x of blood brought there, as it were, to feed
the tears. The circle round the eyes was now a dark-brown that was
almost black above the eyelids, which were horribly wrinkled. The cheeks
were hollow; in their folds lay the sign of solemn thoughts. The chin,
which in youth was full and round, the flesh covering the muscles,
was now shrunken, to the injury of its expression, which told of an
implacable religious severity exercised by this woman upon herself.

At twenty-nine years of age Veronique's hair was scanty and already
whitening. Her thinness was alarming. In spite of her doctor's advice
she insisted on suckling her son. The doctor triumphed in the result;
and as he watched the changes he had foretold in Veronique's appearance,
he often said:--

"See the effects of childbirth on a woman! She adores that child; I have
often noticed that mothers are fondest of the children who cost them
most."

Veronique's faded eyes were all that retained even a memory of her
youth. The dark blue of the iris still cast its passionate fires, to
which the woman's life seemed to have retreated, deserting the cold,
impassible face, and glowing with an expression of devotion when the
welfare of a fellow-being was concerned.

Thus the surprise, the dread of the rector ceased by degrees as he
went on explaining to Madame Graslin all the good that a large owner
of property could do at Montegnac provided he lived there. Veronique's
beauty came back to her for a moment as her eyes glowed with the light
of an unhoped-for future.

"I will live there," she said. "It shall be my work. I will ask Monsieur
Graslin for money, and I will gladly share in your religious enterprise.
Montegnac shall be fertilized; we will find some means to water those
arid plains. Like Moses, you have struck a rock from which the waters
will gush."

The rector of Montegnac, when questioned by his friends in Limoges about
Madame Graslin, spoke of her as a saint.

The day after the purchase was concluded Monsieur Graslin sent an
architect to Montegnac. The banker intended to restore the chateau,
gardens, terrace, and park, and also to connect the castle grounds with
the forest by a plantation. He set himself to make these improvements
with vainglorious activity.

A few months later Madame Graslin met with a great misfortune. In
August, 1830, Graslin, overtaken by the commercial and banking disasters
of that period, became involved by no fault of his own. He could