And that is a satisfaction which I am favoured with
tolerably often. Well, Perine, my child, it interests you--this
occupation--does it not? Do you think you will ever learn to make soup?"
The girl nodded many times.
"Perine eat it," she said.
"Listen to her!" Marie exclaimed, patting her cheek approvingly. "And
that any one should say she has no sense! She knows as well as any of
us, that the great thing in soup is to eat it with an appetite, and so
she puts together two and two--"
She was interrupted by the girl.
"Four!" she said abruptly.
Madame Didier, instead of showing astonishment, began to laugh.
"There she is with her numbers again! How strange it is that she should
never forget a number or make a mistake in a sum! In taking away or
adding together one can't puzzle her. I don't mean that I can't," she
continued, apparently addressing no one in particular, "because I am a
poor ignorant woman; but wiser people than I. Now, Perine, you shall
have your lesson. See here, I shall stand near my bed, and you over
there with your face to the wall. Do you understand?"
The girl nodded, and stumbling along towards the place indicated,
contrived on her way to knock down and break into atoms a white dish.
"Oh, the unfortunate child!" cried Marie, darting forward. "Another! and
it was my last! How many more things will you destroy!"
At this reproach the guilt-stricken Perine covered her face and howled
aloud, and Madame Didier's momentary anger passed.
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