His amende was instant.
"I take it back with humble apology--all I can hold in both hands,
m'sieu'," he said at once. "I would not insult you so, much less Madame
Barbille. If she'd been like what I've hinted at, I wouldn't have gone
her way, for the promiscuous is not for me. I'll tell you the whole
truth of what happened to-day this morning. Last night I met her at the
river, and--"Then briefly he told all that had happened to the moment
when Jean Jacques had left him at the flume with the words, "Moi, je suis
philosophe!" And at the last he said:
"I give you my word--my oath on this"--he laid his hand on the Testament
on the table--"that beyond what you saw, and what Jean Jacques saw, there
has been nothing." He held up a hand as though taking an oath.
"Name of God, is it not enough what there has been?" whispered the
little Clerk.
"Oh, as you think, and as you say! It is quite enough for me after to-
day. I'm a teetotaller, but I'm not so fond of water as to want to take
my eternal bath in it." He shuddered slightly. "Bien sur, I've had my
fill of the Manor Cartier for one day, my Clerk of the Court."
"Bien sur, it was enough to set you thinking, monsieur," was the dry
comment of M.
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