Mademoiselle Bourienne knew a story, heard from her aunt but finished in her own way, which she liked to repeat to herself.

It was the story of a girl who had been seduced, and to whom her poor mother (sa pauvre mere) appeared, and reproached her for yielding to a man without being married.

Mademoiselle Bourienne was often touched to tears as in imagination she told this story to him, her seducer.

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