"Then the money is not yours?" said the lawyer.

"You are mistaken," she replied, looking at Monsieur Bonnet as if to
know whether God would be angry at the lie.

The rector kept his eyes lowered.

"Well, then," said the lawyer, taking one note of five hundred francs
and offering the other to the rector, "I will share it with the poor.
Now, Denise, change this one, which is really mine," he went on,
giving her the note, "for your velvet ribbon and your gold cross. I
will hang the cross above my mantel to remind me of the best and
purest young girl's heart I have ever known in my whole experience as
a lawyer."

"I will give it to you without selling it," cried Denise, taking off
her _jeannette_ and offering it to him.

"Monsieur," said the rector, "I accept the five hundred francs to pay
for the exhumation of the poor lad's body and its transportation to
Montegnac. God has no doubt pardoned him, and Jean will rise with my
flock on that last day when the righteous and the repentant will be
called together to the right hand of the Father."

"So be it," replied the lawyer.

He took Denise by the hand and drew her toward him to kiss her
forehead; but the action had another motive.

"My child," he whispered, "no one in Montegnac has five-hundred-franc