Vincent.

Then, having kissed the altar, Abbe Mouret once more turned round,
and murmured over the bent heads of the newly married pair the final
benediction: '_Deus Abraham, Deus Isaac, et Deus Jacob vobiscum
sit_'--his voice dying away into a gentle whisper.

'Now, he's going to address them,' said Babet to her friends.

'He is very pale,' observed Lisa. 'He isn't a bit like Monsieur Caffin,
whose fat face always seemed to be on the laugh. My little sister Rose
says that she daren't tell him anything when she goes to confess.'

'All the same,' murmured La Rousse, 'he's not ugly. His illness has aged
him a little, but it seems to suit him. He has bigger eyes, and lines at
the corners of his mouth which make him look like a man. Before he had
the fever, he was too much like a girl.'

'I believe he's got some great trouble,' said Babet. 'He looks as though
he were pining away. His face is deadly pale, but how his eyes glitter!
When he drops his eyelids, it is just as though he were doing it to
extinguish the fire in his eyes.'

La Teuse again shook her broom at them. 'Hush!' she hissed out, so
energetically that it seemed as if a blast of wind had burst into the
church.

Meantime Abbe Mouret had collected himself, and he began, in a rather
low voice:

'My dear brother, my dear sister, you are joined together in Jesus. The
institution of marriage symbolises the sacred union between Jesus and
His Church. It is a bond which nothing can break; which God wills shall
be eternal, so that man may not sever those whom Heaven has joined. In
making you flesh of each other's flesh, and bone of each other's bone,
God teaches you that it is your duty to walk side by side through
life, a faithful couple, along the paths which He, in His omnipotence,
appoints for you. And you must love each other with God-like love. The
slightest ill-feeling between you will be disobedience to the Creator,
Who has joined you together as a single body. Remain, then, for ever
united, after the likeness of the Church, which Jesus has espoused, in
giving to us all His body and blood.'

Big Fortune and Rosalie sat listening, with their noses peaked up
inquisitively.

'What does he say?' asked Lisa, who was a little deaf.

'Oh! he says what they all say,' answered La Rousse. 'He has a glib
tongue, like all the priests have.'

Abbe Mouret went on with his address, his eyes wandering over the heads
of the newly wedded couple towards a shadowy cor