Durtal turned over a few more pages, discovering that the hare typified timidity and cowardice, and the snail laziness; noting the opinion of Adamantius, who ascribes levity and a mocking spirit to the monkey; that of Peter of Capua and of the Anonymous writer of Clairvaux, that the lizard, which crawls and hides in cracks in the walls, is, as well as the serpent, an emblem of evil; and he recorded the special ascription of ingratitude by Christ Himself to the viper, for He gives the name to the Jewish race.  Durtal then hastily dressed, fearing to be late, as he was dining with the Abbe Gevresin and the Abbe Plomb.  Pursued by Madame Mesurat, who insisted on dealing him one more blow with the clothes-brush, he rushed downstairs, and was soon at his friend’s door.

Madame Bavoil, who opened it, appeared in a cap all askew and hair loose, up-turned sleeves and scorched arms, with cheeks crimson from the kitchen fire.  She confessed to the concoction of a dish of beef a la mode softened by calf’s foot jelly and strengthened by a dash of brandy, and fled, alarmed by the impatient call of a saucepan, of which the contents were boiling over on the hot plates of the stove, with a noise like cats swearing.

Durtal found the old Abbe tormented by rheumatism, but as ever, patient and cheerful.  They talked a little while; then, seeing that Durtal was looking at some little lumps of gum lying on his writing table, the Abbe said,—­

“That is incense from the Carmel of Chartres.”

“Indeed!”

“Yes, the Carmelites are accustomed to burn none but genuine true incense.  So I begged them to trust me with a specimen that I might procure the same quality for our cathedral.”

“It is everywhere adulterated, I suppose?”

“Yes.  This substance is found in commerce under three forms:  male incense, which is the best if unadulterated; female incense, which is mixed with reddish fragments and dry grains called marrons; finally incense in powder, which is for the most part a mixture of inferior resin and benzoin.”

“And what have you there?”

“This is male incense; do you see those oblong tears, those almost transparent drops of faded amber? how different from that which they use at Notre Dame; it is earthy, broken, full of scraps, and it is safe to wager that those knobs are crystals of carbonate of lime and not beads of pure resin.”

“Why,” said Durtal, “this substance suggests to me the idea of a symbolism of odours; has it ever been worked out?”

“I doubt it; but in any case it would be very simple.  The aromatic substances used in the Liturgy are reduced to three, frankincense, myrrh, and balm.

“Their meaning is known to you.  Incense is the Divinity of the Son, and our prayers which rise up like vapours in the presence of the Most High, as the Psalmist says.  Myrrh is repentance, the sufferings of Jesus, His death, the martyrs, and also, according to Monsieur Olier, the type of the Virgin who heals the souls of sinners as myrrh cauterizes the festering of wounds; balm is another word for virtue.