you and rule all your thoughts.  You may indeed be glad when you succeed; but so long as you feel within you a sentiment of vanity or of pride, you are not worthy to do the work of the order.  We have known two perfect men:  one, who was one of our founders, Judge Popinot; the other is revealed by his works; he is a country doctor whose name is written on the annals of his canton.  That man, my dear Godefroid, is one of the greatest men of our time; he brought a whole region out of wretchedness into prosperity, out of irreligion into Christianity, out of barbarism into civilization.[*] The names of those two men are graven on our hearts and we have taken them as our models.  We should be happy indeed if we ourselves could some day acquire in Paris the influence that country doctor had in his canton.  But here, the sore is vast, beyond our strength at present.  May God preserve to us Madame, may he send us some young helpers like you, and perhaps we may yet leave behind us an institution worthy of his divine religion.  And now good-bye; your initiation begins—­Ah!  I chatter like a professor and forget the essential thing!  Here is the address of that family,” he added, giving Godefroid a piece of paper; “I have added the number of Dr. Berton’s house in the rue d’Enfer; and now, go and pray to God to help you.”

[*] The Country Doctor.  Little, Brown & Co., Boston.

Godefroid took the old man’s hands and pressed them tenderly, wishing him good-night, and assuring him he would not neglect a single point of his advice.

“All that you have said to me,” he added, “is graven in my memory forever.”

The old man smiled, expressing no doubts; then he rose, to kneel in his accustomed place.  Godefroid retired, joyful in at last sharing the mysteries of that house and in having an occupation, which, feeling as he did then, was to him an untold pleasure.

The next day at breakfast, Monsieur Alain’s place was vacant, but no one remarked upon it; Godefroid made no allusion to the cause of his absence, neither did any one question him as to the mission the old man had entrusted to him; he thus took his first lesson in discreetness.  Nevertheless, after breakfast, he did take Madame de la Chanterie apart and told her that he should be absent for some days.

“That is good, my child,” replied Madame de la Chanterie; “try to do honor to your godfather, who has answered for you to his brothers.”

Godefroid bade adieu to the three remaining brethren, who made him an affectionate bow, by which they seemed to bless his entrance upon a painful career.