"A Simple Heart" opens with a description of "Madame Aubain's servant Félicité as having been "the envy of the ladies of Pont-l'Évêque for half a century." As cook and general servant she does all the work of the household for a mere four pounds a year while remaining "faithful to her mistress, unamiable as the latter was."
Madame Aubain has been left a widow with many debts and two small children, but after selling most of her property she manages to make do. The family lives in a musty old house filled with dilapidated furniture. Félicité is described as scrupulously clean, thrifty, and energetic. She always wears the same clothes; she seems untouched by the passing years, always looking about forty; she is "like a woman made of wood, and going by clockwork."
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