ry,
down the road, till he came in sight of the factory of the late Pineaux.
He turned aside into the court there. I saw him knock at the door of the
house, try to lift the latch, and peep through the windows. Bien! After
that, he goes into the factory; there is a door from it into the house.
He passed through. I dared not follow him, but in one short half-hour I
saw smoke coming out of the chimney. Bon! The smoke is there again this
morning. The Englishman has sojourned there all the night."

"But, Pierre," I said, shivering, though the sun was already shining
hotly--"Pierre, the house is like a lazaretto. No one has been in it
since Mademoiselle Pineau died. Monsieur le Cure locked it up, and
brought away the key."

"That is true, madame," answered the boy; "no one in the village would
go near the accursed place; but I never thought of that. Perhaps
monsieur your enemy will take the fever, and perish."

"Run, Pierre, run," I cried; "Monsieur Laurentie is in the sacristy,
with the strange vicaire. Tell him I must speak to him this very moment.
There is no time to be lost."

I dragged myself to the seat under the sycamore-tree, and hid my face in
my hands, while shudder after shudder quivered through me. I seemed to
be watching him again, as he strode weariedly down the street, leaning,
with bent shoulders, on his stick, and turned away from every door at
which he asked for rest and shelter for the night. Oh! that the time
could but come back again, that I might send Jean to find some safe
place for him where he could sleep! Back to my memory rushed the old
days, when he screened me from the unkindness of my step-mother, and
when he seemed to love me. For the sake of those times, would to God
the evening that was gone, and the sultry, breathless night, could only
come back again!

CHAPTER THE NINETEENTH.

SUSPENSE.

I felt as if I had passed through an immeasurable spell, both of memory
and anguish, before Monsieur Laurentie came to me, though he had
responded to my summons immediately. I told him, in hurried, broken
sentences, what Pierre had confessed to me. His face grew overcast and
troubled; yet he did not utter a word of his apprehensions to me.

"Madame," he said, "permit me to take my breakfast first; then I will
seek Monsieur Foster without delay. I will carry with me some food for
him. We will arrange this affair before I return; Jean shall bring the
_char a bancs_ to the factory, and take hi