elf. A
life of seclusion, of inactivity, could never be mine. I should have
become demoralised. Half the men who enter monasteries make the same
mistake, but they have not the courage to withdraw. I went back into the
world before my novitiate was six months over. Not to forsake religion,
but to enter the Church."

"We have heard of you as a great preacher," we remarked.

"I believe that it is my vocation," he returned with a smile which quite
illumined his face. "Heaven has bestowed upon me the gift of sympathy; I
have influence with my fellow mortals--Heaven grant that I use it well.
I first touch their hearts, then I have gained their minds. This is
especially necessary with the good Breton folk. They are fervently
religious, but not intellectual. They are sterling, but narrow-minded
and superstitious. Nor did I choose my sphere of action; it was placed
before me and I accepted it. I would rather have preached to Parisian
congregations, the refined and cultivated of the earth; but I should
probably not have done more good--if I have done good at all--and it
might have been a snare to me. I might have grown worldly;
intellectually proud; too fond of the good things of this life at the
tables of the rich and great. All that is not possible in Brittany. With
us, more or less, it is Lent all the year round, intellectually as well
as physically. We need very few indulgences from his Holiness."

There was something extremely winning about him. It must have been the
charm of character, for he had long passed the charm of youth. His hair,
worn long, was white as snow; he must have been verging upon sixty. His
face was pale and very pure in expression; his eyes were large, dark,
and singularly soft and luminous, without a trace of age about them, or
of their early weakness. He was tall and powerfully made, and a tendency
to embonpoint only added to his dignity and importance. He had a fund of
quiet humour about him also, which made him an excellent companion.

[Illustration: OLD MILL, LANDERNEAU.]

"We should much like to hear you preach," we said. "Is there no chance
of our doing so?"

"I am bound for Quimper," he returned; "so are you. Next Sunday I shall
preach in the cathedral, and if you are still there your wish may easily
be gratified."

"We are Protestant," I remarked. "You will look upon us as a heretic."

"Indeed, no," he returned quickly. "I am not so narrow-minded as some of
my cloth. One is of Paul, anot