Kate Chopin

“ It fell to the ground as she twined her arm around his neck; and he understood.
“Stay close by her, Tranquiline,” said Azenor, when he had laid Lalie upon his own couch at home. “I’m goin’ for the doctor en’ for Père Antoine. Not because she is goin’ to die,” he added hastily, seeing the awe that crept into the woman’s face at the mention of the priest. “She is goin’ to live! Do you think I would let my wife die, Tranquiline?” ”

“ There must be one somewhere with the spirit of Christ. Père Antoine would tell him of such a one, and he would carry Lalie to her, - out of this atmosphere of death. He was in haste to be gone with her. He fancied every moment of delay was a fresh danger threatening her life. ”

“ Since then the child has never missed a Sunday. But she is half-starved, you can see that. You saw how shabby she is – how broken her shoes are? She is at Chartrand’s now, trading for new ones with those eggs she brought, poor thing! There is no doubt of her being ill-treated. Butrand says he thinks Madame Zidore even beats the child. I don’t know how true it is, for no power can make her utter a word against her grandmother.”
Azenor, whose face was a kind and sensitive one, had paled with distress as the priest spoke ”

“ She was slender, with a frailness that indicated lack of wholesome and plentiful nourishment. A pathetic, uneasy look was in her gray eyes, and even faintly stamped her features which were fine and delicate. ”

“ He saw only the young man at first, who rose at his approach.
“Well, Azenor,” he called cheerily in French, extending his hand. “How is this? I expected you all the week.”
“Yes, monsieur; but I knew well what you wanted with me, and I was finishing the doors for Gros-Léon’s new house;” saying which, he drew back, and indicated by a motion and look that some one was present who had a prior claim upon Père Antoine’s attention.
“Ah, Lalie!” the priest exclaimed, when he had mounted to the porch, and saw her there behind the vines. “Have you been waiting here since you confessed? ”

“ Azenor entered the kitchen, where an amiable old black woman was chopping onion and sage at a table.
“Tranquiline,” he said abruptly, “they’s a young girl goin’ to pass yere afta a w’ile. She’s got a blue dress an’ w’ite josie on, an’ a veil on her head. W’en you see her, I want you to go to the road an’ make her res’ there on the bench, an’ ask her if she don’t want a cup o’ coffee. I saw her go to communion, me; so she did n’t eat any breakfas’. Eve’ybody else f’om out o’ town, that went to communion, got invited some’ere another. It’s enough to make a person sick to see such meanness.” ”