be cancelled de facto, just at the moment of being so marvellously realized by the possession of the immense fortune of the Rennepont family, and d’Aigrigny’s hopes would thus be completely and for ever frustrated.  Of all these perplexities which the reverend father had experienced for some time past, with regard to this inheritance, none had been more unexpected and terrible than this.  Fearing to interrupt or question Gabriel, Father d’Aigrigny waited, in mute terror, the end of this interview, which already bore so threatening an aspect.

The missionary resumed:  “It is my duty, father, to continue this sketch of my past life, until the moment of my departure for America.  You will understand, presently, why I have imposed on myself this obligation.”

Father d’Aigrigny nodded for him to proceed.

“Once informed of the pretended wishes of my adopted mother, I resigned myself to them, though at some cost of feeling.  I left the gloomy abode, in which I had passed my childhood and part of my youth, to enter one of the seminaries of the Company.  My resolution was not caused by an irresistible religious vocation, but by a wish to discharge the sacred debt I owed my adopted mother.  Yet the true spirit of the religion of Christ is so vivifying, that I felt myself animated and warmed by the idea of carrying out the adorable precepts of our Blessed Saviour.  To my imagination, a seminary, instead of resembling the college where I had lived in painful restraint, appeared like a holy place, where all that was pure and warm in the fraternity of the Gospel would be applied to common life—­where, for example, the lessons most frequently taught would be the ardent love of humanity, and the ineffable sweets of commiseration and tolerance—­where the everlasting words of Christ would be interpreted in their broadest sense—­and where, in fine, by the habitual exercise and expansion of the most generous sentiments, men were prepared for the magnificent apostolic mission of making the rich and happy sympathize with the sufferings of their brethren, by unveiling the frightful miseries of humanity—­a sublime and sacred morality, which none are able to withstand, when it is preached with eyes full of tears, and hearts overflowing with tenderness and charity!”

As he delivered these last words with profound emotion, Gabriel’s eyes became moist, and his countenance shone with angelic beauty.

“Such is, indeed, my dear son, the spirit of Christianity; but one must also study and explain the letter,” answered Father d’Aigrigny, coldly.  “It is to this study that the seminaries of our Company are specially destined.  Now the interpretation of the letter is a work of analysis, discipline, and submission—­and not one of heart and sentiment.”