They brought me word, out to Michilimackinac,so I
returned to Montreal in March.
This went onthree years, and he was always hoping.
Run along, andgive my respects to Madame Pommier. Cécile was flushed and excited;
she had been crying, he saw.
Charron took the pipe out ofhis mouth and spoke
rapidly.
But my father is French, and so is Father
Hector;you like them.
Thecandles blurred before Auclair a little, too.
She told me it would be better if I left her father, and that Imust marry. There are
plenty ofgirls, ugly, poor, stupid, awkward, who are made for such a
life.
She had a little son who was a badboy, and she
often thrashed him.
And on your way, Papa, will you stop and tell
Monseigneur lAncienthat our swallow has come? What was it like thistime, my boy, a
return of her old complaint? Myfather gave me brandy when he made me help him, all I
could hold.
Her father laughed as he carried her back to bed.
No man was ever more miserablethan I was that night. Did he eat them, or did he fill
them with sausage meat?
If he dropped asleep from exhaustion,he would dream
of her.
Cécile was laughing,too, as children do where they
never have been afraid or uncertain. The suppuration in his jaw stopped at last.
Ishould think it would be easier to starve.
He meant to give herevery joy in the world, and she
has thrown the world away. We cannot know what her voice is like now.
She put her head down on his shoulder andcried a
little. The laundress was taken before theexaminers again, but was sullen and
refused to talk.
Her father laughed as he carried her back to bed.
In those seasons of despair he was constantly beset bytemptation in the form of
homesickness.
He had the good manners of the OldWorld, the dash
and daring of the New. Your sickness was a good chance for you, my poor fellow. But
I have wanted to tellyou, monsieur, ever since All Souls Eve. Cécile was flushed and
excited; she had been crying, he saw.
He would have made away with himself then, but he
was afraid ofbeing punished after death.