Original Short Stories – Volume 08. Guy de Maupassant

expenses having increased to more than double since this orphan’s arrival, her income of three thousand francs was no longer sufficient to support three persons.

      She attended to the housekeeping and cooking herself, and sent out the boy on errands, letting him also occupy himself in cultivating the garden. He was gentle, timid, silent, and affectionate. And she experienced a deep happiness, a fresh happiness when he kissed her without surprise or horror at her disfigurement. He called her “Aunt,” and treated her as a mother.