Noble and faithful apostle, who was indeed to go so shortly after, meriting what they said of him, that which the African bishop said of his mother:  “That religious soul was at length absolved from her body."....  He did not anticipate that he would pay dearly for that realization of his last wish!  He did not foresee that she whom he ingenuously termed his most beautiful flower was to become to him the principal cause of bitter sorrow.  Poor, grand Cardinal!  It was the final trial of his life, the supremely bitter drop in his chalice, to assist at the disenchantment which followed so closely upon the blissful intoxication of his gentle neophyte’s first initiation.  To whom, if not to him, should she have gone to ask counsel, in all the tormenting doubts which she at once began to have in her feelings with regard to her fiance?

It was, therefore, that on the day following the evening on which imprudent Ardea had jested so persistently upon a subject sacred to her that she rang at the door of the apartment which Monseigneur Guerillot occupied in the large mansion on Rue des Quatre-Fontaines.  There was no question of incriminating the spirit of those pleasantries, nor of relating her humiliating observations on the Prince’s intoxication.  No.  She wished to ease her mind, on which rested a shade of sorrow.  At the time of her betrothal, she had fancied she loved Ardea, for the emotion of her religious life at length freed had inspired her with gratitude for him who was, however, only the pretext of that exemption.  She trembled to-day, not only at not loving him any more, but at hating him, and above all she felt herself a prey to that repugnance for the useless cares of the world, to that lassitude of transitory hopes, to that nostalgia of repose in God, undeniable signs of true vocations.

At the thought that she might, if she survived her father and she remained free, retire to the ‘Dames du Cenacle,’ she felt at her approaching marriage an inward repugnance, which augmented still more the proof of her future husband’s deplorable character.  Had she the right to form such bonds with such feelings?  Would it be honorable to break, without further developments, the betrothal which had been between her and her father the condition of her baptism?  She was already there, after so few days!  And her wound was deeper after the night on which the Prince had, uttered his careless jests.

“It is permitted you to withdraw,” replied Monsieur Guerillot, “but you are not permitted to lack charity in your judgment.”

There was within Fanny too much sincerity, her faith was too simple and too deep for her not to follow out that advice to the letter, and she conformed to it in deeds as well as in intentions.  For, before taking a walk in the afternoon with Alba, she took the greatest care to remove all traces which the little scene of the day before could have left in her friend’s mind.  Her efforts went very far.  She would