Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 8, 2025
Madame Aubain looked over her accounts and soon discovered his numerous embezzlements; sales of wood which had been concealed from her, false receipts, etc. Furthermore, he had an illegitimate child, and entertained a friendship for "a person in Dozule." These base actions affected her very much.
Every Thursday, friends of Madame Aubain dropped in for a game of cards, and it was Félicité's duty to prepare the table and heat the foot-warmers. They arrived at exactly eight o'clock and departed before eleven. Every Monday morning, the dealer in second-hand goods, who lived under the alley-way, spread out his wares on the sidewalk.
Madame Aubain and the children, huddled at the end of the field, were trying to jump over the ditch. Félicité continued to back before the bull, blinding him with dirt, while she shouted to them to make haste.
This house, with its slate-covered roof, was built between a passage-way and a narrow street that led to the river. The interior was so unevenly graded that it caused people to stumble. A narrow hall separated the kitchen from the parlour, where Madame Aubain sat all day in a straw armchair near the window. Eight mahogany chairs stood in a row against the white wainscoting.
In all probability the Father had never chosen as messenger a dove, as the latter has no voice, but rather one of Loulou's ancestors. And Felicite said her prayers in front of the coloured picture, though from time to time she turned slightly towards the bird. She desired very much to enter in the ranks of the "Daughters of the Virgin." But Madame Aubain dissuaded her from it.
But he had the tiresome tricks of biting his perch, pulling his feathers out, scattering refuse and spilling the water of his bath. Madame Aubain grew tired of him and gave him to Félicité for good. She undertook his education, and soon he was able to repeat: "Pretty boy! Your servant, sir! I salute you, Marie!"
She had put him on the grass to cool him and went away only for a second; when she returned, she found no parrot! She hunted among the bushes, on the bank of the river, and on the roofs, without paying any attention to Madame Aubain who screamed at her: "Take care! you must be insane!"
The girl did not know very much, but appeared so willing and so modest in her requirements, that Madame Aubain finally said: "Very well, I will give you a trial." And half an hour later Félicité was installed in her house. At first she lived in a constant anxiety that was caused by "the style of the household" and the memory of "Monsieur," that hovered over everything.
The roof flew up in the air, disclosing the heavens, and Julian ascended into infinity face to face with our Lord Jesus Christ, who bore him straight to heaven. And this is the story of Saint Julian the Hospitaller, as it is given on the stained-glass window of a church in my birthplace. For half a century the housewives of Pont-l'Evêque had envied Madame Aubain her servant Félicité.
She never mentioned her anxieties, however. Madame Aubain worried about her daughter. The sisters thought that Virginia was affectionate but delicate. The slightest emotion enervated her. She had to give up her piano lessons. Her mother insisted upon regular letters from the convent.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking