His safety was their especial charge,
his property their especial responsibility. They might be half
starved, but they were ready to share the last crust with him,
nevertheless, as they would share it with their own children.
Any outrage on the virtue of hospitality, thus born and bred in
the people, was viewed by them with universal disgust, and
punished with universal execration. This ignominy was uppermost
in Gabriel's thoughts by the side of his grandfather's bed; the
dread of this worst dishonor, which there was no wiping out, held
him speechless before Perrine, shamed and horrified him so that
he felt unworthy to look her in the face; and when the result of
his search at the Merchant's Table proved the absence there of
all evidence of the crime spoken of by the old man, the blessed
relief, the absorbing triumph of that discovery, was expressed
entirely in the one thought which had prompted his first joyful
words: He could marry Perrine with a clear conscience, for he was
the son of an honest man!
When he returned to the cottage, Francois had not come back.
Perrine was astonished at the change in Gabriel's manner; even
Pierre and the children remarked it. Rest and warmth had by this
time so far recovered the younger brother, that he was able to
give some account of the perilous adventures of the night at sea.
They were still listening to the boy's narrative when Francois at
last returned.
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