I give you my word as a man of honor to do nothing against the life of that cursed child, provided he lives among the rocks between the sea and the house, and never crosses my path.

I will give him that fisherman's house down there for his dwelling, and the beach for a domain.

But woe betide him if I ever find him beyond those limits." The countess began to weep.
"Look at him!" she said.

"He is your son." "Madame!" At that word, the frightened mother carried away the child whose heart was beating like that of a bird caught in its nest.

Whether innocence has a power which the hardest men cannot escape, or whether the count regretted his violence and feared to plunge into despair a creature so necessary to his pleasures and also to his worldly prosperity, it is certain that his voice was as soft as it was possible to make it when his wife returned.
"Jeanne, my dear," he said, "do not be angry with me; give me your hand.
One never knows how to trust you women.