distributive Justice which goes about
compelling the world to execute its judgments,--called by ninnies "the
misfortunes of life."

There was this difference between the late Chapeloud and the vicar,--one
was a shrewd and clever egoist, the other a simple-minded and clumsy
one. When the canon went to board with Mademoiselle Gamard he knew
exactly how to judge of his landlady's character. The confessional had
taught him to understand the bitterness that the sense of being kept
outside the social pale puts into the heart of an old maid; he therefore
calculated his own treatment of Mademoiselle Gamard very wisely. She was
then about thirty-eight years old, and still retained a few pretensions,
which, in well-behaved persons of her condition, change, rather later,
into strong personal self-esteem. The canon saw plainly that to live
comfortably with his landlady he must pay her invariably the same
attentions and be more infallible than the pope himself. To compass this
result, he allowed no points of contact between himself and her except
those that politeness demanded, and those which necessarily exist
between two persons living under the same roof. Thus, though he and
the Abbe Troubert took their regular three meals a day, he avoided the
family breakfast by inducing Mademoiselle Gamard to send his coffee to
his own room. He also avoided the annoyance of supper by taking tea in
the houses of friends with whom he spent his evenings. In this way he
seldom saw his landlady except at dinner; but he always came down to
that meal a few minutes in advance of the hour. During this visit of
courtesy, as it may be called, he talked to her, for the twelve years he
had lived under her roof, on nearly the same topics, receiving from her
the same answers. How she had slept, her breakfast, the trivial domestic
events, her looks, her health, the weather, the time the church services
had lasted, the incidents of the mass, the health of such or such a
priest,--these were the subjects of their daily conversation. During
dinner he invariably paid her certain indirect compliments; the fish
had an excellent flavor; the seasoning of a sauce was delicious;
Mademoiselle Gamard's capacities and virtues as mistress of a household
were great. He was sure of flattering the old maid's vanity by praising
the skill with which she made or prepared her preserves and pickles and
pates and other gastronomical inventions. To cap all, the wily canon
never left