said Madame Bavoil, "that they would rather confide to
an unknown priest the sins it would pain them to confess to their own
director."

"At any rate, this is a new light on things: the influence of big shops
on the tribunal of penance!" exclaimed Durtal.

"And of railway stations," added the Abbe Gevresin.

"How of railway stations?"

"Yes, I assure you that churches situated near railway stations have a
special following of women on their journeys. There it is that our dear
Madame Bavoil's shrewd remark finds justification. Many a country-woman
who has the Cure of her own parish to dinner dares not tell him the tale
of her adultery, because he could too easily guess the name of her
lover, and because the propinquity of a priest living on intimate terms
in her house would be inconvenient; so she takes advantage of an
excursion to Paris to open her heart to another confessor who does not
know her. As a general rule, when a woman speaks ill of her Cure, and
begins the tale of her confession by explaining that he is dull,
uneducated, unsympathetic in understanding and guiding souls, you may be
certain that a confession is coming of sin against the sixth (seventh)
Commandment."

"Well, well; the people who flutter around the Lord are cool hands!"
exclaimed Madame Bavoil.

"They are unhappy creatures, who try to strike a balance between their
duties and their vices.

"But enough of this; let us turn to something more immediate. Have you
brought us the article on the Angelico, as you promised? Read it to us."

Durtal brought out of his pocket the manuscript he had finished, which
was to be posted that evening to Paris.

He seated himself in one of the straw-bottomed arm-chairs in the middle
of the room where they were sitting with the Abbe Gevresin, and began:--

THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN.
By Fra Angelico. In the Louvre.

The general arrangement of this picture reminds the spectator of the
tree of Jesse, of which the branches, supporting a human figure on every
twig, spread fan-like as they rise on each side of a throne, while at
the top, on a single stem, the radiant beauty of a Virgin is the
crowning blossom.

In Fra Angelico's 'Coronation of the Virgin,' to the right and left of
the isolated knoll on which Christ sits under a carved stone canopy,
placing the crown He holds with both hands on His Mother's bowed head,
we see a perfect espalier of Apostles, Saints, and Patriarchs, rising in
close