in, bowing to the doctor and his protegee, with
Jesuitical humility.

"Ursula," replied the doctor, laconically, continuing to walk on as if
annoyed.

The night before, as the old man finished his game of whist with Ursula,
the Nemours doctor, and Bongrand, he remarked, "I intend to go to church
to-morrow."

"Then," said Bongrand, "your heirs won't get another night's rest."

The speech was superfluous, however, for a single glance sufficed the
sagacious and clear-sighted doctor to read the minds of his heirs by
the expression of their faces. Zelie's irruption into the church, her
glance, which the doctor intercepted, this meeting of all the expectant
ones in the public square, and the expression in their eyes as they
turned them on Ursula, all proved to him their hatred, now freshly
awakened, and their sordid fears.

"It is a feather in your cap, Mademoiselle," said Madame Cremiere,
putting in her word with a humble bow,--"a miracle which will not cost
you much."

"It is God's doing, madame," replied Ursula.

"God!" exclaimed Minoret-Levrault; "my father-in-law used to say he
served to blanket many horses."

"Your father-in-law had the mind of a jockey," said the doctor severely.

"Come," said Minoret to his wife and son, "why don't you bow to my
uncle?"

"I shouldn't be mistress of myself before that little hypocrite," cried
Zelie, carrying off her son.

"I advise you, uncle, not to go to mass without a velvet cap," said
Madame Massin; "the church is very damp."

"Pooh, niece," said the doctor, looking round on the assembly, "the
sooner I'm put to bed the sooner you'll flourish."

He walked on quickly, drawing Ursula with him, and seemed in such a
hurry that the others dropped behind.

"Why do you say such harsh things to them? it isn't right," said Ursula,
shaking his arm in a coaxing way.

"I shall always hate hypocrites, as much after as before I became
religious. I have done good to them all, and I asked no gratitude; but
not one of my relatives sent you a flower on your birthday, which they
know is the only day I celebrate."

At some distance behind the doctor and Ursula came Madame de
Portenduere, dragging herself along as if overcome with trouble. She
belonged to the class of old women whose dress recalls the style of the
last century. They wear puce-colored gowns with flat sleeves, the cut of
which can be seen in the portraits of Madame Lebrun; they all have black
lace mantles and bonnets