“If that is so,” said the brigadier, “we can let him go.”
“Certainly,” replied the bishop, “you may retire.”
The gendarmes released Jean Valjean, who shrank back.
“My friend, before you go away here are the candlesticks; take them.”
Jean Valjean was trembling in every limb. He took the two candlesticks mechanically and with a wild appearance.
“Now go in peace. By the way, my friend, when you come again you need not come through the garden. You can always come in and go out by the front door. It is closed only with a latch, day or night. Forget not, never forget that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man.
“Jean Valjean, my brother, you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition and I give it to God!”—Arranged from “Les Miserables.”
A DESERT TRAGEDY
By Frank Norris
One day, a fortnight after McTeague’s flight from San Francisco, Marcus rode into Modoc, to find a group of men gathered about a notice affixed to the outside of the Wells-Fargo office. It was an offer of reward for the arrest and apprehension of a murderer. The crime had been committed in San Francisco, but the man wanted had been traced as far as the western portion of Inyo County, and was believed at that time to be in hiding in either the Pinto or Panamint hills in the vicinity of Keeler.