As she closed the door upon the Abbé and the magistrate, after opening the shutters, Mouret called her into the dining-room.
'That's right, Rose,' he cried, 'you had better give my dinner to your priest this evening, and if he hasn't got sufficient blankets of his own upstairs you can take mine off my bed.'
The cook exchanged a meaning glance with Marthe, who was working by the window, waiting till the sunshine should leave the terrace. Then, shrugging her shoulders, she said:
'Ah! sir, you have never had a charitable heart!'
She took herself off, while Marthe continued sewing without raising her head. For the last few days she had, with feverish energy, again applied herself to her needlework. She was embroidering an altar-frontal as a gift for the cathedral. The ladies were desirous of giving a complete set of altar furniture. Madame Rastoil and Madame Delangre had undertaken to present the candlesticks, and Madame de Condamin had ordered a magnificent silver crucifix from Paris.
Meantime, in the drawing-room, Abbé Faujas was gently remonstrating with Monsieur Maffre, telling him that Doctor Porquier was a religious man and a person of the highest integrity, and that no one could be more pained than he by his son's deplorable conduct. The magistrate listened with a sanctimonious air, and his heavy features and big prominent eyes assumed quite an ecstatic expression at certain pious remarks which the priest uttered in a very moving manner. He allowed that he had been rather too hasty, and declared that he was willing to make every apology as his reverence thought he had been in the wrong.
'You must send your own sons to me,' said the priest, 'and I will talk to them.'
Monsieur Maffre shook his head with a slight sneering laugh.
'Oh! you needn't be afraid about them, Monsieur le Curé. The young scamps won't play any more tricks. They have been locked up in their rooms for the last three days with nothing but bread and water. If I had had a stick in my hand when I found out what they had been doing, I should have broken it across their backs.'