—­Althausen!  Ah, well!  I believe that the Cure of Mattaincourt and Monsieur le Cure of the Cathedral have called and not been received, replied the valet; consequently, he added in petto, we shall not disturb ourselves for a junior like you.

—­Can I speak with Monseigneur the Secretary?

—­Monsieur l’Abbe Gaudinet does not like to be disturbed, and I believe besides that he is in conference with his Lordship.

Marcel was aware that in the episcopal Palace the village Cures are treated with less regard than the dogs in the back-yard; therefore he took his own part, and he had just sat down on a bench without saying a word, deliberating with himself whether be ought to wait or to go away, when a little priest with a busy and important air, with spectacles on his nose and a pen behind his ear, quickly crossed the anteroom.

—­Is it not Monsieur l’Abbe Gaudinet? said Marcel rising.

—­Ah, cried the former, Monsieur le Cure of Althausen, I think?

It was the Secretary, and he aspired, as may be remembered, to the envied post of curate at St. Nicholas.  He thought to obtain the good graces of Ridoux by rendering a service to Marcel.

—­Monseigneur is really too much engaged, said he, but I will obtain admittance for you anyhow.

And he made him go into a small apartment next to the Bishop’s private cabinet.

—­I will call you when it is time, he said to him and went out.

Marcel, left alone, heard the sound of a voice in Monseigneur’s cabinet, and he recognized perfectly old Collard’s.

He would have been failing in good clerical traditions, if he had not gently drawn near the door and listened with all his ears; struck with amazement, he heard the singular conversation which follows.

LXXXV.

LITTLE PASTIMES.

“One thing which it is necessary to take into account, is that they are very precocious.  A French girl of fifteen is as much developed as regards the sex and love, as an English girl of eighteen.  This is accounted for essentially by Catholic education and by the Confessional, which brings forward young girls to so great an extent.”

  MICHELET (L’Amour).

—­Let us see, little one; look me right in the face.  Madame de Montinisant has assured me that you were very nice, very sweet, very submissive, very modest, in fact ail the good qualities in the superlative, and that you were worthy of entering into the sisterhood of the Holy Virgin, in spite of your youth; is that quite true?

—­Yes, Monseigneur.

—­Ah, ah!  It is true, do you say?  I am going to know exactly, I am going to know if you are truthful or not.  God has bestowed on Bishops the gift of divining everything.  Did you know that?

—­No, Monseigneur.

—­Ah, ah!  You are smiling; you believe perhaps that it is not true; wait, wait, you shall see indeed.  Is it long since she made her first communion?