r hands were busy. She hated him.

"Well, then," said he, still holding her warm shoulders, "if you hate
me, I am going home tomorrow."

The sobs calmed down quickly. She bent herself forward so that he could
see the rosy nape of her neck with the curling tendrils of brown hair
around it.

"But," she said, "but, Jean,--do you love me for sure?"

After that the path was level, easy, and very quickly travelled. On
Sunday afternoon the priest was notified that his services would be
needed for a wedding, the first week in May. Pierre's consent was
genial and hilarious. The marriage suited him exactly. It was a family
alliance. It made everything move smooth and certain. The property would
be kept together.

But the other little interfering gods had not yet been heard from. One
of them, who had special charge of what remained of the soul of the
dealer in unclaimed estates, put it into his head to go to Three Rivers
first, instead of to St. Gedeon.

He had a good many clients in different parts of the country,--temporary
clients, of course,--and it occurred to him that he might as well
extract another fifty dollars from Pierre Lamotte DIT Theophile, before
going on a longer journey. On his way down from Montreal he stopped in
several small towns and slept in beds of various quality.

Another of the little deities (the one that presides over unclean
villages; decidedly a false god, but sufficiently powerful) arranged a
surprise for the travelling lawyer. It came out at Three Rivers.

He arrived about nightfall, and slept at the hotel, feeling curiously
depressed. The next morning he was worse; but he was a resolute and
industrious dog, after his own fashion. So he hired a buggy and drove
out through the mud to Pierre's place. They heard the wagon stop at the
gate, and went out to see who it was.

The man was hardly recognizable: face pale, lips blue, eyes dull, teeth
chattering.

"Get me out of this," he muttered. "I am dying. God's sake, be quick!"

They helped him to the house, and he immediately went into a convulsion.
From this he passed into a raging fever. Pierre took the buggy and drove
posthaste to town for a doctor.

The doctor's opinion was evidently serious, but his remarks were
non-committal.

"Keep him in this room. Give him ten drops of this in water every hour.
One of these powders if he becomes violent. One of you must stay with
him all the time. Only one, you understand. The rest keep away. I w