varice is a debasing vice--Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house!
Thou shalt not steal!"

"Monsieur," she said calmly, "it would have been easy to destroy the
will. Have you not thought of that?"

For a moment he was taken aback, but he said harshly: "If crime were
always intelligent, it would have fewer penalties."

She shrank again under the roughness of his words. But she was fighting
for an end that was dear to her soul, and she answered:

"It was not lack of intelligence, but a sense of honour--yes, a sense of
honour," she insisted, as he threw back his head and laughed. "What do
you think might be my reason for concealing the will--if I did conceal
it?"

"The answer seems obvious. Why does the wild ass forage with a strange
herd, or the pig put his feet in the trough? Not for his neighbour's
gain, Madame, not in a thousand years."

"Monsieur, I have never been spoken to so coarsely. I am a blacksmith's
daughter, and I have heard rough men talk in my day, but I have never
heard a man--of my own race at least--so rude to a woman. But I am here
not for my own sake; I will not go till I have said and done all I have
come to say and do. Will you listen to me, Monsieur?"

"I have made my charges--answer them. Disprove this theft"--he held up
the will--"of concealment, and enjoyment of property not your own, and
then ask of me that politeness which makes so beautiful stable and forge
at Pontiac."

"Monsieur, you cannot think that the will was concealed for profit, for
the value of the Seigneury of Pontiac. I can earn two such seigneuries
in one year, Monsieur."

"Nevertheless you do not."

"For the same reason that I did not bring or send that will to you when
I found it, Monsieur. And for that same reason I have come to ask you
not to take advantage of that will."

He was about to interpose angrily, but she continued: "Whatever the
rental may be that you in justice feel should be put upon the Seigneury,
I will pay--from the hour my husband entered on the property, its heir
as he believed. Put such rental on the property, do not disturb Monsieur
Racine in his position as it is, and I will double that rental."

"Do not think, Madame, that I am as avaricious as you."

"Is it avaricious to offer double the worth of the rental?"

"There is the title and distinction. You married a mad nobody; you wish
to retain an honour that belongs to me."

"I am asking it for my husband's sake, not my own, believe me