I used to bathe in it every morning and
dry myself in the sun; and my body was like a child's. That being so,
should my own man turn his head away from me day or night? What had I
done to be used so, less than two years after I had married!"
She paused and hung her head, weeping gently. "Shame stings a woman like
nothing else," Madame Bulteel said with a sigh.
"It was so with me," continued Dennis's wife. "Then at last the thought
came that there was another woman. And all the time M. Marchand kept
coming and going, at first when Dennis was there, and always with some
good reason for coming--horses, cattle, shooting, or furs bought of the
Indians. When Dennis was not there, he came at first for an hour or two,
as if by chance, then for a whole day, because he said he knew I was
lonely. One day, I was sitting by the pool--it was in the evening.
I was crying because of the thought that followed me of another woman
somewhere, who made Dennis turn from me. Then it was M'sieu' came and
put a hand on my shoulder--he came so quietly that I did not hear him
till he touched me. He said he knew why I cried, and it saddened his
soul."
"His soul--the jackal!" growled the old man in his beard.
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