Read "The Wicker-Work Woman" by Anatole France online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The coming of Marie was like the entrance of death into the house. At the very first sight of her, Madame Bergeret knew that her day was over.
Euphémie sat for a long while on her caneless chair, silent and motionless, but with flushed cheeks. Her deep-rooted attachment to her employers and her employers' house was instinctive, but sure, and, like a dog's love, not dependent on reason. She shed no tears, but fever spots came out on her lips. Her good-bye to Madame Bergeret was said with all the solemnity of a pious, countrified heart. During the five years of her service in the house she had endured at Madame Bergeret's hands, not only abusive violence, but hard avarice, for she was fed but meagrely; on her side, she had given way to fits of insolence and disobedience, and she had slandered her mistress among the other servants. But she was a Christian, and at the bottom of her heart she revered her pastors and masters as she did her father and mother. Snivelling with grief, she said: