The boy had risen from his chair.  He spoke hurriedly, almost hysterically, his eyes snapping at mine like coals, his curls dishevelled, his fingers curved and stiffened like the talons of a hawk.  I had never seen such intense earnestness in a human face.  Passions like these had never penetrated the convent walls before.

While I sat dumb before them, Edouard left the room.  I was conscious of his exit only in a vague way.  For hours I sat in my chair beside the grate thinking, or trying to think.  You can see readily that I was more than a little perplexed.  In the absence of Elysee, I was director.  The management of the house, its good fame, its discipline, all rested on my shoulders.  And to be confronted by such an abyss as this!  I could do absolutely nothing.  The boy had tied my tongue by the pledge.  Besides, had I been unsworn, I am sure the idea of exposure would never have come to me.  It was late before I retired that night.  And I recall with terrible distinctness the chaos of brain and faculty which ushered in a restless sleep almost as dawn was breaking.

I had fancied that Brother Edouard would find life intolerable in community after his revelation to me.  He would be chary of meeting me before the brothers; would be constantly tortured by fear of detection.  As I saw this prospect of the poor innocent—­for it was absurd to think of him as anything else—­dreading exposure at each step in his false life, shrinking from observation, biting his tongue at every word—­I was greatly moved by pity.  Judge my surprise, then, when I saw him the next morning join in the younger brothers’ regular walk around the garden, joking and laughing as I had never seen before.  On his right was thin, sickly Victor, rest his soul! and on the other pursy, thick-necked John, as merry a soul as Cork ever turned out.  And how they laughed, even the frail consumptive!  It was a pleasure to see his blue eyes brighten with enjoyment and his warm cheeks blush.  Above John’s queer, Irish chuckle, I heard Edouard’s voice, with its dainty Parisian accent, retailing jokes and leading in the laughter.  The tramp was stretched out longer than usual, so pleasant did they find it.  At this development I was much amazed.

The same change was noticeable in all that Edouard did.  Instead of the apathy with which he had discharged his nominal duties, his baby pupils (for Photius had gone to Peru) now became bewitched with him.  He told them droll stories, incited their rivalry in study by instituting prizes for which they struggled monthly, and, in short, metamorphosed his department.  The change spread to himself.  His cheeks took on a ruddier hue, the sparkle of his black eyes mellowed into a calm and steady radiance.  There was no trace of feverish elation which, in solitude, recoiled to the brink of despair.  He sang to himself evenings in his dormitory, clearly and with joy.  His step was as elastic as that of any school-boy.