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Updated: May 17, 2025
For the rest he gave in, and pretended not to see: the odor of sanctity made him feel very uncomfortable: but he tried not to think of it. On the other hand they were at one in pampering the girl, little Reine, or Rainette. She was twelve or thirteen, and was always ill.
Outside the night was so fair, so sweet!... The little cripple murmured: "How good it will be when one is dead!" He could hear Rainette's soft breathing. He said: "Good-night, little one." Tenderly came Rainette's voice: "Good-night." He went away comforted. He was glad that Rainette had forgiven him.
Then the light died down. He thought of Rainette, and said; "But the people who go to Mass, the people who believe in God, are all cracked, aren't they?" Olivier smiled. "They believe," he said, "as we do. We all believe the same thing. Only their belief is less than ours. They are people who have to shut all the shutters and light the lamp before they can see the light.
They were obliged to go through some woods, through which ran a stream called "La Rainette," no doubt because of the frogs that peopled it; then they had to cross the end of a plain before arriving at the church, situated in the midst of a group of houses that sheltered the grocer, the baker, the butcher, the wine-merchant, and several other modest tradesmen who supplied the needs of the peasants.
Only on the evening when the fair Berthe kissed him on the lips, and the next day too, he avoided Rainette with an instinctive feeling of repulsion: he passed the house without stopping and hung his head: and he prowled about far away, fearfully and suspiciously, like a pariah dog. Then he returned. There was so little woman in her!
He was grateful for his little friend's infirmity: with her he could give himself airs of superiority and even be a little patronizing. With a little swagger he would tell her about the things that happened in the street and always put himself in the foreground. Sometimes in gallant mood he would bring Rainette a little present, roast chestnuts in winter, a handful of cherries in summer.
Only, as a rule, our celestial visitors leave the talking to us as we sit by the fireside: and they say never a word. Rainette never dreamed of taking exception to it: silence gives consent. Besides, she had so much to tell them that she hardly gave them time to reply: she used to answer for them.
"I'm sorry," he said. He stopped. Then, on a sudden impulse, he said in an even softer whisper, uneasily, rather shamefacedly: "You know, Rainette, I believe in God just as you do." "Really?" "Really." He said it only out of generosity. But, as soon as he had said it, he began to believe it. They stayed still and did not speak. They could not see each other.
Rainette and Emmanuel were friends. They had seen each other every day ever since they were children. To be quite accurate, Emmanuel only rarely ventured to enter the house. Madame Alexandrine used to regard him with an unfavorable eye as the grandson of an unbeliever and a horrid little dwarf. But Rainette used to spend the day on a sofa near the window on the ground floor.
Emmanuel used to tap at the window as he passed, and, flattening his nose against the panes, he would make a face by way of greeting. Rainette did not have too many visitors, and she never noticed that Emmanuel was hunchbacked. Emmanuel, who was afraid and mortified in the presence of girls, made an exception in favor of Rainette.
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