criminal's mind.

"Do you think," he said, as he ended his account, "that the sight of
his young sister would shake his determination?"

"Yes, I do," replied the rector. "Denise, you must go with us."

"And I, too," said the mother.

"No!" cried the father; "that child no longer exists for us, and you
know it. None of us shall see him."

"Do not oppose what may be for his salvation," said the young abbe.
"You will be responsible for his soul if you refuse us the means of
softening it. His death may possibly do more injury than his life has
done."

"She may go," said the father; "it shall be her punishment for
opposing all the discipline I ever wished to give her son."

The Abbe Gabriel and Monsieur Bonnet returned to the parsonage, where
Denise and her mother were requested to come in time to start for
Limoges with the two ecclesiastics.

As the younger man walked along the path which followed the outskirts
of upper Montegnac he was able to examine the village priest so warmly
commended by the vicar-general less superficially than he did in
church. He felt at once inclined in his favor, by the simple manners,
the voice full of magic power, and the words in harmony with the voice
of the village rector. The latter had only visited the bishop's palace