She could not be mistaken; a small white rose
nearly hid the ribbon of the Legion. Would he recognize his unknown
mistress muffled in an old bonnet with a double veil? Modeste was so
in fear of love's clairvoyance that she began to stoop in her walk
like an old woman.
"Wife," said little Latournelle as they took their seats, "that
gentleman does not belong to Havre."
"So many strangers come here," answered his wife.
"But," said the notary, "strangers never come to look at a church like
ours, which is less than two centuries old."
Ernest remained in the porch throughout the service without seeing any
woman who realized his hopes. Modeste, on her part, could not control
the trembling of her limbs until Mass was nearly over. She was in the
grasp of a joy that none but she herself could depict. At last she
heard the foot-fall of a gentleman on the pavement of the aisle. The
service over, La Briere was making a circuit of the church, where no
one now remained but the punctiliously pious, whom he proceeded to
subject to a shrewd and keen analysis. Ernest noticed that a
prayer-book shook violently in the hands of a veiled woman as he passed
her; as she alone kept her face hidden his suspicions were aroused, and
then confirmed by Modeste's dress, which the lover's eye now scanned
and noted.
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