Pagina 429 de 896

"Stranger things than that will happen when it does come,"

answered madame. "I have them both here, of a certainty; and they

are both here for their merits; that is enough."

She rolled up her knitting when she had said those words, and

presently took the rose out of the handkerchief that was wound

about her head. Either Saint Antoine had an instinctive sense

that the objectionable decoration was gone, or Saint Antoine was

on the watch for its disappearance; howbeit, the Saint took

courage to lounge in, very shortly afterwards, and the wine-shop

recovered its habitual aspect.