her virtue, gave him food for thought. And he went his way, musing as a
man muses who has not enough ideas to fight among themselves; that is to
say, not formulating in his mind convincing reasons for selfish
resistance, but conscious of a dull pain, and not struggling against an
evil which it was necessary to accept.

Meanwhile, Père Maurice had returned to the farm-house, while Germain
employed the last hour of daylight, between sunset and darkness, in
mending the breaches made by the sheep in the hedge surrounding a
vineyard near the farm buildings. He raised the stalks of the bushes,
and supported them with clods of earth, while the thrushes chattered in
the neighboring thicket, and seemed to call to him to make haste, they
were so curious to come to examine his work as soon as he had gone.




V

LA GUILLETTE


Père Maurice found in the house an elderly neighbor, who had come to
have a chat with his wife, and borrow some embers to light her fire.
Mère Guillette lived in a wretched hovel within two gunshots of the
farm. But she was a decent woman and a woman of strong will. Her poor
house was neat and clean, and her carefully patched clothes denoted
proper self-respect with all her poverty.

"You came to get some fire for the night, eh, Mère Guillette?" said the