IL PASSAGES FOR TRANSLATION INTO FRENCH

EVERY Monday, Wednesday, and Friday the old Abbé Faber used to 80 to church to hear the confessions of the penitent, although three times out of four there was no one

there, One Wednesday evening it was raining hard, but he set out as usual in spite of the rain. He was all the more annoyed at going out that evening because he was leaving a good fire and an interesting book behind him. Having arrived at the Church he found to his surprise a and what is more, Confessional, took

+ He had not confessed for many

me he had something on his conscience :

he had killed à man! This was the most astonishing confession the good Abbé had ever heard, but before he could rise the man continued his story.

He was a bricklayer, and had come

efore with a Comrade, whose name

They both worked for the same master, but

nd of plessure, while he had to send his

Savings to his poor mother in the Country. He fell in love with the daughter of a fruiterer, but he could not marry

Catherine because of his Poverty. At length his mother died, and then it seemed to him he had enough to set up

house with. He spoke to Catherine about it, and the marriage was agreed upon.

IT

Unfortunately he had told all to Philip, Now Philip Was a handsome fellow, and having made Catherine’s aCquaintance, he won the poor girls affections, so that, when James offered her a Present on her birthday, she refused it. “I was in the deepest despair, father,” continued James ; “but what was to be done? I loved them both. Well they were married, and they had a boy whom they named Camille. Then Philip became an idler and à drunkard

brokers. I did what 1 could for her, but that was ver little. Meanwhile time went on; Camille has grown up and is now more than twenty years old. Yesterday evening Î met him in the strect looking very sad. 1] asked him what was the Matter. He told me he had drawn lots, and would have to do his five years’ military service in the colonies. This morning | was working on a scaffolding with Philip at my side. 1 knew that if Philip were dead, Camille, as the son of a widow, would escape military service, and would be able to Support his mother. The devil tempted me—] could not resist… I] flung him from the scaffolding. He was picked up stone dead, and it was thought an accident. That is what I wanted to say, father, and here is the present T had formerly bought for Catherine. Sell it and give the money to the poor.”

[t was raining hard, An omnibus had just turned the

corser of the Rue de Sèvres, and the Passengers were leax.ing the waiting-room in srder to take their places. “ There

Passages for Translation into French :67

are still three places !” cried the conductor. They were at once taken by two sisters of Charity and a Poor woman, who Was Carrying a sickly-looking little boy in her arms, “] Say, madame !” said the conductor, “you must pay for that child.” « Why, he is only three and a half” replied the mother, « Indeed ? Very well,” and the bus was set in motion. The two sisters sat beside onc another ; the

twenty-four. The POOr woman began to talk to the conductor; he was Wearing the Crimean medal, and proved

“the poor child has been in the hospital for six weeks, and I have just brought him out. He fell ill in July just when my husband, who is a binder, had nothing to do. It is the time when his Customers go either into the Country or to the sea-side, I Was angry with my husband at the time, because he was always thinking of politics. However, we took the child to the hospital in a cab; that cost me à Couple of sheets which Î pawned at the broker's. My husband would not enter the hospital: he said he had not

“We shall never forget those six weeks. 1 believe the weather has been fine, but it seemed to us as though there Was n0 sun. 1 was allowed to see the child every Monday and Thursday, and they told me he Was getting better.

My husband could not Come with me, because he had found

work again, but he suffered as much as Î did in silence. And now it is all over ; little Leopold is cured and is going to see his father again.” While the Poor woman spoke, the conductor and the elder sister listened attentively. sut what was the Younger one thinking of all this time ? She was thinking of the happiness of this man and wife

ven in the midst of their misfortunes ; she was

her own past, Six Years ago she was living with her father, the duke, and was engaged to an 1]

‘Way to one of her fathers castles in Auvergne, and she was

e kept was a medal which the Irish peer had given her, The bus

stoppe at the Boulevard Magenta. The young sister woke Up and saw the poor woman and the child before her. Quickly taking the medal from her neck, she asked the mother to do her the pleasure of accepting it. “It was blessed,” she said, “six years ago by the Pope himself Hang it round the neck of your child,”

Captain Mercadier, after a great many years’ retired to a little Country town. This town possessed a river in which one could fish, a church, and some 3000 inhabitants. Captain Mercadier had selected it for his

residence, because he was born there. Unfortunately there Was no one there now whom he ances had either die

service,

Passages for Translation into French 163

He then took a turn round the town and decided that Prosper’s café Would suit him, Jt Was not exactly what he had hoped for, but it was the best he could find. He was a welcome recruit to the frequenters of the café, because the new-comer had so many stories to tell. He was not long in Proving to very one that he was a Past master in

Captain was not perfectly happy. He discovered to his

day every one was busy, and neither master nor waiter attended to him. Now one market-day, knowing that there would be no room for him in the café, he was sitting in the sun at the door of his house, when a little girl went by driving before her a few Seese, What struck the Captain most was that she had a wooden leg. He asked her what was her name, and she told him her name was Pierrette, that she slept under the staircase, and that he woke her UP every evening when he came home, She would be nine years old on All Saints Day, and owed her wooden leg to 4 COW which had kicked her when she Was five, She added with a blush that she Came from the Foundling Hospital, and then entered the house,

The captain went to his café, but there was such a crowd there that he went home dissatisfied. For the first

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