and mysterious mental ratiocination. She said: 'That woman is a
demoniac.' This epithet, applied to that austere and sentimental
creature, seemed to me irresistibly droll. I myself never called her
anything now but 'the demoniac,' experiencing a singular pleasure in
pronouncing aloud this word on perceiving her.

"One day I asked Mother Lecacheur: 'Well, what is our demoniac about
to-day?'

"To which my rustic friend replied with a shocked air:

"'What do you think, sir? She picked up a toad which had had its paw
crushed and carried it to her room and has put it in her washbasin and
bandaged it as if it were a man. If that is not profanation I should like
to know what is!'

"On another occasion, when walking along the shore she bought a large
fish which had just been caught, simply to throw it back into the sea
again. The sailor from whom she had bought it, although she paid him
handsomely, now began to swear, more exasperated, indeed, than if she had
put her hand into his pocket and taken his money. For more than a month
he could not speak of the circumstance without becoming furious and
denouncing it as an outrage. Oh, yes! She was indeed a demoniac, this
Miss Harriet, and Mother Lecacheur must have had an inspiration in thus
christening her.

"The stable boy, who was called Sapeur, because he had served in Africa
in his youth, entertained other opinions. He said with a roguish air:
'She is an old hag who has seen life.'