“Eve,” she said, “did not deceive her husband, she only cajoled him into eating it in the hope of giving him one more perfection.  Besides Eve had not been forbidden to eat the fruit by God, but only by Adam, and in all probability her woman’s sense prevented her regarding the prohibition as serious.”

At this reply, which I found full of sense and wit, two scholars from Geneva and even Hedvig’s uncle began to murmur and shake their heads.  Madame Tronchin said gravely that Eve had received the prohibition from God himself, but the girl only answered by a humble “I beg your pardon, madam.”  At this she turned to the pastor with a frightened manner, and said,—­

“What do you say to this?”

“Madam, my niece is not infallible.”

“Excuse me, dear uncle, I am as infallible as Holy Writ when I speak according to it.”

“Bring a Bible, and let me see.”

“Hedvig, my dear Hedvig, you are right after all.  Here it is.  The prohibition was given before woman was made.”

Everybody applauded, but Hedvig remained quite calm; it was only the two scholars and Madame Tronchin who still seemed disturbed.  Another lady then asked her if it was allowable to believe the history of the apple to be symbolical.  She replied,—­

“I do not think so, because it could only be a symbol of sexual union, and it is clear that such did not take place between Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.”

“The learned differ on this point.”

“All the worse for them, madam, the Scripture is plain enough.  In the first verse of the fourth chapter it is written, that Adam knew his wife after they had been driven from the Garden, and that in consequence she conceived Cain.”

“Yes, but the verse does not say that Adam did not know her before and consequently he might have done so.”

“I cannot admit the inference, as in that case she would have conceived; for it would be absurd to suppose that two creatures who had just left God’s hands, and were consequently as nearly perfect as is possible, could perform the act of generation without its having any result.”

This reply gained everyone’s applause, and compliments to Hedvig made the round of the table.

Mr. Tronchin asked her if the doctrine of the immortality of the soul could be gathered from the Old Testament alone.

“The Old Testament,” she replied, “does not teach this doctrine; but, nevertheless, human reason teaches it, as the soul is a substance, and the destruction of any substance is an unthinkable proposition.”

“Then I will ask you,” said the banker, “if the existence of the soul is established in the Bible.”

“Where there is smoke there is always fire.”

“Tell me, then, if matter can think.”

“I cannot answer that question, for it is beyond my knowledge.  I can only say that as I believe God to be all powerful, I cannot deny Him the power to make matter capable of thought.”