Amen." Her whole nature had been emptied out, and there came upon her a calm, a strange clearness of brain, exhausted in body as she was.

For an instant she stood thinking.
"Madame Degardy! Madame Degardy!" she cried, with sudden inspiration.
"Ah, I will find her; she may save him with her herbs!" She hurried out of the house and down through the village to the little hut by the river, where the old woman lived.
Elise had been to Madame Degardy as good a friend as a half-mad creature, with no memory, would permit her.

Parpon had lived for years in the same village, but, though he was her own son, she had never given him a look of recognition, had used him as she used all others.

In turn, the dwarf had never told any one but Valmond of the relationship; and so the two lived their strange lives in their own singular way.

But the Cure knew who it was that kept the old woman's house supplied with wood and other necessaries.