Poussette."

The Frenchman wiped the tumblers thoughtfully and gazed intently into
space. Perhaps he saw there the future small Poussettes playing out of
doors; perhaps too, he saw the faded, weary woman who bore his name,
still watching the sick man in the old manor house.

"You see, m'sieu," he said impressively, "if Mme. Poussette was to come
right, if she come again on me here, feex up things around the house,
be well and jolly, I would not send her away, I would not thry get this
divorce. Fonny things happens--but I don't know about my wife. Dr.
Renaud think she will always be the same. It is hard for me, Mr.
Ringfield, sir--me, jolly kind of man--have a wife go like silly person
all over the place, sing and walk by herself, make up songs, fonny
_chansons_. Ah, you don't know how I have hard tam with that one!
But, I'll wait till I see how she is in two, three weeks; the
doctor--he say Henry Clairville almost well now."

"And it is understood you will leave Miss Clairville alone--and Miss
Cordova. Remember, Poussette, you have engaged me to preach in your
church and to minister here in this parish. I must refuse to do either
if you offend against common decency and morality. Besides--Miss
Clairville will never, I am positive, listen to you. You must see as
well as I do, her pride in her family connexions, however worthless
these are to-day."

"_Bien_," said Poussette jauntily, "if not Mees Clairville, then Mees
Cordova. That is for why I wear her ring. I can persuade,
sir--bigosh, _excusez_ m'sieu, I can persuade!"

"So it seems," said the other drily, and would have continued his
lecture had not the two ladies, who had been in the hall laughing and
smiling around the bar door, now appeared boldly on the scene, and
Ringfield made his escape, not before he had promised to look in that
evening during an improvised concert at which Miss Sadie Cordova would
dance, and Miss Clairville act and sing.

CHAPTER XIII

A SICK SEIGNEUR

"He sits alone
On stormy waters in a little boat
That holds but him and can contain no more!"

Meanwhile the house of Clairville was undergoing drastic changes at the
hands of Mme. Poussette. The patient, propped up in his ancient and
tattered bed, was now strong enough to look at books; many hours he
passed in this way while madame roamed over the doleful house, setting
in order and cleaning as well as she could. Her strength, patience and
endurance were