"Dey goin' git marry."
On the priest's face came a look of pained surprise. He slowly said:
"Is dad possib', Madame Delphine?"
"Yass," she replied, at first without lifting her eyes; and then again,
"Yass," looking full upon him through her tears, "yaas, 'tis tru'."
He rose and walked once across the room, returned, and said, in the
Creole dialect:
"Is he a good man--without doubt?"
"De bez in God's world!" replied Madame Delphine, with a rapturous
smile.
"My poor, dear friend," said the priest, "I am afraid you are being
deceived by somebody."
There was the pride of an unswerving faith in the triumphant tone and
smile with which she replied, raising and slowly shaking her head:
"Ah-h, no-o-o, Miche! Ah-h, no, no! Not by Ursin Lemaitre-Vignevielle!"
Pere Jerome was confounded. He turned again, and, with his hands at his
back and his eyes cast down, slowly paced the floor.
"He _is_ a good man," he said, by and by, as if he thought aloud. At
length he halted before the woman "Madame Delphine"--
The distressed glance with which she had been following his steps was
lifted to his eyes.
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