“My good children,” he said, “I, your priest, forbid any one of you to come a single step nearer to this house.  It may be but for a day or two, but let no one venture to disobey me.  Think of me as though I had gone to England, and should be back again among you in a few days.  God is here, as near to me under this roof, as when I stand before him and you at his altar.”

He lifted up his hands to give them his benediction, and we all knelt to receive it.  Then, with unquestioning obedience, but with many lamentations, the people returned to their daily work.

CHAPTER THE TWENTIETH.

A MALIGNANT CASE.

For three days, morning after morning, while the dew lay still upon the grass, I went down, with a heavy and foreboding heart, to the place where I could watch the cottage, through the long, sultry hours of the summer-day.  The first thing I saw always was Monsieur Laurentie, who came to the door to satisfy me that he was himself in good health, and to tell me how Richard Foster had passed the night.  After that I caught from time to time a momentary glimpse of his white head, as he passed the dusky window.  He would not listen to my entreaties to be allowed to join him in his task.  It was a malignant case, he said, and as my husband was unconscious, I could do him no good by running the risk of being near him.

An invisible line encircled the pestilential place, which none of us dare break through without the permission of the cure, though any one of the villagers would have rejoiced if he had summoned them to his aid.  A perpetual intercession was offered up day and night, before the high altar, by the people, and there was no lack of eager candidates ready to take up the prayer when the one who had been praying grew weary.  On the third morning I felt that they were beginning to look at me with altered faces, and speak to me in colder accents.  If I were the means of bringing upon them the loss of their cure, they would curse the day he found me and brought me to his home.  I left the village street half broken-hearted, and wandered hopelessly down to my chosen post.

I thought I was alone, but as I sat with my head bowed down upon my hands, I felt a child’s hand laid upon my neck, and Minima’s voice spoke plaintively in my ear.

“What is the matter, Aunt Nelly?” she asked.  “Everybody is in trouble, and mademoiselle says it is because your husband is come, and Monsieur Laurentie is going to die for his sake.  She began to cry when she said that, and she said, ’What shall we all do if my brother dies?  My God! what will become of all the people in Ville-en-bois?’ Is it true?  Is your husband really come, and is he going to die?”

“He is come,” I said, in a low voice; “I do not know whether he is going to die.”

“Is he so poor that he will die?” she asked again.  “Why does God let people be so poor that they must die?”.