“Since, according to the Rationale of Durand of Mende, the sacristy is the very bosom of the Virgin, we will represent it by virginal plants such as the anemone, and trees such as the cedar, which Saint Ildefonso compares to Our Mother.  And now, if we are to furnish the instruments of worship, we shall find in the ritual of the liturgy and in the very form of certain plants almost precise guidance.  Thus, flax, of which the cornice and altar napery is to be woven, is indispensable; the olive and the balsamum, from which oil and balm are extracted, and frankincense, which sheds the drops of gum for the incense, are no less indicated.  For the chalice we may choose from among the flowers which goldsmiths take as their models:  the white convolvulus, the frail campanula, and even the tulip, though, having some repute as connected with magic, that flower is in ill odour.  For the shape of the monstrance there is the sun-flower.”

“Yes,” interrupted the Abbe Plomb, wiping his spectacles, “but these are fancies borrowed simply from superficial resemblance; it is modern symbolism, which is really not symbolism at all.  And is not this the case to a great extent with the various interpretations that you accept from Sister Emmerich?  She died in 1824.”

“What does that matter?” said Durtal.  “Sister Emmerich was a primitive saint, a seer, whose body indeed lived in our day, but whose soul was far away; she dwelt more in the Middle Ages than in ours.  It might be said indeed that she was more ancient still, for, in fact, she was contemporary with Christ, whose life she follows step by step through her pages.

“Hence her ideas of symbolism cannot be set aside.  To me they are of equal authority with those of Saint Mechtildis, who was born in the early part of the thirteenth century.

“In point of fact, the source whence they both alike derived them is the same.  And what is time, or past or present, when we speak of God?

“These women were the sieves through which His grace was poured, and what need I care whether the instruments were of yesterday or to-day?  The word of the Lord is supreme over the ages; His inspiration blows when and where it lists.  Is not that true?”

“I quite agree.”

“And all this time,” said the housekeeper, “you do not think of making use in your building of the iris, which my good Jeanne de Matel regards as an emblem of peace.”

“Oh, we will find a place for it, Madame Bavoil, never fear.  And there is yet another plant which we must not omit; the trefoil, for sculptors have strewn it broadcast in their stony gardens, and the trefoil, like the fruit of the almond tree, which shows the elongated nimbus, is an emblem of the Holy Trinity.

“Suppose we recapitulate: 

“At the end of the nave, in the shell of the apse, in front of a semicircle of tall bracken turned brown by autumn, we see a flaming assumption of climbing roses hedging a bed of red and white anemones, edged with the sober green of mignonette.  And to give variety by adding symbols of humility—­the knotweed, the violet, and the hyssop—­we may form a posy of which the meaning will represent the perfect virtues of Our Mother.