Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/94

70 prison, for thou'rt a minor, although marriageable, and as precocious as a gutter cat. Let us see! It is no doubt one of the Roselanders; some drunken swineherd, who must have taken thee for his favourite sow. Don't hope to save him, for the magistrates will soon wring a confession out of him, or his own comrades will sell him in the end."

This time she replied with courage and not without pity:

"No, 'twas none of the Roselanders. It was a poor man, a passer-by more miserable than any of them. I had never seen him before and he does not even belong to these parts. He was sad, it seemed to me; one of those to whom we are glad to give alms. I would not have refused him aught, but I did not even know till these last days what I had granted him."

"Thou two-faced hypocrite, thou liest!"

The fury rained more blows on the unfortunate, ordering her at each blow to speak; then, as Blandine persisted in her refusal, she fell upon her with fists and feet. To support her courage under this treatment Blandine with a smile on her lips recalled to her mind the tall youth with the bronze complexion and the sad, beseeching eyes.