"I am very sorry--I
will not do it again. I lost myself, but Monsieur and Madame
here showed me the way back."
Her friendly guides stood watching the two for a moment, as,
after a thousand thanks and acknowledgments, they entered the
hotel together.
"It is singular," said Madame; "he is handsome, and looks like
a gentleman. How can anyone bring up a little child like that
in such ignorance? She can have no mother, _pauvre petite!_"
"What an odd little girl, Maman," cried Nanette, "never to
have been to church before, and not to know why people go!"
"_Chut_, Nanette!" said her father. "Thou also woudst have known
nothing, unless some good friends had taught thee." And so
these kindly people went their way.
Madelon, meanwhile, was relating all her adventures to her
father. He was too rejoiced at having found her again to scold
her for running away; but he was greatly put out,
nevertheless, as he listened to her little history. Here,
then, was en emergency, such as he had dimly foreseen, and
done much to avoid, which yet had come upon him unawares,
without fault of his, and which he was quite unprepared to
meet.
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