And then, my child, we are old and getting older; but we are so content with the results we have now obtained, that we do not want to die without leaving successors in the work.  If you persist in your desire, you will be our first pupil, and all the dearer to us on that account.  There is no risk for us, because God brought you to us.  Yours is a good nature soured; since you have been here the evil leaven has weakened.  The divine nature of Madame has acted upon yours.  Yesterday we took counsel together; and inasmuch as I have your confidence, my good brothers resolved to give me to you as guardian and teacher.  Does that please you?”

“Ah! my kind Monsieur Alain, your eloquence awakens—­”

“No, my child, it is not I who speak well; it is things that are eloquent.  We can be sure of being great, even sublime, in obeying God, in imitating Jesus Christ,—­imitating him, I mean, as much as men are able to do so, aided by faith.”

“This moment, then, decides my life!” cried Godefroid.  “I feel within me the fervor of a neophyte; I wish to spend my life in doing good.”

“That is the secret of remaining in God,” replied Alain.  “Have you studied our motto,—­Transire benefaciendo? Transire means to go beyond this world, leaving benefits on our way.”

“Yes, I have understood it; I have put the motto of the order before my bed.”

“That is well; it is a trifling action, but it counts for much in my eyes.  And now I have your first affair, your first duel with misery, prepared for you; I’ll put your foot in the stirrup.  We are about to part.  Yes, I myself am detached from the convent, to live for a time in the crater of a volcano.  I am to be a clerk in a great manufactory, where the workmen are infected with communistic doctrines, and dream of social destruction, the abolishment of masters,—­not knowing that that would be the death of industry, of commerce, of manufactures.  I shall stay there goodness knows how long,—­perhaps a year,—­keeping the books and paying the wages.  This will give me an entrance into a hundred or a hundred and twenty homes of working-men, misled, no doubt, by poverty, even before the pamphlets of the day misled them.  But you and I can see each other on Sundays and fete-days.  We shall be in the same quarter; and if you come to the church of Saint-Jacques du Haut-Pas, you will find me there any day at half-past seven, when I hear mass.  If you meet me elsewhere don’t recognize me, unless you see me rub my hands like a man who is pleased at something.  That is one of our signs.  We have a language of signs, like the deaf and dumb; you’ll soon find out the absolute necessity of it.”

Godefroid made a gesture which the goodman Alain interpreted; for he laughed, and immediately went on to say:—­