ded.'"

This astounding news positively stunned Maurice. He was actually unable
to think or to move.

"Besides, he has been in love with her for a long time. Everyone knows
that. One had only to see his eyes when he met her--coals of fire were
nothing to them. But while her father was so rich he did not dare to
speak. Now that the old man has met with these reverses, he ventures to
offer himself, and is accepted."

"An unfortunate thing for him," remarked a little old man.

"Why so?"

"If Monsieur Lacheneur is ruined, as they say----"

The others laughed heartily.

"Ruined--Monsieur Lacheneur!" they exclaimed in chorus. "How absurd!
He is richer than all of us together. Do you suppose that he has been
stupid enough not to have laid anything aside during all these years? He
has put this money not in grounds, as he pretends, but somewhere else."

"You are saying what is untrue!" interrupted Maurice, indignantly.
"Monsieur Lacheneur left Sairmeuse as poor as he entered it."

On recognizing M. d'Escorval's son, the peasants became extremely
cautious. He questioned them, but could obtain only vague and
unsatisfactory answers. A peasant, when interrogated, will never give
a response which he thinks will be displeasing to his questioner; he is
afraid of compromising himself.

The news he had heard, however, caused Maurice to hasten on still more
rapidly after crossing the Oiselle.

"Marie-Anne marry Chanlouineau!" he repeated; "it is impossible! it is
impossible!"

CHAPTER IX

The Reche, literally translated the "Waste," where Marie-Anne had
promised to meet Maurice, owed its name to the rebellious and sterile
character of the soil.

Nature seemed to have laid her curse upon it. Nothing would grow there.
The ground was covered with stones, and the sandy soil defied all
attempts to enrich it.

A few stunted oaks rose here and there above the thorns and broom-plant.

But on the lowlands of the Reche is a flourishing grove. The firs are
straight and strong, for the floods of winter have deposited in some
of the clefts of the rock sufficient soil to sustain them and the wild
clematis and honeysuckle that cling to their branches.

On reaching this grove, Maurice consulted his watch. It marked the hour
of mid-day. He had supposed that he was late, but he was more than an
hour in advance of the appointed time.

He seated himself upon a high rock, from which he could survey the
entire Reche, and waited.