was expected to pass there at six; or somebody, coming in, had seen her in the morning, or expected to meet her that evening.  After the inns that command the roads, the churches were the buildings she frequented most.  Men of liberal opinions would induce small children to run into sacred edifices to see whether Madame Levaille was there, and to tell her that so-and-so was in the road waiting to speak to her about potatoes, or flour, or stones, or houses; and she would curtail her devotions, come out blinking and crossing herself into the sunshine; ready to discuss business matters in a calm, sensible way across a table in the kitchen of the inn opposite.  Latterly she had stayed for a few days several times with her son-in-law, arguing against sorrow and misfortune with composed face and gentle tones.  Jean-Pierre felt the convictions imbibed in the regiment torn out of his breast—­not by arguments but by facts.  Striding over his fields he thought it over.  There were three of them.  Three!  All alike!  Why?  Such things did not happen to everybody—­to nobody he ever heard of.  One—­might pass.  But three!  All three.  Forever useless, to be fed while he lived and . . .  What would become of the land when he died?  This must be seen to.  He would sacrifice his convictions.  One day he told his wife—­

“See what your God will do for us.  Pay for some masses.”

Susan embraced her man.  He stood unbending, then turned on his heels and went out.  But afterwards, when a black soutane darkened his doorway, he did not object; even offered some cider himself to the priest.  He listened to the talk meekly; went to mass between the two women; accomplished what the priest called “his religious duties” at Easter.  That morning he felt like a man who had sold his soul.  In the afternoon he fought ferociously with an old friend and neighbour who had remarked that the priests had the best of it and were now going to eat the priest-eater.  He came home dishevelled and bleeding, and happening to catch sight of his children (they were kept generally out of the way), cursed and swore incoherently, banging the table.  Susan wept.  Madame Levaille sat serenely unmoved.  She assured her daughter that “It will pass;” and taking up her thick umbrella, departed in haste to see after a schooner she was going to load with granite from her quarry.

A year or so afterwards the girl was born.  A girl.  Jean-Pierre heard of it in the fields, and was so upset by the news that he sat down on the boundary wall and remained there till the evening, instead of going home as he was urged to do.  A girl!  He felt half cheated.  However, when he got home he was partly reconciled to his fate.  One could marry her to a good fellow—­not to a good for nothing, but to a fellow with some understanding and a good pair of arms.  Besides, the next may be a boy, he thought.  Of course they would be all right.  His new credulity knew of no doubt.  The ill luck was broken.  He spoke cheerily to his wife.  She was also hopeful.  Three priests came to that christening, and Madame Levaille was godmother.  The child turned out an idiot too.