d. The young man did not do
that, but he urged on his horse and then, just as they were passing the
Abbe, suddenly let the wheel of the gig drop into a deep rut. There was
a splash, and, in an instant, the priest was covered with mud from head
to foot. Rosalie laughed all over her face, and turning round, she shook
her fist at the abbe as he stood wiping himself down with his big
handkerchief.

"Oh, we have forgotten Massacre!" suddenly cried Jeanne. Denis pulled
up, gave Rosalie the reins to hold, and jumped down to run and fetch the
dog. Then in a few minutes he came back with the big, shapeless animal
in his arms and placed him in the gig between the two women.

* * * * *

XIII

After a two hours' drive the gig drew up before a little brick house,
standing by the high road in the middle of an orchard planted with
pear-trees. Four lattice-work arbors covered with honeysuckle and
clematis stood at the four corners of the garden, which was planted with
vegetables, and laid out in little beds with narrow paths bordered with
fruit-trees running between them, and both garden and orchard were
entirely surrounded by a thickset hedge which divided them from a field
belonging to the next farm. About thirty yards lower down the road was a
forge, and that was the only dwelling within a mile. All around lay
fields and plains with farms scattered here and there, half-hidden by
the four double rows of big trees which surrounded them.

Jeanne wanted to rest as soon as they arrived, but Rosalie, wishing to
keep her from thinking, would not let her do so. The carpenter from
Goderville had come to help them put the place in order, and they all
began to arrange the furniture which was already there without waiting
for the last cart-load which was coming on. The arrangement of the rooms
took a long time, for everyone's ideas and opinions had to be consulted,
and then the cart from Les Peuples arrived, and had to be unloaded in
the rain. When night fell the house was in a state of utter disorder,
and all the rooms were full of things piled anyhow one on top of the
other. Jeanne was tired out and fell asleep as soon as her head touched
the pillow.

The next few days there was so much to do that she had no time to fret;
in fact, she even found a certain pleasure in making her new home
pretty, for all the time she was working she thought that her son would
one day come and live there. The tapestry from h