Part 24 (1/2)

”We never had such a tailor,” answered the Seigneur.

”We'll hear more of him before we're done with him,” obstinately urged the Notary.

”It would give Dauphin the greatest pleasure if our tailor proved to be a murderer or a robber. I suppose you believe that he stole our little cross here,” the Cure added, turning to the church door, where his eye lingered lovingly on the relic, hanging on a pillar just inside, whither he had had it removed.

”I'm not sure yet he hadn't something to do with it,” was the stubborn response.

”If he did, may it bring him peace at last!” said the Cure piously. ”I have set my heart on nailing him to our blessed faith as that cross is fixed to the pillar yonder--'I will fasten him like a nail in a sure place,' says the Book. I take it hard that my friend Dauphin will not help me on the way. Suppose the man were evil, then the Church should try to s.n.a.t.c.h him like a brand from the burning. But suppose that in his past there was no wrong necessary to be hidden in the present--and this I believe with all my heart; suppose that he was wronged, not wronging: then how much more should the Church strive to win him to the light!

Why, man, have you no pride in Holy Church? I am ashamed of you, Dauphin, with your great intelligence, your wide reading. With our knowledge of the world we should be broader.”

The Seigneur's eyes were turned away, for there was in them at once humour and a suspicious moisture. Of all men in the world he most admired the Cure, for his utter truth and n.o.bility; but he could not help smiling at his enthusiasm--his dear Cure turned evangelist like any ”Methody”!--and at the appeal of the Notary on the ground of knowledge of the world. He was wise enough to count himself an old fogy, a provincial, and ”a simon-pure habitant,” but of the three he only had any knowledge of life. As men of the world the Cure and the Notary were sad failures, though they stood for much in Chaudiere. Yet this detracted nothing from the fine gentlemanliness of the Cure or the melodramatic courtesy of the Notary.

Amused and touched as the Seigneur had been at the Cure's words, he turned now and said: ”Always on the weaker side, Cure; always hoping the best from the worst of us.”

”I am only following an example at my door--you taught us all charity and justice,” answered M. Loisel, looking meaningly at the Seigneur.

There was silence a little while, for all three were thinking of the woman of the hut, at the gate of the Seigneur's manor.

On this topic M. Dauphin was not voluble. His original kindness to the woman had given him many troubled hours at home, for Madame Dauphin had construed his human sympathy into the dark and carnal desires of the heart, and his truthful eloquence had made his case the worse. A miserable sentimentalist, the Notary was likely to be misunderstood for ever, and one or two indiscretions of his extreme youth had been a weapon against him through the long years of a blameless married life.

He heaved a sigh of sympathy with the Cure now. ”She has not come back yet?” he said to the Seigneur. ”No sign of her. She locked up and stepped out, so my housekeeper says, about the time--”

”The day of old Margot's funeral,” interposed the Notary. ”She'd had a letter that day, a letter she'd been waiting for, and abroad she went--alas! the flyaway--from bad to worse, I fear--ah me!”

The Seigneur turned sharply on him. ”Who told you she had a letter that day, for which she had been waiting?” he said.

”Monsieur Evanturel.”

The Seigneur's face became sterner still. ”What business had he to know that she received a letter that day?”

”He is postmaster,” innocently replied the Notary. ”He is the devil!” said the Seigneur tartly. ”I beg your pardon, Cure; but it is Evanturel's business not to know what letters go to and fro in that office. He should be blind and dumb, so far as we all are concerned.”

”Remember that Evanturel is a cripple,” the Cure answered gently. ”I am glad, very glad it was not Rosalie.”

”Rosalie has more than usual sense for her s.e.x,” gruffly but kindly answered the Seigneur, a look of friendliness in his eyes. ”I shall talk to her about her father; I can't trust myself to speak to the man.”

”Rosalie is down there with Madame Dauphin,” said the Notary, pointing.

”Shall I ask her to come?”

The Seigneur nodded. He was magistrate and magnate, and he was the guarantor of the post-office, and of Rosalie and her father. His eyes fixed in reverie on Rosalie; he and the Cure pa.s.sively waited her approach.

She came over, pale and a little anxious, but with a courageous look.

She had a vague sense of trouble, and she feared it might be the little cross, that haunting thing of all these months.

When she came near, the Cure greeted her courteously, and then, taking the Notary by the arm, led him away.

The Seigneur and Rosalie being left alone, the girl said: ”You wish to speak with me, Monsieur?”

The Seigneur scrutinised her sharply. Though her colour came and went, her look was frank and fearless. She had had many dark hours since that fateful month of April. At night, trying to sleep, she had heard the ghostly footsteps in the church, which had sent her flying homeward.

Then, there was the hood. She had waited on and on, fearing word would come that it had been found in the churchyard, and that she had been seen putting the cross back upon the church door. As day after day pa.s.sed she had come at length to realise that, whatever had happened to the hood, she was not suspected. Yet the whole train of circ.u.mstances had a supernatural air, for the Cure and Jo Portugais had not made public their experience on the eventful night; she had been educated in a land of legend and superst.i.tion, and a deep impression had been made upon her mind, giving to her other new emotions a touch of pathos, of imagination, and adding character to her face. The old Seigneur stroked his chin as he looked at her. He realised that a change had come upon her, that she had developed in some surprising way.