put to him respecting household conversations when he was not present, or
household occupations and tone of thought, without mentioning Virginie's
name any more than his questioner did. The lad would seem to suppose,
that his cousin's strong interest in their domestic ways of going on was
all on account of Madame Babette. At last he worked his cousin up to the
point of making him a confidant: and then the boy was half frightened at
the torrent of vehement words he had unloosed. The lava came down with a
greater rush for having been pent up so long. Morin cried out his words
in a hoarse, passionate voice, clenched his teeth, his fingers, and
seemed almost convulsed, as he spoke out his terrible love for Virginie,
which would lead him to kill her sooner than see her another's; and if
another stepped in between him and her!--and then he smiled a fierce,
triumphant smile, but did not say any more.

"Pierre was, as I said, half-frightened; but also half-admiring. This
was really love--a 'grande passion,'--a really fine dramatic thing,--like
the plays they acted at the little theatre yonder. He had a dozen times
the sympathy with his cousin now that he had had before, and readily
swore by the infernal gods, for they were far too enlightened to believe
in one God, or Christianity, or anything of the kind,--that he would
devote himself, body and soul, to forwarding his cousin's views. Then
his cousin took him to a shop, and bought him a smart second-hand watch,
on which they scratched the word Fidelite, and thus was the compact
sealed. Pierre settled in his own mind, that if he were a woman, he
should like to be beloved as Virginie was, by his cousin, and that it
would be an extremely good thing for her to be the wife of so rich a
citizen as Morin Fils,--and for Pierre himself, too, for doubtless their
gratitude would lead them to give him rings and watches ad infinitum.

"A day or two afterwards, Virginie was taken ill. Madame Babette said it