"Babette," replied Pierre, sternly; "you have no right to say, 'I pray I may never see him again.'" "My dear brother, for mercy's sake! for pity's sake!" cried Babette, weeping piteously, "do not force me to marry a man whom you have yourself called a villain and a coward." "Babette, think of your dishonored name!" "I prefer to blush a moment for my misplaced love rather than to blush for my husband all my life." "Babette, think of your fatherless child!" "It would be far better for him, I think, to be without a father who would detest him, than to lose his mother who will adore him; and his mother, if she marries that man, will surely die of shame and chagrin." "So, Babette, you turn a deaf ear to all my remonstrances and entreaties?" "I implore your affection and your pity, my brother." "Very well, then," said Pierre, "my affection and my pity will reply to your words, sorrowfully but firmly. As it is necessary above all things, Babette, that you should possess the esteem of others and retain your good name, and as I prefer your unhappiness to your dishonor, since being dishonored your unhappiness will be twofold,--I, your elder brother, the head of your family, wish you to understand that you should marry, if he agrees, the man who betrayed you, and who alone has the power to-day to give you back the honor he has stolen. The law and our religion endow me with an authority over you, which I forewarn you I must use in case of need, to compel you to take a step which, to my mind, is required by your duty toward God, your family, your unborn child, and yourself." "You condemn me to death, brother," replied Babette, in an altered voice. "It is well; and I bow to your will, since it is my fate and my punishment, and not a soul intercedes for me." As she spoke, she looked at Gabriel and Jean Peuquoy, who were both silent,--the latter because he was suffering keenly, the other because he wished to see what course events would take. But at Babette's direct appeal, Jean could no longer restrain himself; and addressing his words to her, but turning to Pierre, he rejoined with a bitter irony, which was hardly in accord with his character,--