"I do not see what pleasure my company can give you, Monsieur," she
said curtly, "I am only a poor marketwoman!"
"But you have been singularly favoured by the protection and
confidence of a great Cardinal,--" began Cazeau.
"Protection--confidence--!" echoed Martine snappishly, "Nom de
Jesus! What is the man talking about! I never set eyes on the
Cardinal in my life. But that he cured my Fabien is enough to make
me think of him as a saint for ever,--though it seems there are some
that would almost make him out to be a devil for having done a good
deed! And ever since my boy was cured I have lived a life of torture
and trouble--yes, truly!--torn between two things, our Blessed Lord
and the Church! But I am trying my best to keep fast hold of our
Lord, whatever the Church may do to me!"
"Dear me!" said Cazeau blandly, turning with a smile and
propitiatory air to Patoux who sat silently smoking, "Madame Doucet
seems a little--what shall we say?--unduly excited? Yet surely the
recovery of her child should fill her with thanksgiving and make her
a faithful and devout servant--" "Pardon, Monsieur," interrupted
Madame Patoux, "Believe me, Martine is thankful enough, and devout
enough,--but truly it has been very hard for her to suffer the
things that have been said to her of late,--how that the child could
never have been really crippled at all, but simply shamming,--how
that it was all a trick got up between herself and the priests for
the purpose of bringing visitors and their money to Rouen,--for of
course since the miracle was noised abroad there have been many
pilgrimages to Notre Dame, it having got about that there was some
mysterious spirit or angel in one of the shrines,--for look you, our
Archbishop, when he came to visit the Cardinal here in this very
hotel, distinctly remembers that His Eminence assured him he had
heard strange music in the Cathedral, when truly there was no organ
unlocked, and no organist on duty,--and then there was something
about the boy that His Eminence found lost that night .
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