ists, going in the opposite direction, with
tapers which flickered dimly in the remnant of daylight.... It was
exquisite.... But, now permit me to laugh at the thought of Montfanon's
choler when I relate to him this baptism. If I knew where to find
the old leaguer! But he has been hiding since our duel. He is in some
retreat doing penance. As I have already told you, the world for him
has not stirred since Francois de Guise. He only admits the alms of
the Protestants and the Jews. When Monseigneur Guerillot tells him of
Fanny's religious aspirations, he raves immoderately. Were she to
cast herself to the lions, like Saint Blandine, he would still cry out
'sacrilege.'"

"He did not see her the day before yesterday," said Alba, "nor the
expression upon her face when she recited the Credo. I do not believe in
mysticism, you know, and I have moments of doubt. There are times when
I can no longer believe in anything, life seems to me so wretched
and sad.... But I shall never forget that expression. She saw God!...
Several women were present with very touching faces, and there were
many devotees.... The Cardinal is very venerable.... All were by Fanny's
side, like saints around the Madonna in the early paintings which you
have taught me to like, and when the baptism had been gone through,
guess what she said to me: 'Come, let us pray for my dear father, and
for his conversion.' Is not such blindness melancholy."

"The fact is," said Dorsenne again, jocosely, "that in the father's
dictionary the word has another meaning: Conversion, feminine
substantive, means to him income.... But let us reason a little,
Countess. Why do you think it sad that the daughter should see her
father's character in her own light?... You should, on the contrary,
rejoice at it.... And why do you find it melancholy that this adorable
saint should be the daughter of a thief?... How I wish that you were
really my pupil, and that it would not be too absurd to give you here,
in this corner of the hall, a lesson in intellectuality!... I would say
to you, when you see one of those anomalies which renders you indignant,
think of the causes. It is so easy. Although Protestant, Fanny is
of Jewish origin--that is to say, the descendant of a persecuted
race--which in consequence has developed by the side of the inherent
defects of a proscribed people the corresponding virtues, the devotion,
the abnegation of the woman who feels that she is the grace of a
threat