“In course of time the work was completed, and then came the question, ‘What should she do with it?’ The idea of compelling him to accept a service, to be under some sort of obligation to her, took complete possession of her mind.  She determined to steal his gratitude, if I may so express myself; to compel him by force to feel obliged to her; and this was the plan she resolved upon.  It was devoid of all sense or reason, but her mind was gone, and she had long since been led away by the vagaries of her disordered imagination.  The festivals of Christmas were about to be celebrated.  After the midnight mass the priest was in the habit of entertaining the mayor and the notabilities of the village at supper.  His house adjoined the church, and besides the principal door opening on to the village square, there were two others, one leading into the vestry and so into the church, and another into the garden and the fields beyond.  Kermelle Manor was about five hundred yards distant, and to save the nephew—­who took lessons from the priest—­making a long round, he had been given a key of this back door.  The daughter got possession of this key while the mass was being celebrated, and entered the house.  The priest’s servant had laid the cloth in advance, so as to be free to attend mass, and the poor daft girl hurriedly removed the tablecloth and napkins and hid them in the manor-house.  When mass was over the theft was detected at once, and caused very great surprise, the first thing noticed being that the linen alone had been taken.  The priest was unwilling to let his guests go away supperless, and while they were consulting as to what to do, the girl herself arrived, saying, ’You will not decline our good offices this time, Monsieur le Cure.  You shall have our linen here in a few minutes.’  Her father expressed himself in the same sense, and the priest could not but assent, little dreaming of what a trick had been played upon him by a person who was generally supposed to be so wanting in intelligence.

“This singular robbery was further investigated the next day.  There was no sign of any force having been used to get into the house.  The main door and the one leading into the garden were untouched and locked as usual.  It never occurred to any one that the key intrusted to young Kermelle could have been used to commit the robbery.  It followed, therefore, that the theft must have been committed by way of the vestry door.  The clerk had been in the church all the time, but his wife had been in and out.  She had been to the fire to get some coals for the censers, and had attended to two or three other little details; and so suspicion fell on her.  She was a very respectable woman, and it seemed most improbable that she would be guilty of such an offence, but the appearances were dead against her.  There was no getting away from the argument that the thief had entered by the vestry door, that she alone could have gone through this door, and that, as she herself