Linders and his life, and had gained much information on
some points, though very little on others. Madame Lavaux had
readily related the history of Madelon's birth and Madame
Linders' death. It was a story she was fond of telling; it had
been a little romance in the ordinary routine of hotel life,
and one in which, when she had duly set forth M. Linders'
heartlessness and her own exertions, she felt that she must
shine in an exceptionally favourable light; and indeed it was
so pitiful a tale the her hearers could not but share the
indignation and compassion she felt and expressed when she
spoke of _cette pauvre dame_, who so young and so beautiful had
been left alone to give birth to her infant, and, still alone,
to die four months later. But when Graham endeavoured to get
any facts bearing directly upon the present emergency, he
found Madame Lavaux less well-informed. M. Linders had come to
her hotel year after year, she said, and she had always taken
him in, on the little girl's account (who was a _chere petite_,
though troublesome sometimes, as children would be); otherwise
she would have been sorry to have such a _mauvais sujet_ about
the house, in and out at all hours, and queer-looking men
sitting up with him half the night.
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