adventure he came to see me, as he did not know what to do. I did not
hide my opinion from him, but said to him: "You are no better than a
pig. No decent man behaves like that."

He cried. His wife had given him a beating, and he foresaw his trade
ruined, his name dragged through the mire and dishonored, his friends
outraged and taking no more notice of him. In the end he excited my
pity, and I sent for my colleague Rivet, a bantering, but very sensible
little man, to give us his advice.

He advised me to see the Public Prosecutor, who was a friend of mine,
and so I sent Morin home, and went to call on the magistrate. He told me
that the young woman who had been insulted was a young lady,
Mademoiselle Henriette Bonnel, who had just received her certificate as
governess in Paris, and spent her holidays with her uncle and aunt, who
were very respectable tradespeople in Mauzé, and what made Morin's case
all the more serious was, that the uncle had lodged a complaint; for the
public official had consented to let the matter drop if this complaint
were withdrawn, so we must try and get him to do this.

I went back to Morin's and found him in bed, ill with excitement and
distress. His wife, a tall raw-boned woman with a beard, was abusing him
continually, and she showed me into the room, shouting at me: "So you
have come to see that pig of a Morin. Well, there he is, the darling!"
And she planted herself in front of the bed, with her hands on her hips.
I told him how matters stood, and he begged me to go and see her uncle
and aunt. It was a delicate mission, but I undertook it, and the poor
devil never ceased repeating: "I assure you I did not even kiss her, no,
not even that. I will take my oath to it!"