n?"

"The--the night you came back," answered the maid, who was now almost
lying on the floor.

Each word rung Jeanne's heart. He had actually left her for this girl
the very night of their return to Les Peuples! That, then, was why he
had let her sleep alone. She had heard enough now; she did not want to
know anything more, and she cried to the girl:

"Go away! go away!"

As Rosalie, overcome by her emotion, did not move, she called to her
father:

"Take her away! Carry her out of the room!"

But the cure, who had said nothing up to now, thought the time had come
for a little discourse.

"You have behaved very wickedly," he said to Rosalie, "very wickedly
indeed, and the good God will not easily forgive you. Think of the
punishment which awaits you if you do not live a better life henceforth.
Now you are young is the time to train yourself in good ways. No doubt
Madame la baronne will do something for you, and we shall be able to
find you a husband--"

He would have gone on like this for a long time had not the baron seized
Rosalie by the shoulders, dragged her to the door and thrown her into
the passage like a bundle of clothes.

When he came back, looking whiter even than his daughter, the cure began
again:

"Well, you know, all the girls round here are the same. It is a very bad
state of things, but it can't be helped, and we must make a little
allowance for the weakness of human nature. They never marry until they
are _enceintes_; never, madame. One might almost call it a local
custom," he added, with a smile. Then he went on indignantly: "Even the
children are the same. Only last year I found a little boy and girl from
my class in the cemetery together. I told their parents, and what do you
think they replied: 'Well, M'sieu l'cure, we didn't teach it them; we
can't help it.' So you see, monsieur, your maid has only done like the
others--"

"The maid!" interrupted the baron, trembling with excitement. "The maid!
What do I care about her? It's Julien's conduct which I think so
abominable, and I shall certainly take my daughter away with me." He
walked up and down the room, getting more and more angry with every step
he took. "It is infamous the way he has deceived my daughter, infamous!
He's a wretch, a villain, and I will tell him so to his face. I'll
horsewhip him within an inch of his life."

The cure was slowly enjoying a pinch of snuff as he sat beside the
baroness, and thinking how he could ma