This man's trouble, this man's peace, if she might but win it, was the purpose of her life.
"Tardif said that--he said that you--that you and Fournel--" She read his meaning in his tone, and shrank back in terror, then with a flush, straightened herself, and took a step towards him.
"It was natural that you should not care for a hunchback like me," he continued, "but--" "Louis!" she cried, in a voice of anguish and reproach.
"But I did not doubt you.

I believed in you when he said it, as I believe in you now when you stand there like that.

I know what you have done for me--" "I pleaded with Monsieur Fournel, knowing how you loved the Seigneury--pleaded and offered to pay three times the price--" "Yourself would have been a hundred million times the price.

Ah, I know you, Madelinette--I know you now! I have been selfish, but I see all now.

Now when all is over--" he seemed listening to noises with out--"I see what you have done for me.