No, it is impossible."

"I understand you. Then we must be very prudent for the future. I believe
that, nine days before Christmas, the mask is no longer allowed, and then
I shall have to go to your casino by water, otherwise, I might easily be
recognized by the same spy who has already followed me once."

"Yes, that idea proves your prudence, and I can easily, shew you the
place. I hope you will be able to come also during Lent, although we are
told that at that time God wishes us to mortify our senses. Is it not
strange that there is a time during which God wants us to amuse ourselves
almost to frenzy, and another during which, in order to please Him, we
must live in complete abstinence? What is there in common between a
yearly observance and the Deity, and how can the action of the creature
have any influence over the Creator, whom my reason cannot conceive
otherwise than independent? It seems to me that if God had created man
with the power of offending Him, man would be right in doing everything
that is forbidden to him, because the deficiencies of his organization
would be the work of the Creator Himself. How can we imagine God grieved
during Lent?"

"My beloved one, you reason beautifully, but will you tell me where you
have managed, in a convent, to pass the Rubicon?"

"Yes. My friend has given me some good books which I have read with deep
attention, and the light of truth has dispelled the darkness which
blinded my eyes. I can assure you that, when I look in my own heart, I
find myself more fortunate in having met with a person who has brought
light to my mind than miserable at having taken the veil; for the
greatest happiness must certainly consist in living and in dying
peacefully--a happiness which can hardly be obtained by listening to all
the idle talk with which the priests puzzle our brains."

"I am of your opinion, but I admire you, for it ought to be the work of
more than a few months to bring light to a mind prejudiced as yours was."

"There is no doubt that I should have seen light much sooner if I had not
laboured under so many prejudices. There was in my mind a curtain
dividing truth from error, and reason alone could draw it aside, but that
poor reason--I had been taught to fear it, to repulse it, as if its
bright flame would have devoured, instead of enlightening me. The moment
it was proved to me that a reasonable being ought to be guided only by
his own inductions I acknowledged the sway