Page:The Mystery of Madeline Le Blanc (1900).djvu/8

8 ing when he went to mass with the aged mother and the daughter, a sort of silent consternation seized the congregation,.as would come upon one at the sight of a friend whom one had considered long dead. "This is the last time we shall go to church," said the mother, on the way home; and while M. de Corbière lived with them they did not go again. Several times tradespeople with whom he came in contact asked him questions which he could not answer, and which had the ring of mystery, such as, "Is not this, indeed, the daughter of the famous doctor?" "Has she not the eyes of Satiani?" When he protested that he understood not whereof they spoke, they began to tell him what they meant, and why they asked.

The Madame seldom ventured from the house. She went to church once, for a walk another time, and twice or thrice to the cemetery across the way. Beyond these excursions, her steps did not venture farther than the end of the court; and if any one chanced to be passing, she turned her back. She belonged to a former generation; nearly always she talked