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Whenever she could, she used to sit up at night with sick people, for that was paid well, a franc a night; sometimes in grand houses as much as two francs, and then she could rest in the day-time when we were at school. But, whatever she did, or wherever she went, she always managed to be at the convent gate every evening at half-past five to bring us home.
Previous to this wholesale emigration, things had come to such a pass that the landed proprietor could procure a labourer at a franc a day, out of which he had to feed and clothe himself; it was little short of slavery. The roles are now reversed, and while landlords are impoverished, the rich emigrant buys up the farms or makes his own terms for work to be done, wages being trebled.
I find, for instance, that in 1883 I gave a needy crone in the cathedral a franc instead of the piece of five centimes which I meant for her, and that the lamp of Galileo did nothing to light the gloom into which this error plunged my spirit.
He immediately stepped to the safe, took out a bundle of 1,000 franc notes, and counting out sixty, gave them to me. As it was almost certain that the Bordeaux fraud would soon be discovered, I determined, now that my risky work was completed, to attempt an immediate escape from France by way of Paris and Calais.
In business dat is vat ve call curiosity." "And that is not everything," Europe went on. "If you should not take madame's fancy and that is on the cards she would be angry, and I am done for! and my place is worth a thousand francs a year." "De capital to make ein tousant franc is twenty tousand franc; and if I shall gif you dat, you shall not lose noting."
It only costs a franc! And in my confusion I did not dare to answer that there was nothing curious to be seen, and it was upon my false shame that the Barnum must have counted. "It must be the same with the persons who have passed through the abominations of the honeymoon. They do not dare to undeceive their neighbor. And I did the same. "The felicities of the honeymoon do not exist.
The accumulation of fifty francs apiece was thus a limitless perspective. They discussed their budget. It was really almost impossible to cut down anything. By incredible economies they saw their way to saving a franc a week each. But fifty weeks! A whole year, allowing for sickness and other breakdowns! Who can do penance for a whole year?
My gardener again shrugs his shoulders, with a slight smile, as much as to say, It could not be otherwise, and is evidently delighted to have me enjoy his fruit. I fill capacious pockets with the choicest; and, if I have friends with me, they do the same. I give our silent but most expressive entertainer half a franc, never more; and he always seems surprised at the size of the largesse.
Myself, I have wondered sometimes but let that be; it is the lot of certain of us, who think in our vanity that we could have done great things, to be obliged to do the small things, because God has so decreed. To one He gives the ten talents, to the other only one talent, or even but a franc. Whatever it be, of it we must make the best, and so long as we do not bury it, we have done well.
"You see," he explained, "in these war days we must be very saving, for every franc that we can spare goes to my father and my uncle, who are in the army." "I know," sighed the agent. "Wherever I go it is the same. All the men are at the front. But the cost of the trip I suggested is very little, and I myself should be glad to " "No, Monsieur Leclerq," interrupted Madame Bretton.
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