“My son, wilt thou not be patient?”
“But she—my Fanchon—and the child!”
“I knew thy Fanchon, and her father, when thou wast yet a child.”
“But they may die before we come, Monsieur.”
“These things are in God’s hands, Gustave.”
“You are not a father; you have never known what makes the world seem nothing.”
“I knew thy Fanchon’s father.”
“Is that the same?”
“There are those who save and those who die for others. Of thy love thou wouldst save—the woman hath lain in thine arms, the child is of this. But to thy Fanchon’s father I was merely a priest—we had not hunted together nor met often about the fire, and drew fast the curtains for the tales which bring men close. He took me safely on the out-trail, but on the home-trail he was cast away. Dost thou not think the love of him that stays as great as the love of him that goes?”
“Ah, thou wouldst go far to serve my wife and child!”