The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1902-04-04
NOUNOU.

NOUNOU.
aud critic, has been in New York iecturing
on French life and literature. In q lecture
at Columbia on The French Family" he
said: The great mistake Of the outside
world today In their conception Of French
life Is. that they judge modern French So
! ciety by the delineation of it by modern
Ere french en-. norelists, especially Paul Bourget
translation Of one of his stories is fair il
| lustrattOn Of N. LIE Rouxs style:
The physician who engaged her as
sured them he had secured the pearl OF
nurses. She was healthy, strong and
good tempered. The only defect APP
peared to be slight nervousness. 1T is
her first situation. Do not allow her to
become excited
Nounou, in truth, was still grieving for
her own little one, whom she had been
obliged to contide to others in order to
| take this situation.
Their little menage was poor one,
and the husband, too ambitious to spend
his life working for others, would now
be able, thanks to his wife, to purchase
grape vine and cultivate it in his own
bit of land, thus paving the way for the
little rascal, at present wailing in the
kitchen to rise above the common run OF
WOrkmen some day.
80 the mother carried her child to a
commerce friend), and after nursing him
to sleep for the last time, she drew to-
gether the curtains of the willow cradle
| and fed.
| Now, with this other child in her arms
| and the gentle drawing of his little lips
| at her breast, she felt less unhappy than
| at first, and took pleasure III nursing and
pressing the crying child to her heart re-
peating as she kissed him:
my little one! My little onev'
She was, without question, careful,
motherly and discreet: and, either by
nature or through inexperlence, incapa-
bic of taking advantage of her employ
| ers or acting with the rapacity common
| to her class. When they gave her some
worn-out tri1e for ''her Jean," she
| clasped her hands for Joy with never a
thought OF envying the country nurses
she encountered in the square, whose
| cap ribbons reached to the bottom of
their pelerines.
| Monsieur and Madame secretly con-
! graduated themselves on their acquisi-
| ton.
One thing only was unsatisfactory.
The tardy advent Of the bimonthly
Saturday letter would throw Nounou into
despair. and her nursing into collie.
| The letter in question came from the
schoolmaster; it was written at the com
meres dictation. He was vain of his
penmanship and proud of the opportunity
to write the word ''Paris'' on an envol,
ope, so he laboriously complicated the
| address:
| Madame Jeanne vcrdier
with Monsieur
| Monsieur Pornin
| Rue Saint-DenyS
| lott ,sxt,, If
hightlown phrases and ludicrous express
siOns, interspersed with the naif babble
Of the commere, telling of the dinners.
the washings, the heat and the teething
rash-than which nothing could be more
fortunate, since it had expelled all the
impurities from his BODY
Ignorant Of even the letters of the al
phabet, Nounou would carry these mis-
sives to Madame and listen attentively
to the reading thereof. her eyes raised
in ecstacy while she let fall little ex-
carnations indicative OF inward pride in
the fact that her son was teething before
his foster brother. And when Madame
course. Nounou, how very foolish you
were to get your blood heated she
would show her white teeth in a great
hoarse laugh, the tears scarcely dry OF
her cheeks.
One day, the country letter failed tc
make it's appearance. This was agony
She proved deaf to expostulation and
sobbed Unfortunately, her head buried III
the pillows. In terror lest the milk
should 20 to her head Monsieur tele.
graphed-reply prepaid-to the school
master Of Corbigny.
The reply came the same evening:
The child died of Group yesterday
morning"
Face to face in the salon, the blue pa
per confronting them on the table, Mon
sieur and Madame held council. WIFI
one accord they determined to withhold
the news, not to divulge it to Nounor
until later and for the time being to re-
assure her.
capable of leaving u.s.
"Just when the baby is doing 20 we'll, y
added Madame.
And together:
'Those people have so little con.
science!'
they called the weeping mother, laid
the dispatch before her, and with SANG
froid that satisfied even himself Mon
sieur explained:
1.-THE child is quite we'll. 1t was the
schoolmaster who was ill.,
They agreed to suppress four pages
the husband replete with fears of his
wife's return and dread lest the grape
vine disappear in smoke.
Regularly thereafter, for three months
Monsieur posted letters written by him
self, to be read by Madame to the nurse
He ingeniously varied the details, con
sulting his own paternal observations as
he recorded the probable daily progress.
of Nounou's child.
/ The time never came for confessinf
the truth. How TRANQUILITY she babbled
my Jean talks. My Jean does so and
so. Madame, write the commerce to give
him no sweets, if you please. They de
stroy the roots Of the teeth" -.
| They let her talk: delaying now to the
tidings.. . ,, .
At last. when their infant began tc
be fed with porridge, Nounou's hour Of
departure came. -, u