“And suppose she were a widow herself, Germain? A widow without children and with a good portion?” “For the moment, I cannot think of anybody like this in our parish.” “Nor I either. But there are others elsewhere.” “You have somebody in mind, father. Then tell me, at once, who it is.” [Illustration: (Ornament)] III Germain, the Skilled Husbandman “Yes, I have somebody in mind,” replied Father Maurice. “It is a Leonard, the widow of a Guérin. She lives at Fourche.” “I know neither the woman nor the place,” answered Germain, resigned, but growing more and more melancholy. “Her name is Catherine, like your dead wife’s.” “Catherine? Yes, I shall be glad to have to pronounce that name, Catherine; and yet if I cannot love one as much as the other, it will pain me all the more. It will bring her to my mind more often.” “I tell you, you will love her. She is a good soul, a woman with a warm heart. I have not seen her for a long time. She was not an ugly girl then. But she is no longer young. She is thirty-two. She comes of a good family, honest people all of them, and for property she has eight or ten thousand francs in land which she would sell gladly in order to invest in the place where she settles. For she, too, is thinking of marrying again, and I know that if your character pleases her, she will not be dissatisfied with your situation.” “So you have made all the arrangements?” “Yes, except that I have not had an opinion from either of you, and that is what you must ask each other when you meet. The woman’s father is a distant connection of mine, and he has been a good friend to me. You know Father Leonard well?” “Yes, I have seen you two talking at the market, and at the last you lunched together. Then it was about her that he spoke to you so long?” “Certainly. He watched you selling your cattle and saw that you drove a shrewd bargain, and that you were a good-looking fellow and appeared active and intelligent; and when I told him what a good fellow you were and how well you have behaved toward us, without one word of vexation or anger during the eight years we have been living and working together, he took it into his head to marry you to his daughter. This suits me, too, I admit, when I think of her good reputation and the honesty of her family and the prosperous condition I know her affairs are in.” “I see, Father Maurice, that you have an eye to money.” “Of course I do; you have, too, have you not?”