faithful. Her eyes were the eyes of the beasts of the
field who eat, sleep, and beget their kind without
question. But unlike these, Marie would seldom rest;
for ever finding some new task to do she must busy
herself with perpetual housework. And wiry she was
and uncommonly strong when it came to the moving
of chests and cupboards, so that Jouse would laugh
and would say to tease her: 'You will surely be able to
carry my coffin!3 Then Marie would sign herself
with the cross — it was always foolhardy to jest about
Death, one could never be certain that jests would not
bring him.
For five years these two had been man and wife,
but Marie had often felt heavy in spirit, oppressed by
the thought of her empty womb. For five years she
had earnestly prayed to Saint Loup who was known to
be sympathetic to women. And at last that kind
Patron had answered her prayers, giving her not only
a child but a son wherewith to rejoice the heart of her
husband. So now here they stood arm in arm near
the font, both deeply moved by their simple faith
in the goodness of God and his Golden Saints; and
deeply moved to behold their own flesh and blood in
so small yet so perfect a being. Indeed Marie's patient
brown eyes overflowed, and Jouse must lend her his
big bandana, himself scarcely able to keep from
^weeping.
The ancient ritual drew to its close, and Christophe
was anointed as a king before God, as a priest, and
finally as a prophet. As a king with dominion over
his passions, as a priest who must offer himself to the
Lord as a living sacrifice of sweet odour, as a prophet
who must proclaim through his life the rewards that
await the righteous in heaven. Then the Cure handed
a lighted candle to Goundran who held it with scrupu-
lous care — for Christophers pink fists were as yet too
weak to grasp this symbolic light of his faith, so that
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