Paul Visire had recovered all his customary nonchalance.  Eveline remained stretched on the Divan of the Favourite in an attitude of delicious astonishment.

The Reverend Father Douillard, an excellent moral theologian, and a man who in the decadence of the Church has preserved his principles, was very right to teach, in conformity with the doctrine of the Fathers, that while a woman commits a great sin by giving herself for money, she commits a much greater one by giving herself for nothing.  For, in the first case she acts to support her life, and that is sometimes not merely excusable but pardonable, and even worthy of the Divine Grace, for God forbids suicide, and is unwilling that his creatures should destroy themselves.  Besides, in giving herself in order to live, she remains humble, and derives no pleasure from it a thing which diminishes the sin.  But a woman who gives herself for nothing sins with pleasure and exults in her fault.  The pride and delight with which she burdens her crime increase its load of moral guilt.

Madame Hippolyte Ceres’ example shows the profundity of these moral truths.  She perceived that she had senses.  A second was enough to bring about this discovery, to change her soul, to alter her whole life.  To have learned to know herself was at first a delight.  The {greek here} of the ancient philosophy is not a precept the moral fulfilment of which procures any pleasure, since one enjoys little satisfaction from knowing one’s soul.  It is not the same with the flesh, for in it sources of pleasure may be revealed to us.  Eveline immediately felt an obligation to her revealer equal to the benefit she had received, and she imagined that he who had discovered these heavenly depths was the sole possessor of the key to them.  Was this an error, and might she not be able to find others who also had the golden key?  It is difficult to decide; and Professor Haddock, when the facts were divulged (which happened without much delay as we shall see), treated the matter from an experimental point of view, in a scientific review, and concluded that the chances Madame C—­ would have of finding the exact equivalent of M. V—­ were in the proportion of 305 to 975008.  This is as much as to say that she would never find it.  Doubtless her instinct told her the same, for she attached herself distractedly to him.

I have related these facts with all the circumstances which seemed to me worthy of attracting the attention of meditative and philosophic minds.  The Sofa of the Favourite is worthy of the majesty of history; on it were decided the destinies of a great people; nay, on it was accomplished an act whose renown was to extend over the neighbouring nations both friendly and hostile, and even over all humanity.  Too often events of this nature escape the superficial minds and shallow spirits who inconsiderately assume the task of writing history.  Thus the secret springs of events remain hidden from us.  The fall of Empires