“Madame,” she said at last, reassured by the pressure of Madame Graslin’s hand, “I may have done wrong, but I hadn’t the strength to stay here.  I did not fear myself, but others; I feared gossip, scandal.  So long as Jacques was in danger, I was necessary to him and I stayed; but after he had gone I had no strength left,—­a girl with a child and no husband!  The worst of creatures was better than I. I don’t know what would have become of me had I stayed to hear a word against my boy or his father; I should have gone mad; I might have killed myself.  My father or my mother in a moment of anger might have reproached me.  I am too sensitive to bear a quarrel or an insult, gentle as I am.  I have had my punishment in not seeing my child, I who have never passed a day without thinking of him in all these years!  I wished to be forgotten, and I have been.  No one thought of me,—­they believed me dead; and yet, many a time, I thought of leaving all just to come here for a day and see my child.”

“Your child—­see, here he is.”

Catherine then saw Benjamin, and began to tremble violently.

“Benjamin,” said Madame Graslin, “come and kiss your mother.”

“My mother!” cried Benjamin, surprised.  He jumped into Catherine’s arms and she pressed him to her breast with almost savage force.  But the boy escaped her and ran off crying out:  “I’ll go and fetch him.”

Madame Graslin made Catherine, who was almost fainting, sit down.  At this moment she saw Monsieur Bonnet and could not help blushing as she met a piercing look from her confessor, which read her heart.

“I hope,” she said, trembling, “that you will consent to marry Farrabesche and Catherine at once.  Don’t you recognize Monsieur Bonnet, my dear?  He will tell you that Farrabesche, since his liberation has behaved as an honest man; the whole neighborhood thinks well of him, and if there is a place in the world where you may live happy and respected it is at Montegnac.  You can make, by God’s help, a good living as my farmers; for Farrabesche has recovered citizenship.”

“That is all true, my dear child,” said the rector.

Just then Farrabesche appeared, pulled along by his son.  He was pale and speechless in presence of Catherine and Madame Graslin.  His heart told him actively benevolent the one had been, and how deeply the other had suffered in his absence.  Veronique led away the rector, who, on his side, was anxious to talk with her alone.

As soon as they were far enough away not to be overheard, Monsieur Bonnet looked fixedly at Veronique; she colored and dropped her eyes like a guilty person.

“You degrade well-doing,” he said, sternly.

“How?” she asked, raising her head.