selves, on hope as a lie we tell about the future, and on
charity as a trick for children to keep them good by the promise of
sugar-plums."

"Still, we sleep better for being rocked by hope, monsieur," said Madame
Graslin.

This speech stopped Roubaud, who was about to reply; its effect was
strengthened by a look from Grossetete and the rector.

"Is it our fault," said Clousier, "that Jesus Christ had not the time
to formulate a government in accordance with his moral teaching, as did
Moses and Confucius, the two greatest human law-givers?--witness the
existence, as a nation, of the Jews and Chinese, the former in spite of
their dispersion over the whole earth, and the latter in spite of their
isolation."

"Ah! dear me! what work you are cutting out for me!" cried the rector
naively. "But I shall triumph, I shall convert you all! You are much
nearer to the true faith than you think you are. Truth always lurks
behind falsehood; go on a step, turn round, and then you'll see it."

This little outburst of the good rector had the effect of changing the
conversation.

XVIII. CATHERINE CURIEUX

Before taking his departure the next day, Monsieur Grossetete promised
Veronique to associate himself in all her plans, as soon as the
realization of them was a practicable thing. Madame Graslin and Gerard
accompanied his carriage on horseback, and did not leave him till
they reached the junction of the high-road of Montegnac with that from
Bordeaux to Lyon. The engineer was so impatient to see the land he was
to reclaim, and Veronique was so impatient to show it to him, that they
had planned this expedition the evening before.

After bidding adieu to the kind old man, they turned off the road across
the vast plain, and skirted the mountain chain from the foot of the
rise which led to the chateau to the steep face of the Roche-Vive. The
engineer then saw plainly the shelf or barricade of rock mentioned
by Farrabesche; which forms, as it were, the lowest foundation of
the hills. By so directing the water that it should not overflow the
indestructible canal which Nature had built, and by clearing out the
accumulation of earth which choked it up, irrigation would be helped
rather than hindered by this natural sluice-way, which was raised, on
an average, ten feet above the plain. The first important point was to
estimate the amount of water flowing through the Gabou, and to make sure
whether or not the slopes of the valley a