Her voice indicated great stubbornness.
"Good, good, you have done your very duty, Madame," said Pere Beret, with immense approval in his charming voice.
"But, Father, you said awhile ago that I should have my own way about this," Alice spoke up with spirit; "and on the strength of that remark of yours I gave you the pie and wine.

You've eaten my pie and swigged the wine, and now--" Pere Beret put on his straw cap, adjusting it carefully over the shining dome out of which had come so many thoughts of wisdom, kindness and human sympathy.

This done, he gently laid a hand on Alice's bright crown of hair and said: "Bless you, my child.

I will pray to the Prince of Peace for you as long as I live, and I will never cease to beg the Holy Virgin to intercede for you and lead you to the Holy Church." He turned and went away; but when he was no farther than the gate, Alice called out: "O Father Beret, I forgot to show you something!" She ran forth to him and added in a low tone: "You know that Madame Roussillon has hidden all the novels from me." She was fumbling to get something out of the loose front of her dress.
"Well, just take a glance at this, will you ?" and she showed him a little leather bound volume, much cracked along the hinges of the back.
It was Manon Lescaut, that dreadful romance by the famous Abbe Prevost.
Pere Beret frowned and went his way shaking his head; but before he reached his little hut near the church he was laughing in spite of himself.
"She's not so bad, not so bad," he thought aloud, "it's only her young, independent spirit taking the bit for a wild run.

In her sweet soul she is as good as she is pure.".