oh, forgive me; I am boring you," she said. "I am telling you things perhaps that are of no interest."
"You are not boring me, Aurelie," said the blind man. "On the contrary, I am pleased to know, what an honest little girl you are. I like people who have courage, will, and determination, and who do not easily give up. If I like finding such qualities in men, how much more pleasure does it give me to find them in a girl of your age! So ... you started with five francs thirty-five centimes in your pocket?..."
"A knife, a piece of soap," continued little Perrine, "a thimble, two needles, some thread and a map of the roads, that was all."
"Yes, I had to know, because we used to travel all over the country. That was the only thing that I kept of our belongings."
"Isn't there a big tree here on the left?" he asked.
"Yes, with a seat all around it," she replied.
"Come along then; we'll be better sitting down."
When they were seated she went on with her story. She had no occasion to shorten it, for she saw that her employer was greatly interested.
"You never thought of begging?" he asked, when she came to the time when she had left the woods after being overtaken by the terrible storm.
"But what did you count upon when you saw that you could not get any work?"
"I didn't count on anything. I thought that if I kept on as long as I had the strength I might find something. It was only when I was so hungry and so tired that I had to give up. If I had dropped one hour sooner all would have been over."
Then she told him how her donkey, licking her face, had brought her back to consciousness, and how the ragpicker had saved her from starvation. Then passing quickly over the days she had spent with La Rouquerie, she came to the day when she had made Rosalie's acquaintance.