s a beginner to
evangelize la Beauce.

"He arrives full of illusions, dreaming of Apostolic triumphs, burning
to devote himself--and he drops into silence and the void. If he were
but persecuted he would feel himself alive; but he is met, not with
abuse, but with a smile, which is far worse; and at once he becomes
aware of the futility of all he can do, of the aimlessness of his
efforts, and he is discouraged.

"The clergy here are, it may be said, admirable, composed of good and
saintly priests; but they vegetate, torpid with inaction; they neither
read nor work; their joints become ankylose; they die of weariness in
this provincial spot."

"You do not!" exclaimed Durtal, laughing; "for you make work. Did you
not tell me that you especially devote yourself to ladies who can still
condescend to take an interest in Our Lord in this town?"

"Your satire is scathing," replied the Abbe. "I can assure you that if I
had serving-women and the peasant girls to deal with, I should not
complain; for in simple souls there are qualities and virtues and a
responsive spring, but not in the commercial or the richer classes! You
cannot imagine what those women are. If only they attend Mass on Sunday
and perform their Easter duties they think they may do anything and
everything; and thenceforth their one idea is not so much to avoid
offending the Saviour as to disarm Him by mean subterfuges. They speak
ill of their neighbour, injuring him cruelly, refusing him all help and
pity, and they make excuses for themselves as though these were mere
venial faults; but as to eating meat on a Friday! That is quite another
thing; they are persuaded that this is the unpardonable sin. To them
their stomach is the Holy Ghost; consequently, the great point is to
tack and veer round that particular sin, never to commit it, while only
just avoiding it, and not depriving themselves in the least. What
eloquence they will pour out on me to convince me of the penitential
quality of water-fowl.

"During Lent they are possessed with the idea of giving dinners, and
rack their brains to provide a lenten meal in which there is no meat,
though it would be supposed that there was; and then come interminable
discussions as to teal, wild duck, and cold-blooded birds. They should
consult a naturalist and not a priest on such cases of conscience.

"As to Holy Week, that is another affair; the mania for water-birds
gives way to a hankering for the _Charlotte Russ