When she returned to the Logis, she told her adventure to Adèle, who exclaimed:
"Why, it must have been Désirée, the Despriols' old nurse! She is a poor old madwoman, but quite harmless, and lives near Notre-Dame-sur-l'Eau. She does nothing but wander round the house where she was a servant. She has been mad for quite two years, ever since the death of her husband and her three sons. It came upon her all of a sudden ..."
"But had the Despriols a child?" asked Gilberte.
"I should think so! A little girl who might have been three or four years old at the time when they went away: a dear little duck; and her nurse adored her. It broke the poor thing's heart to part with her. Since she went mad, she thinks oftener of the baby than of her own three sons. They did say that she heard about the child and that Mme. Despriol used to write to her."
