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The Story of Marie 75turns, as their custom is. Then they gave up feeding Marie altogether,and in the village everyone drove her away and no onewould even give her work as before. Everyone, as it were, spat onher, and the men no longer looked on her as a woman even; theywould say all sorts of nasty things to her. Sometimes, though notoften, when the men got drunk on Sunday, they would amusethemselves by throwing farthings to her, just flinging them onthe ground. Marie would pick them up without a word. She hadbegun to spit blood by that time. At last her clothes were in absolutetatters, so that she was ashamed to show herself in the village.She had gone barefoot since she came back.“Then the children particularly, the whole troop of them – therewere about forty schoolchildren – began jeering, and even throwingdirt at her. She asked the cowherd to let her look after thecows, but he drove her away. Then she began going off for thewhole day with the flock of her own accord, without permission.As she was of great use to the cowherd and he noticed it, he nolonger drove her away, and sometimes even gave her what wasleft from his dinner of bread and cheese. He looked upon this asa great kindness on his part. When her mother died, the pastordid not scruple to heap shame on Marie in church before all thepeople. Marie stood crying by the coffin as she was, in her rags.A crowd of people had collected to look at her standing by thecoffin and crying. Then the pastor – he was a young man, andhis whole ambition was to become a great preacher – pointed toMarie and addressing them all said, ‘Here you see the cause ofthis worthy woman’s death’ (and it was not true, for the womanhad been ill for two years). ‘Here she stands before you and daresnot look at you, for she has been marked out by the finger ofGod; here she is, barefoot and ragged – a warning to all who losetheir virtue! Who is she? Her daughter!’ and so on in the same