“A religious book, uncle?”

“Yes, and no, or, rather—­no.  It is the history of their missions in Central Africa, and is rather a book of travels and adventures.  What these men have done is very grand.”

I began to feel that matters were going badly, so I got up.  “Well, good-by, uncle,” I said, “I see you are going to give up Freemasonry for religion; you are a renegade.”

He was still rather confused, and stammered: 

“Well, but religion is a sort of Freemasonry.”

“When is your Jesuit coming back?” I asked.

“I don’t—­I don’t know exactly; to-morrow, perhaps; but it is not certain.”

I went out, altogether overwhelmed.

My joke turned out very badly for me!  My uncle became thoroughly converted, and if that had been all I should not have cared so much.  Clerical or Freemason, to me it is all the same; six of one and half a dozen of the other; but the worst of it is that he has just made his will—­yes, made his will—­and he has disinherited me in favor of that rascally Jesuit!

THE BARONESS

“Come with me,” said my friend Boisrene, “you will see some very interesting bric-a-brac and works of art there.”

He conducted me to the first floor of an elegant house in one of the big streets of Paris.  We were welcomed by a very pleasing man, with excellent manners, who led us from room to room, showing us rare things, the price of which he mentioned carelessly.  Large sums, ten, twenty, thirty, fifty thousand francs, dropped from his lips with such grace and ease that one could not doubt that this gentleman-merchant had millions shut up in his safe.

I had known him by reputation for a long time Very bright, clever, intelligent, he acted as intermediary in all sorts of transactions.  He kept in touch with all the richest art amateurs in Paris, and even of Europe and America, knowing their tastes and preferences; he apprised them by letter, or by wire if they lived in a distant city, as soon as he knew of some work of art which might suit them.

Men of the best society had had recourse to him in times of difficulty, either to find money for gambling, or to pay off a debt, or to sell a picture, a family jewel, or a tapestry.

It was said that he never refused his services when he saw a chance of gain.

Boisrene seemed very intimate with this strange merchant.  They must have worked together in many a deal.  I observed the man with great interest.

He was tall, thin, bald, and very elegant.  His soft, insinuating voice had a peculiar, tempting charm which seemed to give the objects a special value.  When he held anything in his hands, he turned it round and round, looking at it with such skill, refinement, and sympathy that the object seemed immediately to be beautiful and transformed by his look and touch.  And its value increased in one’s estimation, after the object had passed from the showcase into his hands.