"
"You're a bad man--you, and I want none of your cordials," was Mere
Langlois's response. "Malice towards none, indeed! If you and the devil
started business in the same street, you'd make him close up shop in a
year. I've got your measure, for sure; I have you certain as an arm and
a pair of stirrups."
"I go about doing good--only good," returned the old sinner with a leer
at the young widow, whose fingers he managed to press unseen, as he swung
the little bottle of cordial before the eyes of Mere Langlois. He was
not wholly surprised when Palass Poucette's widow did not show abrupt
displeasure at his bold familiarity.
A wild thought flashed into his mind. Might there not be another refuge
here--here in Palass Poucette's widow! He was sixty-three, it was true,
and she was only thirty-two; but for her to be an old man's darling who
had no doubt been a young man's slave, that would surely have its weight
with her. Also she owned the farm where she lived; and she was pleasant
pasturage--that was the phrase he used in his own mind, even as his eye
swept from Mere Langlois to hers in swift, hungry inquiry.
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