to the earth; when we have inherited all that pretty fortune yonder; you will own that we have done a capital stroke of business—­three at a blow!  It would cost me rather too much to play the saint, seeing that convent ways are not quite my ways, and that I don’t know how to wear the habit; so I shall throw the cowl to the winds, and content myself with building a chapel at Roche-Mauprat and taking the sacrament four times a year.’

“‘Everything you have done in this matter is stupid and infamous.’

“’Bless my soul!  Don’t talk of infamy, my sweet brother, or I shall make you swallow this bottle whole.’

“’I say that it is a piece of folly, and if it succeeds you ought to burn a fine candle to the Virgin.  If it does not succeed, I wash my hands of the whole business, do you hear?  After I had been in hiding in the secret passage in the keep, and had heard Bernard telling his valet after supper that he was going out of his mind on account of the beautiful Edmee, I happened to throw out a suggestion that there might be a chance here of doing a good stroke of business; and like a fool you took the matter seriously, and, without consulting me or waiting for a favourable moment, you went and did a deed that should have been thought over and properly planned.’

“’A favourable moment, chicken-heart that you are!  How the deuce was I to get one?  “Opportunity makes the thief.”  I find myself surprised by the hunt in the middle of the forest; I go and hide in that cursed Gazeau Tower; I see my turtle-doves coming; I overhear a conversation that might make one die of laughing, and see Bernard blubbering and the girl playing the haughty beauty; Bernard goes off like an idiot without showing himself a man; I find on me—­God knows how—­a rascally pistol already loaded.  Bang! . . .’

“‘Hold your tongue, you wild brute!’ said the other, quite frightened.  ’Do you think a tavern is the proper place to talk of these things?  Keep that tongue quiet, you wretched creature, or I will never see you again.’

“’And yet you will have to see me, sweet brother mine, when I go and ring the bell at the gate of the Carmelite monastery.’

“‘If you come I will denounce you.’

“‘You will not denounce me, for I know too much about you.’

“’I am not afraid.  I have given proofs of my repentance; I have expiated my sins.’

“‘Hypocrite!’

“‘Come, now, hold your tongue, you madman!’ said the other.  ’I must leave you.  There is some money.’

“‘That all?’

“‘What do you expect from a monk?  Do you imagine that I am rich?’

“‘Your Carmelites are; and you can do what you like with them.’

“’I might give you more, but I would rather not.  As soon as you got a couple of louis you would be off for a debauch, and make enough row to betray yourself.’

“’And if you want me to quit this part of the country for some time, what do you suppose I am to travel with?’