This half of the bargain she faithfully observed.
For some months she was alone, trying to keep herself and her child,
but at last she was taken up by a working stone-mason named Legouve.
In 1793 came the Terror, and the Dupins were denounced and thrown
into the Luxembourg. Legouve was one of the Committee of Public
Safety. It came to the recollection of the younger Dupin as he lay
expecting death that he had heard that the girl Victorine had gone to
live with Legouve, and a ray of light dawned on him in his dungeon.
He commissioned his wife to call on Victorine and implore her to help
them. She did so. Ah, that was a wonderful sight--so like the
Revolution! Madame Dupin, in her silks and satins, had often passed
the ragged Victorine in the streets, and, of course, had never taken
the slightest notice of her. Now Madame was kneeling to her!
Respectability was in the dust before that which was not by any means
respectable; the legitimate before the illegitimate! Oh, it was, I
say, a wonderful sight in Victorine's wretched garret! She was
touched with pity, and, furthermore, the memory of her old days with
Dupin and her love for him revived.
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