Excerpt from Pierrette She was young, and knew'very little of the ways of the great world when she had been left' a widow, and she had thought, like many others, that her only chance of earning a decent liveli hood was in coming to Paris. To Paris, alas! Thatgreat refuge of struggling human beings. She ditl not know what life was to the poor in a great city; she could not foresee the loneliness, the disappointments, the trials and hardships she would have to endure. She had only seen Paris from without, as it seems to all those who first look upon its beauty, gay, brilliant, smil ing' and beckoning, promising many things. And she had sold what little she possessed, and come to this fair haven alone with her little daughter, but full of hope and courage. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.