rouge_ might not ill beseem this curious
sanctum, it would not be so at Chartres, for the only suitable hue is
the shining, greasy patina, grey turning to silver, stone-colour turning
buff--the colouring given by age, by time helped by accumulated vapours
of prayer and the fumes of incense and tapers!"

And Durtal, arguing over his own reflections, ended by reverting, as he
always did, to his own person, saying to himself,--

"Who knows that I may not some day bitterly regret this cathedral and
all the sweet meditations it suggests; for, after all, I shall have no
more opportunities for such long loitering, such relaxation of mind,
since I shall be subject to the discipline of bells ringing for
conventual drill if I suffer myself to be locked up in a cloister!

"Who knows whether, in the silence of a cell, I should not miss even the
foolish cawing of those black jackdaws that croak without pause," he
went on, looking up with a smile at the cloud of birds that settled on
the towers; and he recalled a legend which tells that since the fire in
1836 these birds quit the cathedral every evening at the very hour when
the conflagration began, and do not return till dawn, after spending the
night in a wood at three leagues from Chartres.

This tale is as absurd as another, also dear to the old wives of the
city, and which tells that if you spit on a certain square of stone, set
with black cement into the pavement behind the choir, blood will exude.

"Hah, it is you, Madame Bavoil."

"Yes, our friend, I myself. I have just been on an errand for the
Father, and am going home again to make the soup. And you, are you
packing your trunks?"

"My trunks?"

"Why, are not you going off to a convent?" said she, laughing.

"Would not you like to see it?" exclaimed Durtal. "Catch me at that!
Enlisting as a private subject to a pious drill, one of a poor squad,
whose every movement must mark time, and who, though he is not expected
to keep his hands over the seam of his trowsers, is required to hide
them under his scapulary--"

"Ta, ta, ta," interrupted the housekeeper, "I tell you once more, you
are grudging, bargaining with God--"

"But before coming to so serious a decision it is quite necessary that I
should argue all the pros and cons; in such a case some mental
litigation is clearly permissible."

She shrugged her shoulders; and there was such peace in her face, such a
glow of flame lurked behind the liquid blackness of