people, was accustomed to scanty fare, and would have been the
first to reprimand his parishioners had any of them offered him anything
else. Simple, however, as was the supper it was well-cooked and
satisfying; and after the chairs had been pushed back, and Marie and her
mother had washed the few dishes, a candle was lighted and the Brettons,
together with their guest, drew their seats into the circle of its
radiance.

"I wish, Father, you would tell us how they make velvet," ventured
Marie, who delighted in the Cure's stories. "That, too, is made from
silk, isn't it?"

"Velvet!" ejaculated the priest. "What a frivolous little damsel you
are! Are you planning already how you will one day dress yourself in the
clothes of a princess, my dear?"

Mischievously he pinched her cheek.

Marie laughed.

"No, indeed, Father. It was only that on Sunday when I saw the hangings
about the high altar it came to me of a sudden to wonder how the velvet
was made."

"You would much better have been thinking of your prayers, naughty one,"
replied Pere Benedict, touching her hair lightly with his long, slender
fingers. "However, in order that you may not a second time fill your
mind with such questions I will tell you what I can about velvet
making."

With a sigh of pleasure Marie settled back onto the tiny stool at the
priest's feet.

They all loved to listen to the Father's tales.

"He is better than any story-book!" Pierre often declared.

"The first velvet we know anything about," began the Cure, "was probably
brought from India, where it must have been woven on hand-looms. When
the Greeks and Romans invaded the East, among other spoils they brought
back with them great webs of crimson velvet, with which they immediately
began to decorate their palaces. They had no idea how it was made, and
of course did not give it the name it now bears. Instead they called it
_Villosus_, meaning _shaggy hair_. It is from this quaint old term that
our modern word velvet is derived."

The children smiled.

"It was not strange they should have chosen that name, for you must
remember they had never seen woven material with a fur-like pile, or
nap, such as velvet has; and it must have puzzled them not a little. So
you see it is due to these conquests of the Orient that velvet found its
way into the world. As time went on the supply of velvet increased.
People in other places than India learned to make it. By the fourteenth
century it was