THE LIVE PUPPET
After Auntie left Jeanne and the Pierrot asleep in bed that night, she
went into her own room and sat down by her little table. She shaded her
eyes with her hands and thought very hard.
Poor Auntie Sue was unhappy. There was a little voice inside of her that
never would be still. This voice talked and talked and talked. No one
could hear it but Auntie Sue. It was not a person, nor was it a fairy.
Yet it was there, and it talked to Auntie Sue.
People call that voice Conscience. You see, many other people beside
Auntie Sue have heard that voice. He is known to everyone who does
wrong.
And Auntie Sue had done great wrong. Not knowing it, she had been doing
a great wrong all these years she had kept Jeanne from her rightful
home. And now that voice called Conscience was tormenting her.
To-night he was talking more loudly and more fiercely than he had ever
talked before. As Auntie Sue sat before her little table, he did not
leave her a moment's peace.
[Illustration: JEANNE SHOWING A NEW FROCK]
"You see what has happened," he said inside of Auntie Sue. "You see what
you have done by keeping Jeanne from Madame Villard. She is starved for
play.
"You have made her a poor little girl who has to work. If she lived in
the lovely apartment house with her grandmother, she could play and play
and play."
Suzanne clapped her hands over her ears to stop the voice. But
Conscience came from her heart and did not need her ears to hear him.
He went right on, "What would that soldier say? What would the old man
say? What would the grandmother say? And Major d'Artrot?"
"Oh, Major d'Artrot, my good, my honest friend!" sobbed Suzanne.
She thought of her only friend in all the world. She would never dare to
confess to him what she had done!
She opened her drawer and looked at the picture in the locket. She read
again the name and address which had been pinned to the baby's skirt so
many years ago: "Madame Villard. Avenue Champs Elysées."
[Illustration: SHE READ AGAIN THE NAME AND ADDRESS]
The face of Jeanne's father looked back at her. It seemed to her that
his eyes were accusing her.
"You have kept her from her rightful home and from the pleasures of
childhood," went on the voice. And the face in the locket seemed to
agree with the voice.
"To-night the child stayed in the park with a puppet--the only play toy
she has ever had. She fell asleep in front of the Guignol, where happy
children go to clap and laugh. But you give Jeanne no time for play
and laughter."
It was all true. But Suzanne knew that if Jeanne stopped showing the
clothes she made, her audience would cease to be interested. If she did
not draw her audience, she could not sell the clothes. And if she did
not sell the clothes, she could not support Jeanne.
It was all quite terrible for Auntie Sue. And she dared not mention it
to a soul. Nobody knew that Jeanne did not belong to her. Nobody knew
Jeanne's story, not even the Major.