, 1889-07-12

speed and cOniidencel The brow so near
his own had conceived and executed a
crimel Those hands, Joined upon the
confessional, were red with blood!-were
perhaps still soiled with it as it had run
from the veins of his victimI
And in the horror that assailed the
Able Faber as the penitent spoke there
was possibly a little terror, for he could
and no words In which to respond but
h conventional
of God is infinite"
well, listen to my story" said the
man, his voice vibrating and harsher
than ever In its hopeless sorrow.
"By trade ] am a mason, a layer of
brick and stone, and came to Paris at 90
years Of age with n friend and compan
ion OF my childhood and from my own
village. We lived together and learned
to read together ut the public schools.
He was called Philippe and was moro
than n brother to me, and / am called
jacques. He was also tall, handsome, n
good worker and carried his heart in his
hand l, on the contrary, was heavy,
dull, not even as good n mason rs Phi
lppe, yet SO proud of having such n friend,
SO glad to walk beside him in the boule-
wards and to have him clap me on the
back and all me his great stupid In
short, ! loved him, and though he left
me t~hree-quarters of the time TO go and
amuse himself with his comrades in the
cafes / still loved him.
at was natural Mt his age; he was
happy and liked pleasure; he was free,
with no cares TO worry him, and | was
not free-I was forced to be saving, forI
had an old and inflrm mother in my vii
lage homo who needed all | could give
her. 1t was for this | first began to take
my meals with a woman who lived in
the same house with me and made her
living by furnishing the ~pot-au-feu for
allthe masons.
philippe did not do this, but ate else
where, and / remained, perhaps for an
other reason-I loved the daughter of
the household, loved her madly. Poor
Catherine! and you will see presently,
M. 10 Cure, TO what all this is coming. l
lived there for three years without tell
ing her of my owe for her. l was too
poor, too Indifferent n worker, and
scarcely earned sufficient to care for my
self and my mother. When she left me
for heaven, for she was q good and pious
woman, / did better-I saved n little
money-enough, it seemed to me, to
start n household. I spoke to Catherine,
and Mt first she said neither yes nor no.
"Parbleul l was not attractive sec
it now, and it was not until her mother,
who liked ms well, talked on my side
that our marriage was finally agreed
upon. All, NJ. 10 Cure, l spent then
anrnn hopnv yraalya tIo,,rh 7 fa,u.l A..
Catherine had only accepted me and did
not love me. But she was a good girl,
with q good heart, and l meant to wait
j loved her SO much she would surely
love me.
"Of course, 1 had told Philippe, whom
l saw every day upon the s~caffolding-
we were then employed by the same pa
tron-told him, l say, everything. The
result, NJ. 10 Cure, you have doubtless
OWNED. Philippe was n handsome man,
gay, free handed. everything, in short,
that / was not, and nSon, without either
of them intending it Catherine was mad
about him. She was a good girl, as I've
told you, and she told me Of it rs soon
as she know it herself. All tho same, l
shall mover forget that moment.
"Ah, well, l loved them, loved them
both, NJ. 10 Cure, and believed 1t would
be for their happiness. Philippe had al
ways made n good salary, but had saved
nothing. l gave him my savings; he
purchased furniture, and they were mar
ried. Everything at first went well, and
there was one child, a boy, named Ca
mile, and l was the godfather; It was
after the birth of the child that things
began to go wrong. | had been mistaken
Philippe was not meant for marriage;
he loved pleasure and gay company too
much. You, who spend your life among
the poor, NJ. 10 Cure, know by heart this
sad history; in the beginning the worker
who little by little glides into idleness.
drunkenness and absences of two and
three days; then who reports only at the
end Of a week, makes a scene and ends
by beating his wife. In less than two
years Philippe had become one of these
u~nfortunates.
I'm the beginning l sought to stop him
to correct him; my remonstrances only
made him furious, separated us and
stripped the household for the furnishing
of the Monte de Piete all the faster. One
night he had the shamelessness to make
me a shameless proposal-of his own
"ASi WV bhAt pOoit pAio StitiltI LhS, as
honest as the Holy Virgin. There was a
scene between u.s. accusations and in
suits, heaped upon us both by this
drunken fool. l struck him, andre
nounced even seeing Catherine and my
godson. Philippe 1 only saw when we
CHANGED to meet (Which, as he worked
but little, was i~nfrequently) on the same
building.
Still | loved them all too well to lose
them from sight; yet | could only prowl
the quarter on Saturday nights when
Philippe had gone to drink up the wages
he had just received, and if there was too
much misery in the household, which i
learned by listening to the gossips, doing
what l could to relieve 1t. Philippe, the
shameless, discovered this, and, finding
that l would still come to the aid of his
wife and child, found it very agreeable.
ITO abridge-years passed thus, Phi
lippe ever sinking deeper and deeper into
vice, but Catherine, with my help, had
been able to bring I'm her son ns bravo