disposing of the whole in her drawer beneath several
clean layers of new tissue paper. And that evening
when Marie went up to her bedroom in order to
look for a spool of cotton, what must she find but le
tout petit Loup with his mischievous fingers among the
paper. And while she observed him, herself unob-
served, what must she see but le tout petit Loup
removing the paper, then stroking the clothes very
much as though he were stroking a cat, making small
guttural sounds the while in his throat, sounds that
seemed less suggestive of asthma than pleasure.
'Who told you to open that drawer?3 she demanded.
Did he jump? Not he! All he did was to turn with
a smile so seraphic that it quite disarmed her: clt
was that I wanted to touch the suit in which Ghris-
tophe will visit our Lord,' he said sweetly, cAi! las,
that I may not visit our Lord! Maman, will you not
speak with Monsieur le Cure?5
Marie shook her head: cNo, I cannot, my son —
he alone is the person to judge of your fitness.5
But that night as she lay at her husband's side, she
expressed a grave doubt of the Cure's wisdom: 'I
think he is very unwise,' she declared, cnot to let
Loup receive Communion this year merely because
the child fidgets in class. Imagine! this evening he
was stroking that new suit because it was going to be
worn for our Lord — was that not touching of le tout
petit Loup?'
'Maybe — but now I would sleep,' grunted Jouse.
And indeed it did appear that le tout petit Loup
had suddenly grown amazingly religious; he was
constantly fingering his holy medals, or telling his
beads by himself in a corner, or getting up on week
days to go to Mass, or kneeling — apparently lost in
prayer — at the foot of his Patron's shrine after vespers.
'So long as you do not make yourself ill . * . that
is all I ask of our Lord/ fretted Marie.
o 209