or a day or two; for the day after to-morrow is
a festival of the Virgin. They expect pilgrims from Paris, and the
shrine containing our Mother's veil will be carried in procession
through the streets."

"Oh no!" cried Durtal, "I have no love for worship in common. When our
Lady holds these solemn assizes to gel out of the way. I wait till She
is alone before I visit her. Hosts of people shouting canticles with
eyes straight to Heaven or looking for Jesus on the ground by way of
unction are too much for me. I am all for the forlorn Queens, for the
deserted churches and dark chapels. I am of the opinion of Saint John of
the Cross, who confesses that he does not love the pilgrimage of crowds
because one comes back more distracted than when one started.

"No. What it is really a grief to me to leave in quitting Chartres is
that very silence, that solitude in the cathedral, those interviews with
the Virgin in the gloom of the crypt and the twilight of the nave. Ah,
here alone can one feel near Her, and see Her!

"In fact," he went on after a moment's reflection, "one does see Her in
the strictest sense of the word--or at least, can fancy that She is
there. If there is a spot where I can call up Her face, Her attitude--in
short Her portrait--it is at Chartres."

"And how is that?"

"Well, Monsieur l'Abbe, we have no trustworthy information as to our
Mother's face or figure. Her features are unknown--intentionally, I feel
sure, in order that each one may contemplate Her under the aspect that
best pleases him, and incarnate Her in the ideal beauty of his dreams.

"For instance, Saint Epiphanius describes her as tall, with olive eyes
arched and very black eyebrows, an aquiline nose a rosy mouth, and a
golden-toned skin. This is the vision of an oriental.

"Take Maria d'Agreda, on the other hand. She thinks of the Virgin as
slender, with black hair and eyebrows, eyes dark and greenish, a
straight nose, scarlet lips, and a brown skin. You recognize here the
Spanish ideal of beauty imagined by the Abbess.

"Again in, turn to Sister Emmerich. According to her, Mary was
fair-haired, with large eyes, a rather long nose, a narrow-pointed chin,
a clear skin, and not very tall. Here we have the description given by a
German who does not admire dark beauty:

"And yet both of these women were real Seers, to whom the Madonna
appeared, assuming in each case the only aspect that could fascinate
them; just as she was seen to be the