"
"Then you are a stranger here, and have never been to the
church before?" said Monsieur.
"No," said Madelon; and then, full of her own ideas, she asked
abruptly--"what was everyone doing in there?"
"In there!--in the church, do you mean?"
"Yes, in the church--what was everyone doing?"
"But do you not know, then," said the mother, "that it is to-
day a great fete--the fete of the Assumption?"
"No," said Madelon, "I did not know. Was that why so many
people were there? What were they doing?" she persisted.
"How do you mean?--do you not go the _messe_ every Sunday?" said
Madame, surprised.
"To the _messe!_" answered Madelon--"what is that? I never was in
a church before."
"Never in a church before!" echoed a chorus of three
astonished voices, while Monsieur added--"Never in this church,
you mean."
"No," answered Madelon, "it is the first time I ever went into
a church at all."
"But, _mon enfant_," said the mother, "you are big enough to
have gone to church long before this. Why, you must be eight
or nine years old, and Nanette here went to the _grand' messe_
before she was five--did you not, Nanette?"
"Yes," says Nanette, with a further sense of superiority added
to that already induced by the contrast of her new white
muslin frock with Madelon's somewhat limp exterior.
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