here's Fortune crying!'

'Men are softer-hearted than women,' murmured Babet.

'He spoke very well, all the same,' remarked La Rousse. 'Those priests
think of a lot of things that wouldn't occur to anybody else.'

'Hush!' cried La Teuse, who was already making ready to extinguish the
candles.

But Abbe Mouret still stammered on, trying to utter a few more
sentences. 'It is for this reason, my dear brother, my dear sister, that
you must live in the Catholic Faith, which alone can ensure the peace of
your hearth. Your families have taught you to love God, to pray to Him
every morning and evening, to look only for the gifts of His mercy--'

He was unable to finish. He turned round, took the chalice off the
altar, and retired, with bowed head, into the vestry, preceded by
Vincent, who almost let the cruets and napkin fall, in trying to see
what Catherine might be doing at the end of the church.

'Oh! the heartless creature!' said Rosalie, who left her husband to go
and take her baby in her arms. The child laughed. She kissed it, and
rearranged its swaddling clothes, while threatening Catherine with her
fist. 'If it had fallen,' she cried out, 'I would have boxed your ears
for you, nicely.'

Big Fortune now came slouching along. The three girls stepped towards
him, with compressed lips.

'See how proud he is,' murmured Babet to the others. 'He is sure of
inheriting old Bambousse's money now. I used to see him creeping along
every night under the little wall with Rosalie.'

Then they giggled, and big Fortune, standing there in front of them,
laughed even louder than they did. He pinched La Rousse, and let Lisa
jeer at him. He was a sturdy young blood, and cared nothing for anybody.
The priest's address had annoyed him.

'Hallo! mother, come on!' he called in his loud voice. But mother
Brichet was begging at the vestry door. She stood there, tearful and
wizen, before La Teuse, who was slipping some eggs into the pocket of
her apron. Fortune didn't seem to feel the least sense of shame. He just
winked and remarked: 'She is a knowing old card, my mother is. But then
the Cure likes to see people at mass.'

Meanwhile, Rosalie had grown calm again. Before leaving the church, she
asked Fortune if he had begged the priest to come and bless their
room, according to the custom of the country. So Fortune ran off to the
vestry, striding heavily through the church, as if it were a field. He
soon reappeared, shouting that his