really interested me; she had in the midst of one cheek,
toward the corner of the mouth, a small hollow, a kind of little
dimple, charming in the profane sense of the word, and giving a special
expression to her face. Her tiny white teeth glittered like pearls when
she opened her mouth to relate her pious inquietudes; she shed around,
besides, a perfume almost as sweet as that of our altars, although of a
different kind, and I breathed this perfume with an uneasiness full of
scruples, which for all that inclined me to indulgence. I was so
close to her that none of the details of her face escaped me; I could
distinguish, almost in spite of myself, even a little quiver of her left
eyebrow, tickled every now and again by a stray tress of her fair hair.

"Your situation," I said, "is a delicate one; on one hand, your domestic
happiness, and on the other your duty as a Christian." She gave a sigh
from her very heart. "Well, my dear child, my age warrants my speaking
to you like that, does it not?"

"Oh, yes, father."

"Well, my dear child"--I fancy I noticed at that moment that she had
at the outer corner of her eyes a kind of dark mark something like an
arrow-head--"try, my dear child, to convince your husband, who in his
heart--" In addition, her lashes, very long and somewhat curled, were
underlined, I might almost say, by a dark streak expanding and shading
off delicately toward the middle of the eye. This physical peculiarity
did not seem to me natural, but an effect of premeditated coquetry.

Strange fact, the verification of such weakness in this candid heart
only increased my compassion. I continued in a gentle tone:

"Strive to bring your husband to God. Abstinence is not only a religious
observance, it is also a salutary custom. 'Non solum lex Dei, sed
etiam'. Have you done everything to bring back your husband?"

"Yes, father, everything."

"Be precise, my child; I must know all."

"Well, father, I have tried sweetness and tenderness."

I thought to myself that this husband must be a wretch.

"I have implored him for the sake of our child," continued the little
angel, "not to risk his salvation and my own. Once or twice I even
told him that the spinach was dressed with gravy when it was not. Was I
wrong, father?"

"There are pious falsehoods which the Church excuses, for in such cases
it only takes into consideration the intention and the greater glory of
God. I can not, therefore, say that you have d