rom Laure the money came.
My God! Do you think I would have permitted my mother's hand to have
touched a gift of hers? She wrote the letters, but the money I had
earned honestly. Heaven will justify me for my falsehood since I have
suffered so much."

"Yes," responded the _Cure_, looking at his bent form with gentle,
pitying eyes, "Heaven will justify you, my son."

They watched by Laure until the morning, but she did not see them; she
saw nothing; to-night it was the statue of marble which lay before them.
But in the early morning, when the sky was dappled with pink and gold,
and the air was fresh and cool, and a silence, even more complete than
that of the night, seemed to reign, there came a change. The eyes they
had seen closed for so many hours were opened, and the soft voice broke
in upon the perfect stillness of the room:--

"The lilies in the garden are in bloom to-day. They were never so tall,
and white, and fair before. I will gather them--for the altar--to give
to the Virgin--at my confession. _Mea culpa--Mea_"--and all was over, and
Mere Giraud fell upon her knees again, crying, as she had cried before,
amid a passion of sobs and tears:--

"She has died, my child, the death of a blessed martyr."

It was rather strange, the villagers said, that Madame Legrand should
have been buried in the little graveyard at St. Croix instead of in some
fine tomb at _Pere la Chaise_; but--it was terribly sad!--her husband
was away, they knew not where, and it was Valentin's wish, and Mere
Giraud's heart yearned so over her beloved one. So she was laid there,
and a marble cross was placed at her head--a tall, beautiful cross--by
Monsieur Legrand, of course. Only it was singular that he never came,
though perhaps that is the way of the great--not to mourn long or
deeply even for those who have been most lovely, and whom they have most
tenderly loved.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mere Girauds Little Daughter, by
Frances Hodgson Burnett

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MERE GIRAUDS LITTLE DAUGHTER ***

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