ght if you had been in my place this
morning and saved the future lives of a whole family), you would become
a Sardanapalus,--an evil one! None of these gentlemen living here thinks
of himself when he does good. All vanity, all pride, all self-love, must
be stripped off, and that is hard to do,--yes, very hard."

Godefroid bade him good-night, and returned to his own room, deeply
affected by this narrative. But his curiosity was more whetted than
satisfied, for the central figure of the picture was Madame de la
Chanterie. The history of the life of that woman became of the utmost
importance to him, so that he made the obtaining of it the object of
his stay in that house. He already perceived in this association of five
persons a vast enterprise of Charity; but he thought far less of that
than he did of its heroine.

VIII. WHO SHE WAS--WIFE AND MOTHER

The would-be disciple passed many days in observing more carefully than
he had hitherto done the rare persons among whom fate had brought
him; and he became the subject of a moral phenomenon which modern
philosophers have despised,--possibly out of ignorance.

The sphere in which he lived had a positive action upon Godefroid.
The laws which regulate the physical nature under relation to the
atmospheric environment in which it is developed, rule also in the
moral nature. Hence it follows that the assembling together of condemned
prisoners is one of the greatest of social crimes; and also that their
isolation is an experiment of doubtful success. Condemned criminals
ought to be in religious institutions, surrounded by prodigies of Good,
instead of being cast as they are into sight and knowledge of Evil only.
The Church can be expected to show an absolute devotion in this matter.
If it sends missionaries to heathen or savage nations, with how much
greater joy would it welcome the mission of redeeming the heathen of
civilization? for all criminals are atheists, and often without knowing
they are so.

Godefroid found these five associated persons endowed with the qualities
they required in him. They were all without pride, without vanity, truly
humble and pious; also without any of the pretension which constitutes
_devotion_, using that word in its worst sense. These virtues were
contagious; he was filled with a desire to imitate these hidden
heroes, and he ended by passionately studying the book he had begun by
despising. Within two weeks he reduced his views of lif