, took
up her son with supernatural strength, seating him on her left arm as
though he were still an infant at her breast, saying, as she kissed
him:--

"Do you see that land, my son? When you are a man, continue there your
mother's work."

"Madame," said the rector, in a grave voice, "a few strong and
privileged beings are able to contemplate their coming death face to
face, to fight, as it were, a duel with it, and to display a courage
and an ability which challenge admiration. You show us this terrible
spectacle; but perhaps you have too little pity for us; leave us at
least the hope that you may be mistaken, and that God will allow you to
finish that which you have begun."

"All I have done is through you, my friends," she said. "I have been
useful, I can be so no longer. All is fruitful around us now; nothing
is barren and desolated here except my heart. You well know, my dear
rector, that I can only find peace and pardon _there_."

She stretched her hand toward the cemetery. Never had she said as much
since the day of her arrival, when she was taken with sudden illness at
the same spot. The rector looked attentively at his penitent, and the
habit of penetration he had long acquired made him see that in those
simple words he had won another triumph. Veronique must have made a
mighty effort over herself to break her twelve years' silence with a
speech that said so much. The rector clasped his hands with a fervent
gesture that was natural to him as he looked with deep emotion at the
members of this family whose secrets had passed into his heart.

Gerard, to whom the words "peace and pardon" must have seemed strange,
was bewildered. Monsieur Ruffin, with his eyes fixed on Veronique, was
stupefied. At this instant the carriage came rapidly up the avenue.

"There are five of them!" cried the rector, who could see and count the
travellers.

"Five!" exclaimed Gerard. "Can five know more than two?"

"Ah," cried Madame Graslin suddenly, grasping the rector's arm, "the
_procureur-general_ is among them! What is he doing here?"

"And papa Grossetete, too!" cried Francis.

"Madame," said the rector, supporting Veronique, and leading her apart a
few steps, "show courage; be worthy of yourself."

"But what can he want?" she replied, leaning on the balustrade.
"Mother!" (the old woman ran to her daughter with an activity that
belied her years.) "I shall see him again," she said.

"As he comes with Monsieur Grossete