eed, were so awkward that they would have excited many people's
smiles. The replastering of the stonework soon tired him: so he
contented himself with patching up the church walls all round to a
height of some six feet from the ground. La Teuse mixed the plaster.
When she talked of repairing the parsonage as well, for she was
continually fearing that it would topple down on their heads, he told
her that he did not think he could manage it, that a regular workman
would be necessary; a reply which led to a terrible quarrel between
them. La Teuse said it was quite ridiculous to go on ornamenting the
church, where nobody slept, while their bedrooms were in such a crazy
condition, for she was quite sure they would all be found, one morning,
crushed to death by the fallen ceilings.

'I shall end by bringing my bed here, and placing it behind the altar,'
she grumbled. 'I feel quite terrified sometimes at night.'

However, when the plaster was all used up, she said no more about
repairing the parsonage. The painting which the priest executed quite
delighted her. It was the chief charm of the improvements. The Abbe,
who had repaired the woodwork everywhere with bits of boards, took
particular pleasure in spreading his big brush, dipped in bright yellow
paint, over all this woodwork. The gentle, up-and-down motion of the
brush lulled him, left him thoughtless for hours whilst he gazed on the
oily streaks of paint. When everything was quite yellow, the pulpit,
the confessional-box, the altar rails, even the clock-case itself, he
ventured to try his hand at imitation marble work by way of touching up
the high altar. Then, growing bolder, he painted it all over. Glistening
with white and yellow and blue, it was pronounced superb. People who had
not been to mass for fifty years streamed into the church to see it.

And now the paint was dry. All that remained for Abbe Mouret to do was
to edge the panels with brown beading. So, that afternoon, he set to
work at it, wishing to get it done by evening; for on the following day,
as he had reminded La Teuse, there would be high mass. She was there
ready to arrange the altar. She had already placed on the credence
the candlesticks and the silver cross, the porcelain vases filled with
artificial roses, and the laced cloth which was only used on great
festivals. The beading, however, proved so difficult of execution, that
it was not completed till late in the evening. It was growing quite dar