ustier, and she did not
think that in her heart her good father desired little infants to be
beaten--least of all Berenger's little one. And with Rayonette already
on his knee, stealing his spectacles, peace was made.

Peace with him, but not with the congregation! Were people to stalk out
of church in a rage, and make no reparation? Was Maitre Isaac to talk
of orphans, only children, and maternal love, as if weak human affection
did not need chastisement? Was this saucy Parisienne to play the
offended, and say that if the child were not suffered at church she must
stay at home with it? The ladies agitated to have the obnoxious young
widow reprimanded in open Synod, but, to their still greater disgust,
not a pastor would consent to perform the office. Some said that Maitre
Gardon ought to rule his own household, others that they respected him
too much to interfere, and there were others abandoned enough to assert
that if any one needed a reprimand it was the serjeant.

Of these was the young candidate, Samuel Mace, who had been educated
at the expense of the Dowager Duchess de Quinet, and hoped that her
influence would obtain his election to the pastorate of a certain
peaceful little village deep in the Cevennes. She had intimated that
what he wanted was a wife to teach and improve the wives of the peasant
farmers, and where could a more eligible one be found than Esperance
Gardon? Her cookery he tasted, her industry he saw, her tenderness to
her child, her attention to her father, were his daily admiration; and
her soft velvet eyes and sweet smile went so deep in his heart that he
would have bought her ells upon ells of pink ribbon, when once out of
sight of the old ladies; would have given a father's love to her little
daughter, and a son's duty and veneration to Isaac Gardon.

His patroness did not deny her approval. The gossip had indeed reached
her, but she had a high esteem for Isaac Gardon, believed in Samuel
Mace's good sense, and heeded Montauban scandal very little. Her
_protege_ would be much better married to a spirited woman who had seen
the world, than to a mere farmer's daughter who had never looked beyond
her cheese. Old Gardon would be an admirable adviser, and if he were
taken into the _menage_ she would add to the endowment another arable
field, and grass for two more cows. If she liked the young woman on
inspection, the marriage should take place in her own august presence.

What! had Maitre Gardo