wine and dab a red splotch on the infant's forehead:
'May he love the good fruits of the earth/ he ex-
claimed, 'and the juice that comes from the fruits of
the earth; these are surely the things that all men
should love, and not the netting of cold little fishes
and the hammering of wood to make chairs and tables/
'Sant Jan Pami de Dieu/ muttered Madame
Roustan, 'what is this he has done? It cannot be
Christian. . . .'
Marie said quietly: 'You are drunk, Eusebe/ and
she wiped the red mark away with her hand, but her
peaceful brown face had turned very pale, for she
was a peasant and superstitious.
It was true that Eusebe was exceedingly drunk on
this, as on many a previous occasion; that his heathen-
ish ways and intemperate habits had caused a great
scandal throughout the parish. It was also true that
he cared not a jot, so callous was he towards God and
his neighbour. He looked old and yet nobody quite
knew his age, for the south which brings early
maturity will occasionally bring an early decline,
and thus it is unwise to judge by appearance. Eusebe's
tanned face was^ a network of lines, and the eyes in
that face did not match any more, which gave him a
disconcerting expression — he was blind of an eye and
that eye was blue-white, while its fellow had remained
of a most fiery blackness. A small man, he was often
still further dwarfed by wearing an unusually long
leather apron. His habits were not only eccentric
but uncleanly; in the summer he might sometimes
go down to bathe, for the rest he appeared to wash
very little. Just now his hands were heavily stained
by hides, boot polish and cobbler's wax — he had not
even troubled to cleanse his hands; it was all of a
piece with his general disorder. But then neither
had he troubled to cleanse his feet, which showed
scarred and neglected in his dusty sandals,
23