trees, but his education had, so far, been
very neglected. He disliked lessons, would never settle down to them,
and, if ever the baron managed to keep him reading a little longer than
usual, Jeanne would interfere, saying:

"Let him go and play, now. He is so young to be tired with books."

In her eyes he was still an infant, and she hardly noticed that he
walked, ran, and talked like a man in miniature. She lived in constant
anxiety lest he should fall down, or get too cold or too hot, or
overload his stomach, or not eat as much as his growth demanded.

When the boy was twelve years old a great difficulty arose about his
first communion. Lise went to Jeanne's room one morning, and pointed out
to her that the child could not be permitted to go any longer without
religious instruction, and without performing the simplest sacred
duties. She called every argument to her aid, and gave a thousand
reasons for the necessity of what she was urging, dwelling chiefly upon
the danger of scandal. The idea worried Jeanne, and, unable to give a
decided answer, she replied that Paul could very well go on as he was
for a little longer. A month after this discussion with Lise, Jeanne
called on the Vicomtesse de Briseville.

"I suppose it will be Paul's first communion this year," said the
vicomtesse, in the course of conversation.

"Yes, madame," answered Jeanne, taken unawares.

These few words had the effect of deciding her, and, without saying
anything about it to her father, she asked Lise to take the child to the
catechism class. Everything went on smoothly for a month; then Poulet
came back, one evening, with a sore throat, and the next day he began to
cough. His frightened mother questioned him as to the cause of his cold
and he told her that he had not behaved very well in class, so the cure
had sent him to wait at the door of the church, where there was a
draught from the porch, until the end of the lesson. After that Jeanne
kept him at home, and taught him his catechism herself; but the Abbe
Tolbiac refused to admit him to communion, in spite of all Lison's
entreaties, alleging, as his reason, that the boy had not been properly
prepared.

The following year he refused him again, and the baron was so
exasperated that he said plainly there was no need for Paul to believe
in such foolery as this absurd symbol of transubstantiation, to become a
good and honest man. So it was resolved to bring the boy up in the
Christian f