English and French--I!" he bragged, and walking up to Mrs. Waldeaux,
he flourished his ragged hat, smiling. "Is madame ill? She has walked
far," he said kindly.

The English words seemed to waken her. "It is always the town,"
looking around bewildered. "The people--houses. I think I am not
well. If I could find the woods----"

Bauzy had but a hazy idea of her meaning, but he nodded gravely. "She
is a tourist. She wants to go out of Vannes--to see the chateaux, the
dolmens. I'm her man. I'll drive her to Larmor Baden," he said to his
wife. "I have to go there to-day, and I may as well make a franc or
two. Keep her until I bring the voiture."

But Frances stood motionless until the old wagon rattled up to the
water's edge.

"She has a dear old face," Bauzy's wife whispered.

"She is blind and deaf, I tell you," old Barbe grumbled, peering up at
her. "Make her pay, Oliver, before you go."

Bauzy nodded, and when Frances was seated held out his hand.

"Twenty francs," he said.

She opened her bag and gave them to him.

"She must be folle!" he said uneasily. "I feel like a thief. Away
with you, Babette!" as a pretty baby ran up to him. "You want to ride?
That is impossible. Unless, indeed, madame desires it?" lifting the
child to place her on the seat. Babette laughed and held out her hands.

But Mrs. Waldeaux shrank back, shuddering. "Take her away," she
whispered. "She must not touch me!"

The mother seized the child, and the women all talked vehemently at
once. Oliver climbed into the voiture and drove off in silence. When
he looked around presently he saw that the woman's face was bloodless,
and a cold sweat stood on it. He considered a while. "You want food,"
he said, and brought out some hard bread and a jug of Normandy cider.

Frances shook her head. She only spoke once during the morning, and
then told him something about a woman "whom no child could touch. No
man or woman could touch her as long as she lived. Not even her son."

As Bauzy could make nothing of this, he could only nod and laugh
civilly. But presently he, too, grew silent, glancing at her
uncomfortably from time to time.

They drove through great red fields of sarasson, hedged by long banks
of earth, which were masses of golden gorse and bronzed and crimson
ferns. The sun shone, the clover-scented air was full of the joyous
buzzing of bees and chirp of birds.

"It is a gay, blessed day!" Bauzy said, "tha