I wanted to go to the Manor Cartier for something
else as well, but I will speak of that by and by. It is the letter now."
She pulled off first one glove and then the other, still holding the
letter, as though she was about to perform some ceremony. "It was a good
thing I found out that M'sieu' Jean Jacques was here. It saves a
four-mile drive," she remarked.
"The news--ah, nom de Dieu, the slowness of the woman--like a river going
uphill!" exclaimed Jean Jacques, who was finding it hard to still the
trembling of his limbs.
The widow of Palass Poucette flushed, but she had some sense in her head,
and she realized that Jean Jacques was a little unbalanced at the moment.
Indeed, Jean Jacques was not so old that she would have found it
difficult to take a well-defined and warm interest in him, were
circumstances propitious. She held out the letter to him at once. "It is
from my sister in the West--at Shilah," she explained. "There is nothing
in it you can't read, and most of it concerns you." Jean Jacques took the
letter, but he could not bring himself to read it, for Virginie
Poucette's manner was not suggestive of happy tidings. After an instant's
hesitation he handed the letter to M. Fille, who pressed his lips with an
air of determination, and put on his glasses.
Jean Jacques saw the face of the Clerk of the Court flush and then turn
pale as he read the letter.
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