"A boat in distress, and threatened with instant destruction!"
I was on the shore in an instant What an awful storm! Never in my whole life had I seen its equal.
All that was in a man's power I did, you may be quite sure. Three times I dashed madly into the waves, only to be thrown back by the fury of the sea. The last time I was all but lost myself. However, I was rescued and brought back to the shore, bruised and insensible. Some thought me dead. Would that I had been, and had out side by side with that other body stretched lifeless on the rocks!
When I came to myself he was near me, quite still, and covered with blood; but with just enough breath left to whisper in my ear:
"Pierre, my boy, be a brother to my wife, a father to my children. God bless you, boy."
Of course you will guess, monsieur, that this awful affair was the means of putting off our marriage. Marie and I neither of us complained, but consoled ourselves with the reflection that all would soon be well. I took up my position in my brother's house, and warmly kissed my brother's children, now mine. Alphonsine tried to show her gratitude as well as she could. And so six months slipped away, and the villagers began talking again about our marriage. I don't know how it was, but I began to feel very nervous and uneasy about the matter, and I did not so much as dare broach the subject either to Alphonsine or Marie's mother. In a little time the latter began the subject herself.
"Pierre," said she, "you have adopted your brother's children, have you not?"
"Yes; I must take care of his wife quite as much as her children."
"Am I to understand that you never mean to leave them?"
"I swore I would not to my brother before he died."
Then there was a silence, and my heart beat very quick.
"Listen, Pierre," said the old woman; "don't think that I wish to deprive the widow or the orphans of one morsel of the sustenance you intend to set aside for them. Even if I did, your good heart would hardly listen to me. But you must understand that I know Alphonsine. { 116} My daughter can never live with Alphonsine; and Alphonsine can never live with me. Never!"
This last word seemed to open an abyss before my very feet. I too knew Alphonsine. I too began now to understand that either of these arrangements would be perfectly impracticable.