, how could I be
anything or do anything in such a _milieu_! You taunt me, you--who
profess to have known nothing of the Archambault affair all these
years!"

"I give you the word of honour, mademoiselle, I swear it to you--I knew
nothing! Recollect--your brother never would admit a doctor, you were
strong and healthy and much away from Clairville; of the child I only
heard from those at Hawthorne and I did not connect what I did hear
with either you or the seigneur, as he liked to call himself. These
afflicted ones, these peculiar ones--Mme. Poussette kept the secret
well. But two days ago he sent for me and told me everything; how he
was properly married in the parish of Sault au Recollet to Artemise
Archambault, she, the half-witted, the empty-headed--God knows whether
that was the charm or what--and of the birth of the child, he told me.
What could you expect from the union of two such natures? If you
marry, mademoiselle, mate neither with a bad temper nor an unbridled
thirst."

"Ah, be quiet, Dr. Renaud! You are the blunt well-wisher, I suppose, a
type I detest! How can I help myself! I have chosen, and you know the
Clairville character."

"Yes, I know, but count before you jump--'tis safer. Jesting aside,
ma'amselle, and although I come from a death-bed I jest with a light
heart as one who sees on the whole enough of life and never too much of
death--you are still too young and too brilliant a woman to marry
anything but well. But I have said, I have finished."

"And not too soon"--was Miss Clairville's inward thought, as with new
fears pricking at her heart she kept silence, so unusual a thing with
her that the garrulous Renaud observed it and endeavoured to correct
his pessimism.

"Enough of Life and not too much of Death," he repeated, gaily
flourishing his whip. "It has a queer sound, that, eh? But it is like
this, ma'amselle; when I bring to life, when I usher into this world, I
see the solemnity and the importance of life in front of me and I am
sad; it makes me afraid. When I assist at the grave I am calm and
happy, light-hearted even, because there our responsibility for one
another ceases, so long as we keep the Masses going."

"The Masses! For their souls you mean, for his soul? How then--do you
believe that, Dr. Renaud?"

"Eh? Believe--mademoiselle? Come, you take me at a disadvantage. Am
I not a good Catholic then? Pardon me, but I never discuss these
questions. Without th