The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume 2 (of 8) eBook
Guy de Maupassant
One day, when a neighbor’s boy came for some
eggs, and she spoke very crossly to him, as she was
very busy, her husband suddenly came in, and said
to her in his unpleasant voice: “If that
were your own child you would not treat him so.”
She was hurt, and did not reply, and then she went
back into the house, with all her grief awakened afresh,
and at dinner, the farmer neither spoke to her, nor
looked at her, and he seemed to hate her, to despise
her, to know something about the affair at last.
In consequence, she lost her head, and did not venture
to remain alone with him after the meal was over,
but she left the room and hastened to the church.
It was getting dusk; the narrow nave was in total
darkness, but she heard footsteps in the choir, for
the sacristan was preparing the tabernacle lamp for
the night. That spot of trembling light, which
was lost in the darkness of the arches, looked to
Rose like her last hope, and with her eyes fixed on
it, she fell on her knees. The chain rattled
as the little lamp swung up into the air, and almost
immediately the small bell rang out the Angelus
through the increasing mist. She went up to him,
as he was going out.
“Is Monsieur le Cure at home?” she asked.
“Of course he is; this is his dinner-time.”
She trembled as she rang the bell of the parsonage.
The priest was just sitting down to dinner, and he
made her sit down also. “Yes, yes, I know
all about it; your husband has mentioned the matter
to me that brings you here.” The poor woman
nearly fainted, and the priest continued: “What
do you want, my child?” And he hastily swallowed
several spoonfuls of soup, some of which dropped onto
his greasy cassock. But Rose did not venture
to say anything more, and she got up to go, but the
priest said: “Courage....”
And she went out, and returned to the farm, without
knowing what she was doing. The farmer was waiting
for her, as the laborers had gone away during her
absence, and she fell heavily at his feet, and shedding
a flood of tears, she said to him: “What
have you got against me?”
He began to shout and to swear: “What have
I got against you? That I have no children by
——! When a man takes a wife, he
does not want to be left alone with her until the
end of his days. That is what I have against
you. When a cow has no calves, she is not worth
anything, and when a woman has no children, she is
also not worth anything.”
She began to cry, and said: “It is not
my fault! It is not my fault!” He grew
rather more gentle when he heard that, and added:
“I do not say that it is, but it is very annoying,
all the same.”
