It was the story of a girl who had been seduced, and to whom her poor mother (sa pauvre mere) appeared, and reproached her for yielding to a man without being married.

Mademoiselle Bourienne was often touched to tears as in imagination she told this story to him, her seducer.

And now he, a real Russian prince, had appeared.

He would carry her away and then sa pauvre mere would appear and he would marry her.

So her future shaped itself in Mademoiselle Bourienne's head at the very time she was talking to Anatole about Paris.