be Brossette
gave the countess lists of the most needy, and often brought them to her
himself. Madame de Montcornet attended to these matters personally in
the great antechamber which opened upon the portico. It was a beautiful
waiting-room, floored with squares of white and red marble, warmed by a
porcelain stove, and furnished with benches covered with red plush.

It was there that one morning, just before harvest, old Mother Tonsard
brought her granddaughter Catherine, who had to make, she said, a
dreadful confession,--dreadful for the honor of a poor but honest
family. While the old woman addressed the countess Catherine stood in
an attitude of conscious guilt. Then she related on her own account the
unfortunate "situation" in which she was placed, which she had confided
to none but her grandmother; for her mother, she knew, would turn her
out, and her father, an honorable man, might kill her. If she only had a
thousand francs she could be married to a poor laborer named Godain, who
_knew all_, and who loved her like a brother; he could buy a poor bit
of ground and build a cottage if she had that sum. It was very touching.
The countess promised the money; resolving to devote the price of some
fancy to this marriage. The happy marriages of Michaud and Groison
encouraged her. Besides, such a wedding would be a good example to
the people of the neighborhood and stimulate to virtuous conduct. The
marriage of Catherine Tonsard and Godain was accordingly arranged by
means of the countess's thousand francs.

Another time a horrible old woman, Mother Bonnebault, who lived in a hut
between the gate of Conches and the village, brought back a great bundle
of skeins of linen thread.

"Madame la comtesse has done wonders," said the abbe, full of hope as to
the moral progress of his savages. "That old woman did immense damage to
your woods, but now she has no time for it; she stays at home and spins
from morning till night; her time is all taken up and well paid for."

Peace reigned everywhere. Groison made very satisfactory reports;
depredations seemed to have ceased, and it is even possible that the
state of the neighborhood and the feeling of the inhabitants might
really have changed if it had not been for the revengeful eagerness
of Gaubertin, the cabals of the leading society of Soulanges, and the
intrigues of Rigou, who one and all, with "the affair" in view, blew the
embers of hatred and crime in the hearts of the peasa