A pang, half of guilt, half of fear, went keenly to his heart. It seemed to him that his mother was standing by his shoulder, pointing with her thin, tremulous fingers to the writing beneath him, and saying: "My boy, what does this mean?" [Pg 106] [Pg 106] He held it in the candle-flame, and thought he felt better when it was burned; but he could not burn all those thoughts of which the paper was only a copy. PART II. POSSESSION. If the cremery had seemed lonely by gaslight, what must Ralph Flare have said of it next morning, as he sat in his old place and watched the ouvriers at breakfast? They came in, one by one, with their baton of brown bread, and called for two sous' worth of coffee and milk. The men wore blouses of blue and white, and jested after the Gallic code with the sewing-girls. This bread and coffee, and a pear which they should eat at noon, would give them strength to labor till nightfall brought its frugal repast. Yet they were happy as crickets, and a great deal more noisy. Here is little Suzette, smiling and skipping, and driving her glances straight into Ralph Flare's heart. "Good-day, sir," she cries, and takes a chair close by him, after the manner of a sparrow alighting. She smooths back her pure wristbands, disclosing the grace of the arm, and as she laughs in Ralph's face he knows what she is saying to herself; it is more doubtful that he loves her than that she knows it. "Peut-être, monsieur, vous-avez besoin des gants?" She gave him the card of her boutique, and laughed like a sunbeam playing on a rivulet, and went out singing like the witch that she was. "I don't want gloves," said Ralph Flare; "I won't go to her shop." But he asked Père George the direction, notwithstanding; and though his conscience seemed to be[Pg 107] blocking up the way—a tangible, visible, provoking conscience—he put his feet upon it and shut his lips, and found the place. [Pg 107] Ralph Flare has often remarked since—for he is quite an artist now—that of all scenes in art or nature that boutique was to him the rarest. He has tried to
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