I put out the other leg, blushing all over with shame, and I wanted to take my petticoat.

But he came near directly and said:  “Oh, the lovely little lass, how pretty she is like this....  You will always be good, will you not?”

“Yes, uncle.”

“How pretty you are when you are good.  You will always be so?  You promise?”

“Yes, uncle.”

“Oh, I want to kiss you for that kind promise.”

—­I held out my cheek to him without resistance, but it was my mouth which received the kiss.  It was followed by a thousand others.  One is not of iron, Monsieur le Cure, and that was how ...  I ... lost my innocence.

—­What, Veronica, you fell so easily!  They say that it is only the first step which is painful, but it seems hardly to have been painful to you.

—­Oh, Monsieur le Cure, we women are full of faults, and we deserve only eternal damnation.

—­I do not say that, Veronica.  Certainly in this circumstance all the fault lies on your seducer, but I should have preferred more struggle on your part.

—­You men are very good with your struggle.  To hear you, we never make enough resistance.  Would one not say that the poor women are made of another paste than you, and that they ought to be harder?

—­No, but it is necessary to know how to govern one’s passions.  That is the noble, the lofty, the meritorious thing.  Resist temptation, everything lies in that.

[PLATE III:  THE LEG.  “Oh, the lovely little lass, how pretty she is like this...”]

[Illustration]

—­Everything lies in that, I know it well; but what would you?  I had lost my head entirely like Monsieur Braqueminet.  And I did not know what he wanted, or what he was going to do.  I only understood when it was too late.

—­Ah, Veronica, you singular woman, you have made me quite beside myself with your stories.

—­It was you who wished it.

—­The Abbe Fortin! the Abbe Braqueminet!  God of heaven! and who besides?

—­The Abbe Marcel!

—­Yes, it is true, I also ...  I have been on the point of transgressing.  Ah! temptation is sometimes very strong, Veronica, my good Veronica; the noble thing is to resist.

The greatest saints have succumbed.  St. Origen was obliged to employ a grand means, you know what, my daughter?

—­Monsieur Fortin has told me.  But you must not act like that saint; that would be a pity, it would be better to succumb, dear Monsieur Marcel.  How I like your name, Marcel, Marcel, it is so soft to the mouth.

—­To resist temptation like Jesus on the mountain....

—­There was but one Jesus.

—­Like St. Antony in the desert....

—­That is rubbish; in the desert no one could tempt him.

—­Leave the room, Veronica; since you have talked to me, I understand the fault of your former masters; leave the room.