nd God will twist my neck in purgatory for--"

"Luc," the Cure interrupted, "say that you repent."

"I'm sorry, and I ask you all to forgive me, and I'll confess to the
Cure, and take my penance, and--" he paused, for breathing hurt him.

At that moment the woman in black who had been in the gallery came
quickly forward. Parpon saw her, frowned, and waved her back; but she
came on. At the chancel steps she raised her veil, and a murmur of
recognition and wonder ran through the church. Pomfrette's face was
pitiful to see--drawn, staring.

"Junie!" he said hoarsely.

Her eyes were red with weeping, her face was very pale. "M'sieu' le
Cure" she said, "you must listen to me"--the Cure's face had become
forbidding--"sinner though I am. You want to be just, don't you?
Ah, listen! I was to be married to Luc Pomfrette, but I did not love
him--then. He had loved me for years, and his father and my father
wished it--as you know, M'sieu' le Cure. So after a while I said I
would; but I begged him that he wouldn't say anything about it till
he come back from his next journey on the river. I did not love him
enough--then. He left all his money with me: some to pay for Masses for
his father's soul, some to buy things for--for our home; and the rest to
keep till he came back."

"Yes, yes," said Pomfrette, his eyes fixed painfully on her face--"yes,
yes."

"The day after Luc went away John Dicey the Protestant come to me. I'd
always liked him; he could talk as Luc couldn't, and it sounded nice.
I listened and listened. He knew about Luc and about the money and all.
Then he talked to me. I was all wild in the head, and things went round
and round, and oh, how I hated to marry Luc--then! So after he had
talked a long while I said yes, I would go with him and marry him--a
Protestant--for I loved him. I don't know why or how."

Pomfrette trembled so that Parpon and the Little Chemist made him sit
down, and he leaned against their shoulders, while Junie went on:

"I gave him Luc's money to go and give to Parpon here, for I was too
ashamed to go myself. And I wrote a little note to Luc, and sent it with
the money. I believed in John Dicey, of course. He came back, and said
that he had seen Parpon and had done it all right; then we went away to
Montreal and got married. The very first day at Montreal, I found out
that he had Luc's money. It was awful. I went mad, and he got angry and
left me alone, and didn't come back. A week afterw