as if ice were in my bones! Lay thyself beside me!" he
commanded. Julian took off his garments; and then, as naked as on
the day he was born, he got into the bed; against his thigh he
could feel the skin of the leper, and it was colder than a serpent
and as rough as a file.

He tried to encourage the leper, but he only whispered:

"Oh! I am about to die! Come closer to me and warm me! Not with
thy hands! No! with thy whole body."

So Julian stretched himself out upon the leper, lay on him, lips
to lips, chest to chest.

Then the leper clasped him close and presently his eyes shone like
stars; his hair lengthened into sunbeams; the breath of his
nostrils had the scent of roses; a cloud of incense rose from the
hearth, and the waters began to murmur harmoniously; an abundance
of bliss, a superhuman joy, filled the soul of the swooning
Julian, while he who clasped him to his breast grew and grew until
his head and his feet touched the opposite walls of the cabin. The
roof flew up in the air, disclosing the heavens, and Julian
ascended into infinity face to face with our Lord Jesus Christ,
who bore him straight to heaven.

And this is the story of Saint Julian the Hospitaller, as it is
given on the stained-glass window of a church in my birthplace.

A SIMPLE SOUL

CHAPTER I

FELICITE

For half a century the housewives of Pont-l'Eveque had envied
Madame Aubain her servant Felicite.

For a hundred francs a year, she cooked and did the housework,
washed, ironed, mended, harnessed the horse, fattened the poultry,
made the butter and remained faithful to her mistress--although
the latter was by no means an agreeable person.

Madame Aubain had married a comely youth without any money, who
died in the beginning of 1809, leaving her with two young children
and a number of debts. She sold all her property excepting the
farm of Toucques and the farm of Geffosses, the income of which
barely amounted to 5,000 francs; then she left her house in
Saint-Melaine, and moved into a less pretentious one which had
belonged to her ancestors and stood back of the market-place.
This house, with its slate-covered roof, was built between a
passage-way and a narrow street that led to the river. The
interior was so unevenly graded that it caused people to stumble.
A narrow hall separated the kitchen from the parlour, where
Madame Aubain sat all day in a straw armchair near the window.
Eight mahogany chairs stood in a