"Why! I simply can't abandon him unless he should give it up himself. Besides, have you forgotten, Teresa, what it cost me to learn to sew? But in the end I did learn; didn't I?"
So Teresa was silenced. But once the Breton had conquered this first barrier to learning his progress was truly surprising. In the factory his "primer" was always with him. At lunch hours he would either study alone, or he'd persuade a fellow-worker more advanced than himself to help him with his lesson. Paula was astonished to see how quickly she could teach him a verse in the New Testament or a Waldensian hymn she had learned in the valley back home.
Nevertheless a week or two later she noticed that he seemed to be a bit distraught, and she feared he was getting weary of his task.
"What's the matter?" she finally asked him.
"Oh, nothing," and the Breton grinned rather sheepishly.
"Tell me, Breton, what's on your mind?"
He "guffawed" loudly as he replied. "You'd make fun of me sure, if I told you—and with good reason!"
"I never make fun of anybody," said Paula reproachfully.
"No, Mademoiselle, I ought to know that better than anybody else! Well, perhaps it might be well to tell you. If you must know it, it's this. There are many, I find, that wish they could be in my place tonight"
"In your place tonight! I'm afraid I don't understand," said Paula.