GERMINAL
"Come on Sunday to Mass," cried the priest. "God will provide for everything."
And he went off to catechise the Levaques in their turn, so carried away by his dream of the final triumph of the Church, and so contemptuous of facts, that he would thus go through the settlements without charities, with empty hands amid this army dying of hunger, being a poor devil himself who looked upon suffering as the spur to salvation.
Maheu went on walking, and nothing was heard but his regular tramp which made the floor tremble. There was the sound of a rust-eaten pulley, old Bonnemort was sqitting into the cold grate. Then the rhythm of the feet began again. Alzire, weakened by fever, was rambling in a low voice, laughing, thinking that it was warm and that she was playing in the sun.
"Good gracious!" muttered Maheude, after having touched her cheeks, "how she burns! I don't expect that damned beast now, the brigands must have stopped him from coming."
She meant the doctor and the Company. She uttered a joyous exclamation, however, when the door once more opened. But her arms fell back and she remained standing still with gloomy face.
"Good evening," whispered Étienne, when he had carefully closed the door.
He often came thus at night-time. The Maheus learnt his retreat after the second day. But they kept the secret and no one in the settlement knew exactly what had become of the young man. A legend had grown up around him. People still believed in him and mysterious rumours circulated; he would re-appear with an army and chests full of gold; and there was always the religious expectation of a miracle, the realised ideal, a sudden entry into that city of justice which he had promised them. Some said they had seen him lying back in a carriage, with three other gentlemen, in the Marchiennes road; others affirmed that he had spent two days in England. At length, however, suspicions began to arise and jokers accused him of hiding in a cellar, where Mouquette kept him warm, for this relationship, when known, had done him harm. There was a slow disaffection in the midst of his popularity, a gradual increase of the despairing among the faithful, and their number was certain, little by little, to grow.
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