When he came out, and flung the burning
fragment from him, his face was flushed deeply, his eyes
sparkled. He leaped carelessly on to the heath, over the bushes
through which he had threaded his way so warily but a few minutes
before, exclaiming, "I may marry Perrine with a clear conscience
now; I am the son of as honest a man as there is in Brittany!"
He had closely examined the cavity in every corner, and not the
slightest sign that any dead body had ever been laid there was
visible in the hollow place under the Merchant's Table.
CHAPTER III.
"I may marry Perrine with a clear conscience now!"
There are some parts of the world where it would be drawing no
natural picture of human nature to represent a son as believing
conscientiously that an offense against life and the laws of
hospitality, secretly committed by his father, rendered him,
though innocent of all participation in it, unworthy to fulfill
his engagement with his affianced wife. Among the simple
inhabitants of Gabriel's province, however, such acuteness of
conscientious sensibility as this was no extraordinary exception
to all general rules. Ignorant and superstitious as they might
be, the people of Brittany practiced the duties of hospitality as
devoutly as they practiced the duties of the national religion.
The presence of the stranger-guest, rich or poor, was a sacred
presence at their hearths.
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