them in His mercy and His pity, and sent down His rain and dew and sunshine upon it five hundred years in token of His peace?  It was their home—­theirs, by the grace of God and His good heart, and no man had a right to rob them of it.  And they were the gentlest, truest friends that children ever had, and did them sweet and loving service all these five long centuries, and never any hurt or harm; and the children loved them, and now they mourn for them, and there is no healing for their grief.  And what had the children done that they should suffer this cruel stroke?  The poor fairies could have been dangerous company for the children?  Yes, but never had been; and could is no argument.  Kinsmen of the Fiend?  What of it?  Kinsmen of the Fiend have rights, and these had; and children have rights, and these had; and if I had been there I would have spoken—­I would have begged for the children and the fiends, and stayed your hand and saved them all.  But now—­oh, now, all is lost; everything is lost, and there is no help more!”

Then she finished with a blast at that idea that fairy kinsmen of the Fiend ought to be shunned and denied human sympathy and friendship because salvation was barred against them.  She said that for that very reason people ought to pity them, and do every humane and loving thing they could to make them forget the hard fate that had been put upon them by accident of birth and no fault of their own.  “Poor little creatures!” she said.  “What can a person’s heart be made of that can pity a Christian’s child and yet can’t pity a devil’s child, that a thousand times more needs it!”

She had torn loose from Pere Fronte, and was crying, with her knuckles in her eyes, and stamping her small feet in a fury; and now she burst out of the place and was gone before we could gather our senses together out of this storm of words and this whirlwind of passion.

The Pere had got upon his feet, toward the last, and now he stood there passing his hand back and forth across his forehead like a person who is dazed and troubled; then he turned and wandered toward the door of his little workroom, and as he passed through it I heard him murmur sorrowfully: 

“Ah, me, poor children, poor fiends, they have rights, and she said true—­I never thought of that.  God forgive me, I am to blame.”

When I heard that, I knew I was right in the thought that he had set a trap for himself.  It was so, and he had walked into it, you see.  I seemed to feel encouraged, and wondered if mayhap I might get him into one; but upon reflection my heart went down, for this was not my gift.

Chapter 3 All Aflame with Love of France