You don't know this woman at all, then?"

"No more than you, and I fear that I shall not know her better after I
have seen her. I am not suspicious. When people say nice things to me,
I believe them, but more than once I have had good reason to repent, for
words are not deeds."

"They say that she is a very good woman."

"Who says so? Father Maurice?"

"Yes, your father-in-law."

"That is all very well. But he knows her no more than I."

"Well, you will soon see. Pay close attention, and let us hope that you
will not be deceived."

"I have it. Little Marie, I should be very much obliged if you would
come into the house for a minute before you go straight on to Ormeaux.
You are quick-witted; you have always shown that you are not stupid,
and nothing escapes your notice. Should you see anything to rouse your
suspicions, you must warn me of it very quietly."

"Oh! no, Germain, I will not do that; I should be too much afraid of
making a mistake; and, besides, if a word lightly spoken were to turn
you against this marriage, your family would bear me a grudge, and I
have plenty of troubles now without bringing any more on my poor dear
mother."

As they were talking thus, the gray pricked up her ears and shied; then
returning on her steps, she approached the bushes, where she began to
recognize something which had frightened her at first. Germain cast
his eye over the thicket, and in a ditch, beneath the branches of a
scrub-oak, still thick and green, he saw something which he took for a
lamb.

"The little creature is strayed or dead, for it does not move. Perhaps
some one is looking for it; we must see."

"It is not an animal," cried little Marie; "it is a sleeping child. It
is your Petit-Pierre."

"Heavens!" exclaimed Germain; "see the little scamp asleep so far away
from home, and in a ditch where a snake might bite him!"

He lifted up the child, who smiled as he opened his eyes and threw his
arms about his father's neck, saying: "Dear little father, you are going
to take me with you."

"Oh, yes; always the same tune. What were you doing there, you naughty
Pierre?"

"I was waiting for my little father to go by. I was watching the road,
and I watched so hard that I fell asleep."

"And if I had passed by without seeing you, you would have been out of
doors all night, and a wolf would have eaten you up."

"Oh, I knew very well that you would see me," answered Petit-Pierre,
confidently.

"Well, kiss me