s of no use," said the doctor. "Did some one summon the priest?"

"Immediately," returned Pani.

"And there is poor Antoine on the Badeau farm, knowing nothing of this,"
cried the weeping mother.

The baby wailed a sorrowful cry as if in sympathy. It had been a puny
little thing. Three other small ones stood around with frightened faces.

Jeanne took up the baby and bore it out into the small garden, where she
walked up and down and crooned to it so sweetly it soon fell asleep. The
next younger child stole thither and caught her gown, keeping pace with
tiny steps. How long the moments seemed! The hot sun beat down, but it
was cool here under the tree. How many times in the stifling afternoons
Philippe had brought his work out here! He had grown paler and thinner,
but no one had seemed to think much of it. What a strange thing death
was! What was the other world like--and purgatory? The mother of little
Marie Faus was starving herself to pay for the salvation of her
darling's soul.

"Oh, I should not like to die!" and Jeanne shuddered.

The priest came, but it was not Father Gilbert. The last rites were
performed over the man who might be dead already. The baby and the
little girl were brought in and the priest blessed them. There were
several neighbors ready to perform the last offices, and now Jeanne took
all the children out under the tree.

Louis Marsac returned, presently, and offered his help in any matter,
crowding some money into the poor, widowed hand. Jeanne he could see
nowhere. Pani was busy.

The next day he paid M. Loisel a visit, and stated his wishes.

"You see, Monsieur, Jeanne Angelot is in some sort a foundling, and many
families would not care to take her in. That I love her will be
sufficient for my father, and her beauty and sweetness will do the rest.
She will live like a queen and have servants to wait on her. There are
many rich people up North, and, though the winters are long, no one
suffers except the improvident. And I think I have loved Mam'selle from
a little child. Then, too," with an easy smile, "there is a suspicion
that some Indian blood runs in Mam'selle's veins. On that ground we are
even."

Yes, M. Loisel had heard that. Mixed marriages were not approved of by
the better class French, but a small share of Indian blood was not
contemned. When it came to that, Louis Marsac was not a person to be
lightly treated. His father had much influence with the Indian tribes
and was a