She sang only the old chansons and the songs of the voyageurs, with a far greater sweetness and richness, however, than any in the parish; and the Cure could detect her among all others at mass.

She had been taught her notes, but that had only opened up possibilities, and fretted her till she was unhappy.

What she felt she could not put into her singing, for the machinery, unknown and tyrannical, was not hers.

Twice before she had heard Parpon sing--at mass when the miller's wife was buried, and he, forgetting the world, had poured forth all his beautiful voice; and on that notable night before the Louis Quinze.

If he would but teach her those songs of his, give her that sound of an organ in her throat! Parpon guessed what she thought.