elf on her hands and looked steadily at this man who was
causing her so much sorrow. Her breath came and went quickly, but she
managed to answer:

"The matter is that we know all about your shameful conduct
ever since--ever since the day you first came here; we know
that--that--Rosalie's child is yours--like--like mine, and that they
will be--brothers."

Her grief became so poignant at this thought that she hid herself under
the bedclothes and sobbed bitterly. Julien stood open-mouthed, not
knowing what to say or do. The cure again interposed.

"Come, come, my dear young lady," he said, "you mustn't give way like
that. See now, be reasonable."

He rose, went to the bedside, and laid his cool hand on this despairing
woman's forehead. His simple touch seemed to soothe her wonderfully; she
felt calmer at once, as if the large hand of this country priest,
accustomed to gestures of absolution and sympathy, had borne with it
some strange, peace-giving power.

"Madame, we must always forgive," said the good-natured priest. "You are
borne down by a great grief, but God, in His mercy, has also sent you a
great joy, since He has permitted you to have hopes of becoming a
mother. This child will console you for all your trouble and it is in
its name that I implore, that I adjure, you to forgive M. Julien. It
will be a fresh tie between you, a pledge of your husband's future
fidelity. Can you steel your heart against the father of your unborn
child?"

Too weak to feel either anger or resentment, and only conscious of a
crushed, aching, exhausted sensation, she made no answer. Her nerves
were thoroughly unstrung, and she clung to life but by a very slender
thread.

The baroness, to whom resentment seemed utterly impossible and whose
mind was simply incapable of bearing any prolonged strain, said in a low
tone:

"Come, Jeanne!"

The cure drew Julien close to the bed and placed his hand in his wife's,
giving it a little tap as if to make the union more complete. Then,
dropping his professional pulpit tone, he said, with a satisfied air:

"There! that's done. Believe me, it is better so."

The two hands, united thus for an instant, loosed their clasp directly.
Julien, not daring to embrace Jeanne, kissed his mother-in-law, then
turned on his heel, took the baron (who, in his heart, was not sorry
that everything had finished so quietly) by the arm, and drew him from
the room to go and smoke a cigar.

Then the tired inval