ur-Mer, and since
they are poor they could not afford, even if they had the money, to
make an investment that would bring no return. But something
else--h'm! Truly, mademoiselle, I do not know--there is certainly no
other place to board."

"Well, a little furnished cottage then," she suggested. "I have my own
maid, and, if there were some one else to help a little, nothing would
suit us better. Now, Monsieur le Cure, you are not going to be so
heartless as to tell me there are no cottages either!"

For a moment Father Anton did not answer--then his face broke suddenly
into smiles.

"But, no, mademoiselle," he declared quickly, nodding his head
delightedly at Jean, "I shall tell you nothing of the sort. One might
say it was almost providential. Nothing could be better! And the
finest cottage in Bernay-sur-Mer, too! Mademoiselle and her father
will be charmed with it--and all day I have been worrying about what to
do with Marie-Louise. Would it not be just the thing, Jean?"

"_Ma foi_!" gasped Jean in surprise, staring from one to the other.
"The house on the bluff?"

"And what else?" said Father Anton enthusiastically. "Listen,
mademoiselle; I will explain to you. It is the house out there on the
headland, where Gaston Bernier lived with his niece, Marie-Louise.
Three days ago in the great storm _le pauvre_ Gaston was hurt, and that
night he died. Marie-Louise can no longer live there alone--it is not
right for a young girl. I thought to bring her here to live with me
and my old housekeeper; but now she can rent the house to you, and can
help with the work for she is a very good cook."

"Father Anton, you are a treasure!" cried Myrna Bliss vivaciously. "We
will take the house. And the rent? Would, say, two hundred francs a
month be right?"

"Two hundred francs?" repeated Father Anton incredulously, his eyes
widening.

"Yes; and another hundred for Marie-Louise."

Three hundred francs! It was not a large sum of money--it was a
fortune! Father Anton, in his years of ministry at Bernay-sur-Mer,
could not remember ever having seen a sum like that all at one time;
also, it was out of all proportion to what he would have thought
Marie-Louise should demand. The good cure's face was a picture with
its mingled emotions--he was torn between a desire that this good
fortune should come to Marie-Louise, and a fear in his honest heart
that he should be privy to the crime of extortion!

Myrna Bliss laug