“Yes,” said D’Aigrigny, “interests of the first consequence.”

“Therefore I did not hesitate,” proceeded M. Baleinier; “and you need not be at all uneasy.  As a man of taste, accustomed to good society, allow me to render homage to the charming qualities of Mdlle.  Adrienne; when the time for action comes, you will find me quite as willing to do my work.”

“Perhaps, that moment may be nearer than we thought,” said Madame de Saint-Dizier, exchanging a glance with D’Aigrigny.

“I am, and will be, always ready,” said the doctor.  “I answer for everything that concerns myself.  I wish I could be as tranquil on every other point.”

“Is not your asylum still as fashionable—­as an asylum can well be?” asked Madame de Saint-Dizier, with a half smile.

“On the contrary.  I might almost complain of having too many boarders.  It is not that.  But, whilst we are waiting for Mdlle.  Adrienne, I will mention another subject, which only relates to her indirectly, for it concerns the person who, bought Cardoville Manor, one Madame de la Sainte-Colombe, who has taken me for a doctor, thanks to Rodin’s able management.”

“True,” said D’Aigrigny; “Rodin wrote to me on the subject—­but without entering into details.”

“These are the facts,” resumed the doctor.  “This Madame de la Sainte Colombe, who was at first considered easy enough to lead, has shown herself very refractory on the head of her conversion.  Two spiritual directors have already renounced the task of saving her soul.  In despair, Rodin unslipped little Philippon on her.  He is adroit, tenacious, and above all patient in the extreme—­the very man that was wanted.  When I got Madame de la Sainte-Colombe for a patient, Philippon asked my aid, which he was naturally entitled to.  We agreed upon our plan.  I was not to appear to know him the least in the world; and he was to keep me informed of the variations in the moral state of his penitent, so that I might be able, by the use of very inoffensive medicines—­for there was nothing dangerous in the illness—­to keep my patient in alternate states of improvement or the reverse, according as her director had reason to be satisfied or displeased—­so that he might say to her:  ’You see, madame, you are in the good way!  Spiritual grace acts upon your bodily health, and you are already better.  If, on the contrary, you fall back into evil courses, you feel immediately some physical ail, which is a certain proof of the powerful influence of faith, not only on the soul, but on the body also?’”

“It is doubtless painful,” said D’Aigrigny, with perfect coolness, “to be obliged to have recourse to such means, to rescue perverse souls from perdition—­but we must needs proportion our modes of action to the intelligence and the character of the individual.”