cry out, and made
her comments to herself. Then seeing that her silence hurt Germain, she
stretched out her basket toward him and said:

"Is there any reason for not helping me at my work. Carry this load, and
come and talk with me. Have you reflected well, Germain? Are you fully
decided?"

"Alas, dear mother, you must n't speak in that way. I should be decided
if I had a chance of success, but as I could never be heard, I have only
made up my mind to cure myself, if I can."

"And if you can't."

"There is an end to everything, Mother Maurice: when the horse is laden
too heavily, he falls, and when the cow has nothing to eat, she dies."

"Do you mean to say that you will die, if you do not succeed. God grant
not, Germain. I don't like to hear a man like you talk of those things;
for what he says, he thinks. You are very brave, and weakness
is dangerous for strong men. Take heart; I can't conceive that a
poverty-stricken girl, whom you have honored so much as to ask her to
marry you, will refuse you."

"Yet it 's the truth: she does refuse me."

"And what reasons does she give you?"

"That you have always been kind to her, and that her family owes a great
deal to yours, and that she does n't wish to displease you by turning me
away from a rich marriage."

"If she says that, she proves her good sense, and shows what an honest
girl she is. But, Germain, she does n't cure you; for of course she
tells you that she loves you and would marry you if we were willing?"

"That's the worst part of all. She says that her heart can never be
mine."

"If she says what she does n't think in order to keep you at a safer
distance, the child deserves our love, and we should pass over her youth
on account of her great good sense."

"Yes," said Germain, struck by a hope he had never held before; "that
would be very wise and right of her! But if she is so sensible, I am
sure it is because I displease her."

"Germain," said Mother Maurice, "you must promise me not to worry for a
whole week. Keep from tormenting yourself, eat, sleep, and be as gay as
you used to be. For my part, I 'll speak to my husband, and if I gain
his consent, you shall know the girl's real feelings toward you."

Germain promised, and the week passed without a single word in private
from Father Maurice, who seemed to suspect nothing. The husbandman did
his best to look calm, but he grew ever paler and more troubled.

XVI -- Little Marie

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