The Devils Pool | Page 7

her memory
and still sorrow for her loss. But if she could speak to you from the
other world, and let you know what she wishes, she would tell you to
find a mother for her little orphans. So the question is to find a woman
who will be worthy to take her place. It will not be easy, but it is not
impossible. And when we shall find her for you, you will love her as
you used to love my daughter, because you are a good man, and
because you will be thankful to her for helping us and for loving your
children."
"Very well, Father Maurice, I shall do as you wish, as I have always
done."
"It is only justice, my son, to say that you have always listened to the
friendly advice and good judgment of the head of the house. So let us
consult about your choice of a new wife. First, I don't advise you to
take a young girl. That is not what you need. Youth is careless, and, as
it is hard work to bring up three children, especially when they are of
another bed, you must have a good soul, wise and gentle, and well used
to work. If your wife is not about the same age as you, she will have no
reason to accept such a duty. She will find you too old and your
children too young. She will be complaining, and your children will
suffer."

"This is just what makes me uneasy. Suppose the poor little things
should be badly treated, hated, beaten?"
"God grant not," answered the old man. "But bad women are more rare
with us than good, and we shall be stupid if we cannot pick out
somebody who will suit us."
"That is true, father. There are good girls in our village. There is Louise,
Sylvaine, Claudie, Marguerite--yes, anybody you want."
"Gently, gently, my boy. All these girls are too young, or too poof, or
too pretty; for surely we must think of that top, my son. A pretty
woman is not always as well behaved as another!"
"Then you wish me to take an ugly wife?" said Germain, a little uneasy.
"No, not ugly at all, for this woman will bear you other children, and
there is nothing more miserable than to have children who are ugly and
weak and sickly. But a woman still fresh and in good health, who is
neither pretty nor ugly, would suit you exactly."
"I am quite sure," said Germain, smiling rather sadly, "that to get such a
woman as you wish, you must have her made to order. All the more
because you don't wish her to be poor, and the rich are not easy to get,
particularly for a widower."
"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."

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