"After we returned from—from our wedding tour—when did he begin again?"
"The—the night you came back," answered the maid, who was now almost lying on the floor.
Each word rung Jeanne's heart. He had actually left her for this girl the very night of their return to Les Peuples! That, then, was why he had let her sleep alone. She had heard enough now; she did not want to know anything more, and she cried to the girl:
"Go away! go away!"
As Rosalie, overcome by her emotion, did not move, she called to her father:
"Take her away! Carry her out of the room!"
But the curé, who had said nothing up to now, thought the time had come for a little discourse.
"You have behaved very wickedly," he said to Rosalie, "very wickedly indeed, and the good God will not easily forgive you. Think of the punishment which awaits you if you do not live a better life henceforth. Now you are young is the time to train yourself in good ways. No doubt Madame la baronne will do something for you, and we shall be able to find you a husband—"
He would have gone on like this for a long time had not the baron seized Rosalie by the shoulders, dragged her to the door and thrown her into the passage like a bundle of clothes.
When he came back, looking whiter even than his daughter, the curé began again: