beard from a cut on his lip, and
from there to the ground.

"And you, M'sieu' Bourienne," he cried hoarsely, "do I not remember that
dear M'sieu' Bourienne, when he beg me to leave Pontiac for a little
while that I not give evidence in court against him? Eh bien! you
all walk by me now, as if I was the father of smallpox, and not Luc
Pomfrette--only Luc Pomfrette, who spits at every one of you for a pack
of cowards and hypocrites."

He thrust the bottle inside his coat, went to the door, flung it open
with a bang, and strode out into the street, muttering as he went. As
the landlord came to close the door Medallion said:

"The leper has a memory, my friends." Then he also walked out, and went
to his office depressed, for the face of the man haunted him.

Pomfrette reached his deserted, cheerless house. There was not a stick
of fire-wood in the shed, not a thing to eat or drink in cellar or
cupboard. The door of the shed at the back was open, and the dog-chains
lay covered with frost and half embedded in mud. With a shiver of misery
Pomfrette raised the brandy to his mouth, drank every drop, and threw
the bottle on the floor. Then he went to the front door, opened it, and
stepped outside. His foot slipped, and he tumbled head forward into the
snow. Once or twice he half raised himself, but fell back again, and
presently lay still. The frost caught his ears and iced them; it began
to creep over his cheeks; it made his fingers white, like a leper's.

He would soon have stiffened for ever had not Parpon the dwarf, passing
along the road, seen the open door and the sprawling body, and come and
drawn Pomfrette inside the house. He rubbed the face and hands and ears
of the unconscious man with snow till the whiteness disappeared, and,
taking off the boots, did the same with the toes; after which he drew
the body to a piece of rag carpet beside the stove, threw some blankets
over it, and, hurrying out, cut up some fence rails, and soon had a fire
going in the stove.

Then he trotted out of the house and away to the Little Chemist, who
came passively with him. All that day, and for many days, they fought
to save Pomfrette's life. The Cure came also; but Pomfrette was in fever
and delirium. Yet the good M. Fabre's presence, as it ever did, gave an
air of calm and comfort to the place. Parpon's hands alone cared for the
house; he did all that was to be done; no woman had entered the place
since Pomfrette's cousin, old Mme. B