ship, and the knowledge that so many now wished
him ill was making his heart grow increasingly
troubled. Indeed he became very deeply depressed,
falling into a kind of grim melancholy.
Yet two friends he had who never for a moment
mistrusted his honesty and his honour — Marie and
Jouse remained quite unmoved in their faith. When
questioned regarding the scandal Marie said always
much the same tiling: 'Goundran is the godfather
of our Christophe; we choose him because he is up-
right and good; one has only to see him to know that
he is good.5 Then Jouse would nod his large head
many times: 'Mais oui, long ago we discovered his
goodness.' But alone with his wife he would be less
restrained, for Jouse was bitterly angry with his
sister and could scarcely tolerate her in his house,
averse though he was to family ruptures. 'Do I not
know the woman?5 he would rage, *C£spi, I do. All
my life I have known her. If Goundran is Christophers
father-in-god then Germaine is surely his mother-in-
the-devil. A vicious-tongued, lustful old hypocrite
with her weekly confessions and her Comtesse de
Berac and her: "my son is going to enter the priesthood;
my son is going to the Grand Seminaire at Versailles."
Her son, well, I pity a boy who has such a mother
as Gerrnaine. Quelle putain!5
And although Marie greatly disliked gross words, she
nevertheless forbore to reprove him.
§2
At last Goundran managed to muster the courage
to go off and seek out Elise one morning: CI pray you,
leave us;5 he said to the neighbour, who now viewed
him with marked hostility, having recently visited
Madame Roustan.
clf you need me you have but to call, pauvre
169