s old affection for Perrine.
On receiving an eager answer in the affirmative, Pere Bonan then
referred to the persecution still raging through the country, and to the
consequent possibility that he, like others of his countrymen, might yet
be called to suffer, and perhaps to die, for the cause of his religion.
If this last act of self-sacrifice were required of him, Perrine would
be left unprotected, unless her affianced husband performed his promise
to her, and assumed, without delay, the position of her lawful guardian.
"Let me know that you will do this," concluded the old man; "I shall be
resigned to all that may be required of me, if I can only know that
I shall not die leaving Perrine unprotected." Gabriel gave the
promise--gave it with his whole heart. As he took leave of Pere Bonan,
the old man said to him:

"Come here to-morrow; I shall know more then than I know now--I shall
be able to fix with certainty the day for the fulfillment of your
engagement with Perrine."

Why did Gabriel hesitate at the farmhouse door, looking back on Pere
Bonan as though he would fain say something, and yet not speaking a
word? Why, after he had gone out and had walked onward several paces,
did he suddenly stop, return quickly to the farmhouse, stand irresolute
before the gate, and then retrace his steps, sighing heavily as he went,
but never pausing again on his homeward way? Because the torment of his
horrible secret had grown harder to bear than ever, since he had given
the promise that had been required of him. Because, while a strong
impulse moved him frankly to lay bare his hidden dread and doubt to the
father whose beloved daughter was soon to be his wife, there was a yet
stronger passive influence which paralyzed on his lips the terrible
confession that he knew not whether he was the son of an honest man, or
the son of an assassin, and a robber. Made desperate by his situation,
he determined, while he hastened homeward, to risk the worst, and ask
that fatal question of his father in plain words. But this supreme
trial for parent and child was not to be. When he entered the cottage,
Francois was absent. He had told the younger children that he should not
be home again before noon on the next day.

Early in the morning Gabriel repaired to the farmhouse, as he had been
bidden. Influenced, by his love for Perrine, blindly confiding in the
faint hope (which, in despite of heart and conscience, he still forced
himself to cheri