Nobody's Girl Read online

  Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jen Haines and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  Transcriber's Note: Some spelling variations have been standardised toagree with the original French version of "En Famille". For example"Madamoiselle" and "Mademoiselle" have been changed to Mademoiselleexclusively. Dr Cendrier, rather than Centrier, is correct according tothe original French version, so Centrier has been changed to Cendrier.

  In the fourth last paragraph "daughter" has been corrected to"granddaughter".

  Some spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors have beencorrected where detected.

  "WHY, IT'S BEAUTIFUL," SAID PERRINE, SOFTLY. (See page 86)]

  NOBODY'S GIRL

  (_En Famille_)

  BY HECTOR MALOT

  TRANSLATED BY FLORENCE CREWE-JONES

  _Illustrated by_ THELMA GOOCH

  NEW YORK MCMXXII CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY

  _Copyright, 1922, by_ CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY

  Printed in United States of America

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER PAGE

  I PERRINE AND PALIKARE 1

  II GRAIN-OF-SALT IS KIND 20

  III "POOR LITTLE GIRL" 41

  IV A HARD ROAD TO TRAVEL 47

  V STORMS AND FEARS 59

  VI THE RESCUE 72

  VII MARAUCOURT AT LAST 77

  VIII GRANDFATHER VULFRAN 86

  IX ONE SLEEPLESS NIGHT 95

  X THE HUT ON THE ISLAND 110

  XI WORK IN THE FACTORY 115

  XII NEW SHOES 130

  XIII STRANGE HOUSEKEEPING 136

  XIV A BANQUET IN THE HUT 149

  XV AURELIE'S CHANCE 157

  XVI GRANDFATHER'S INTERPRETER 166

  XVII HARD QUESTIONS 175

  XVIII SECRETARY TO M. VULFRAN 184

  XIX SUSPICION AND CONFIDENCE 194

  XX THE SCHEMERS 206

  XXI LETTERS FROM DACCA 217

  XXII A CABLE TO DACCA 227

  XXIII GRANDFATHER'S COMPANION 238

  XXIV GETTING AN EDUCATION 248

  XXV MEDDLING RELATIVES 260

  XXVI PAINFUL ARGUMENTS 269

  XXVII THE BLIND MAN'S GRIEF 277

  XXVIII AN UNRESPECTED FUNERAL 285

  XXIX THE ANGEL OF REFORM 292

  XXX GRANDFATHER FINDS PERRINE 302

  XXXI THE GRATEFUL PEOPLE 307

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE

  "WHY, IT'S BEAUTIFUL," SAID PERRINE, SOFTLY. (_See Page 86_) _Frontispiece_

  SOMETHING WARM PASSING OVER HER FACE MADE HER OPEN HER EYES 72

  "WHAT'S THE MATTER NOW?" HE CRIED, ANGRILY 124

  SHE HAD SOME TIME AGO DECIDED ON THE SHAPE 139

  SHE TRIED TO DO AS SHE WAS TOLD, BUT HER EMOTION INCREASED AS SHE READ 218

  HE TOLD HER THAT SHE WAS LIKE A LITTLE DAUGHTER TO HIM 270