glory of Thy Godhead Thou hast not sinned! Have patience yet, oh Thou great Splendour of all worlds! Have patience yet, Thou outraged and blasphemed Creator! Break once again Thy silence as of old and speak to us!–pity us once again ere Thou slay us utterly,–come to us even as Thou earnest in Judaea, and surely we will receive Thee and obey Thee, and reject Thy love no more!”
As he thus prayed he was seized with a paralysing fear,–for suddenly the red and glowing chaos of fire above him changed into soft skies tinged with the exquisite pearl-grey hues of twilight, and he became conscious of the approach of a great invisible Presence, whose awful unseen beauty overwhelmed him with its sublimity and majesty, causing him to forget altogether that he himself existed. And Someone spoke,–in grave sweet accents, so soft and close to him that the words seemed almost whispered in his ears,–
“Thy prayer is heard,–and once again the silence shall be broken. Nevertheless remember that ‘the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not’.”
Deep silence followed. The mysterious Presence melted as it were into space,–and the Cardinal awoke, trembling violently and bathed in a cold perspiration. He gazed bewilderedly around him, his mind still confused and dazzled by the strong visionary impression of the burning heavens and sea,–and he could not for a moment realize where he was. Then, after a while, he recognised the humble furniture of the room he occupied, and through the diamond-shaped panes of the little lattice window, perceived the towers of Notre Dame, now gleaming with a kind of rusty silver in the broader radiance of the fully uplifted moon.
“It was a dream,” he murmured,–“A dream of the end of the world!” He shuddered a little as he thought of the doom pronounced upon the earth,–the planet “known to all angels as the Sorrowful Star”–“Let the Sun that hath given it warmth and nourishment be now its chief Destroyer.”
According to modern scientists, such was indeed the precise way in which the world was destined to come to an end. And could anything be more terrifying than the thought that the glorious Orb, the maker of day and generator of all beauty, should be destined to hurl from its shining centre death and destruction upon the planet it had from creation vivified and warmed! The Vision had shown the devastating ring of fire rising from that very quarter of the heavens where the sun should have been radiantly beaming,–and as Felix Bonpre dwelt upon the picture in his mind, and remembered his own wild prayer to the Eternal, a great uneasiness and dread overwhelmed him.
“God’s laws can never be altered;” he said aloud–“Every evil deed brings its own punishment; and if the world’s wickedness becomes too great an offence in the eyes of the Almighty, it follows that the world must be destroyed. What am I that I should pray against Divine Justice! For truly we have had our chance of rescue and salvation;– the Way,–the Truth,–and the Life have been given to us through Christ our Redeemer; and if we reject Him, we reject all, and we have but ourselves to blame.”
At that moment a plaintive wailing, as of some human creature in distress broke on his ears through the deep silence of the night. He listened attentively, and the sorrowful sound was repeated,–a desolate yet gentle cry as of some sick and suffering child. Moved by a sudden impulse the Cardinal rose, and going to the window looked anxiously out, and down into the street below. Not a living creature was to be seen. The moonlight spread itself in a vast silver glory over the whole width of the square, and the delicate sculpture of the great rose-window of the Cathedral, centrally suspended between the two tall towers, looked in the fine pale radiance like a giant spider’s web sparkling with fairy dew. Again– again!–that weary sobbing cry! It went to the Cardinal’s heart, and stirred him to singular pain and pity.
“Surely it is some lost or starving creature,” he said–“Some poor soul seeking comfort in a comfortless world.” Hastily throwing on his garments he left his room, treading cautiously in order not to disturb the sleeping household,–and feeling his way down the short, dark staircase, he easily reached the door and passed noiselessly out into the square. Walking a few steps hurriedly he paused, once more listening. The night was intensely calm;–not a cloud crossed the star-spangled violet dome of air wherein the moon soared serenely, bathing all visible things in a crystalline brilliancy so pure and penetrative, that the finest cuttings on the gigantic grey facade of Notre Dame could be discerned and outlined as distinctly as though every little portion were seen through a magnifying glass. The Cardinal’s tall attenuated figure, standing alone and almost in the centre of the square, cast a long thin black shadow on the glistening grey stones,–and his dream-impression of an empty world came back forcibly upon him,–a world as empty as a hollow shell! Houses there were around him, and streets, and a noble edifice consecrated to the worship of God,–nevertheless there was a sense of absolute desertion in and through all. Was not the Cathedral itself the mere husk of a religion? The seed had dropped out and sunk into the soil,–“among thorns” and “stony places” indeed,–and some “by the wayside” to be devoured by birds of prey. Darker and heavier grew the cloud of depression on the Cardinal’s soul,–and more and more passionate became the protest which had for a long time been clamouring in him for utterance,–the protest of a Churchman against the Church he served! It was terrible,–and to a “prince of the Roman Church” hideous and unnatural; nevertheless the protest existed, and it had in some unaccountable way grown to be more a part of him than he himself realized.
“The world is empty because God is leaving it,” he said, sorrowfully raising his eyes to the tranquil heavens,–“and the joy of existence is departing because the Divine and Holy Spirit of things is being withdrawn!”
He moved on a few paces,–and once more through the deep stillness the little sobbing cry of sorrow was wafted tremulously to his ears. It came or seemed to come from the Cathedral, and quickening his steps he went thither. The deeply hollowed portal, full of black shadows, at first showed nothing but its own massively sculptured outlines–then–all at once the Cardinal perceived standing within the embrasured darkness, the slight shrinking figure of a child. A boy’s desolate little figure,–with uplifted hands clasped appealingly and laid against the shut Cathedral door, and face hidden and pressed hard upon those hands, as though in mute and inconsolable despair. As the Cardinal softly drew nearer, a long shuddering sigh from the solitary little creature moved his heart anew to pity, and speaking in accents of the utmost gentleness he said–
“My poor child, what troubles you? Why are you here all alone, and weeping at this late hour? Have you no home?–no parents?”
Slowly the boy turned round, still resting his small delicate hands against the oaken door of the Cathedral, and with the tears yet wet upon his cheeks, smiled. What a sad face he had!–worn and weary, yet beautiful!–what eyes, heavy with the dews of sorrow, yet tender even in pain! Startled by the mingled purity and grief of so young a countenance, the Cardinal retreated for a moment in amaze,–then approaching more closely he repeated his former question with increased interest and tenderness–
“Why are you weeping here alone?”
“Because I am left alone to weep,” said the boy, answering in a soft voice of vibrating and musical melancholy–“For me, the world is empty.”
An empty world! His dream-impression of universal desolation and desertion came suddenly back upon the prelate’s mind, and a sudden trembling seized him, though he could discover in himself no cause for fear. Anxiously he surveyed the strange and solitary little wayfarer on the threshold of the Cathedral, and while he thus looked, the boy said wistfully–
“I should have rested here within, but it is closed against me.”
“The doors are always locked at night, my child,” returned the Cardinal, recovering from his momentary stupor and bewilderment, “But I can give you shelter. Will you come with me?”
With a half-questioning, half-smiling look of grateful wonder, the boy withdrew his hands from their uplifted, supplicating and almost protesting attitude against the locked Cathedral-door, and moving out of the porch shadows into the wide glory of the moonlight, he confronted his interlocutor–
“Will I come with you?” he said–“Nay, but I see you are a Cardinal of the Church, and it is I should ask ‘will you receive me?’ You do not know who I am–nor where I came from, and I, alas! may not tell you! I am alone; all–all alone,–for no one knows me in the world,- -I am quite poor and friendless, and have nothing where–with to pay you for your kindly shelter–I can only bless you!”
Very simply, very gravely the young boy spoke these words, his delicate head uplifted, his face shining in the moon-rays, and his slight, childish form erect with a grace which was not born of pride so much as of endurance, and again the Cardinal trembled, though he knew not why. Yet in his very agitation, the desire he had to persuade the tired child to go with him grew stronger and overmastered every other feeling.
“Come then,” he said, smiling and extending his hand, “Come, and you shall sleep in my room for the remainder of the night, and to-morrow we will talk of the future. At present you need repose.”
The boy smiled gratefully but said nothing, and the Cardinal, satisfied with the mere look of assent walked with his foundling across the square and into the Hotel Poitiers. Arrived at his own bed-room, he smoothed his couch and settled the pillows carefully with active zeal and tenderness. The boy stood silently, looking on.
“Sleep now, my child,” said the Cardinal,–“and forget all your troubles. Lie down here; no one will disturb you till the morning.”
“But you, my lord Cardinal,” said the boy–“Are you depriving yourself of comfort in order to give it to me? This is not the way of the world!”
“It is MY way,” said the Cardinal cheerfully,–“And if the world has been unkind to you, my boy, still take courage,–it will not always be unjust! Do not trouble yourself concerning me; I shall sleep well on the sofa in the next room–indeed, I shall sleep all the better for knowing that your tears have ceased, and that for the present at least you are safely sheltered.”
With a sudden quick movement the boy advanced and caught the Cardinal’s hands caressingly in his own.
“Oh, are you sure you understand?” he said, his voice growing singularly sweet and almost tender as he spoke–“Are you sure that it is well for you to shelter me?–I–a stranger,–poor, and with no one to speak for me? How do you know what I may be? Shall I not perhaps prove ungrateful and wrong your kindness?”
His worn little face upturned, shone in the dingy little room with a sudden brightness such as one might imagine would illumine the features of an angel, and Felix Bonpre looked down upon him half fascinated, in mingled pity and wonder.
“Such results are with God, my child,” he said gently–“I do not seek your gratitude. It is certainly well for me that I should shelter you,–it would be ill indeed if I permitted any living creature to suffer for lack of what I could give. Rest here in peace, and remember it is for my own pleasure as well as for your good that I desire you to sleep well.”
“And you do not even ask my name?” said the boy, half smiling and still raising his sorrowful deep blue eyes to the Cardinal’s face.
“You will tell me that when you please,” said Felix, laying one hand upon the soft curls that clustered over his foundling’s forehead–“I am in no wise curious. It is enough for me to know that you are a child and alone in the world,–such sorrow makes me your servant.”
Gently the boy loosened his clasp of the Cardinal’s hands.
“Then I have found a friend!” he said,–“That is very strange!” He paused, and the smile that had once before brightened his countenance shone again like a veritable flash of sunlight–“You have the right to know my name, and if you choose, to call me by it,–it is Manuel.”
“Manuel!” echoed the Cardinal–“No more than that?”
“No more than that,” replied the boy gravely–“I am one of the world’s waifs and strays,–one name suffices me.”
There followed a brief pause, in which the old man and the child looked at each other full and steadfastly, and once again an inexplicable nervous trembling seized the Cardinal. Overcoming this with an effort, he said softly,–
“Then–Manuel!–good night! Sleep–and Our Lady’s blessing be upon you!”
Signing the cross in air he retired, carefully shutting the door and leaving his new-found charge to rest. When he was once by himself in the next room, however, he made no attempt to sleep,–he merely drew a chair to the window and sat down, full of thoughts which utterly absorbed him. There was nothing unusual, surely, in his finding a small lost boy and giving him a night’s lodging?–then why was he so affected by it? He could not tell. He fully realized that the plaintive beauty of the child had its share in the powerful attraction he felt,–but there was something else in the nature of his emotion which he found it impossible to define. It was as though some great blankness in his life had been suddenly filled;–as if the boy whom he had found solitary and weeping within the porch of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, belonged to him in some mysterious way and was linked to his life so closely and completely as to make parting impossible. But what a fantastic notion! Viewed by the light of calm reason, there was nothing in the occurrence to give rise to any such sentiment. Here was a poor little wayfarer, evidently without parents, home, or friends,–and the Cardinal had given him a night’s lodging, and to-morrow–yes, to-morrow, he would give him food and warm clothing and money,–and perhaps a recommendation to the Archbishop in order that he might get a chance of free education and employment in Rouen, while proper enquiries were being made about him. That was the soberly prosaic and commonplace view to take of the matter. The personality of the little fellow was intensely winning,–but after all, that had nothing to do with the facts of the case. He was a waif and stray, as he himself had said; his name, so far as he seemed to know it, was Manuel,–an ordinary name enough in France,–and his age might be about twelve,–not more. Something could be done for him,–something SHOULD be done for him before the Cardinal parted with him. But this idea of “parting” was just what seemed so difficult to contemplate! Puzzled beyond measure at the strange state of mind in which he found himself, Felix Bonpre went over and over again all the events of the day in order,–his arrival in Rouen,–his visit to the Cathedral, and the grand music he had heard or fancied he heard there,–his experience with the sceptical little Patoux children and their mother,–his conversation with the Archbishop, in which he had felt much more excitement than he was willing to admit,–his dream wherein he had been so painfully impressed with a sense of the desertion, emptiness, and end of the world, and finally his discovery of the little lonely and apparently forsaken boy, thrown despairingly as it were against the closed Cathedral, like a frail human wreck cast up from the gulf of the devouring sea. Each incident, trivial in itself, yet seemed of particular importance, though he could not explain or analyse why it should be so. Meditatively he sat and watched the moon sink like a silver bubble falling downward in the dark,–the stars vanished one by one,–and a faint brown-gold line of suggestive light in the east began the slow creation of a yet invisible dawn. Presently, yielding to a vague impulse of inexplicable tenderness, he rose softly and went to the threshold of the room where his foundling slept. Holding his breath, he listened–but there was no sound. Very cautiously and noiselessly he opened the door, and looked in,–a delicate half- light came through the latticed window and seemed to concentrate itself on the bed where the tired wanderer lay. His fine youthful profile was distinctly outlined,–the soft bright hair clustered like a halo round his broad brows,–and the two small hands were crossed upon his breast, while in his sleep he smiled. Always touched by the beauty, innocence and helplessness of childhood, something in the aspect of this little lad moved the venerable prelate’s heart to an unwonted emotion,–and looking upon him, he prayed for guidance as to what he should best do to rescue so gentle and young a creature from the cruelties of the world.
V.
“He has trusted me,” said the Cardinal,–“I have found him, and I cannot–dare not–forsake him. For the Master says ‘Whosoever shall receive one such little child in My name receiveth Me’.”
The next morning broke fair and calm, and as soon as the Patoux household were astir, Cardinal Bonpre sought Madame Patoux in her kitchen, and related to her the story of his night’s adventure. She listened deferentially, but could not refrain from occasional exclamations of surprise, mingled with suggestions of warning.
“It is like your good heart, Monseigneur,” she said, “to give your own bed to a stray child out of the street,–one, too, of whom you know nothing,–but alas! how often such goodness is repaid by ingratitude! The more charity you show the less thanks you receive,- -yes, indeed, it is often so!–and it seems as if the Evil One were in it! For look you, I myself have never done a kindness yet without getting a cruelty in exchange for it.”
“That is a sad experience, my daughter,” returned the Cardinal smiling,–“Nevertheless, it is our duty to go on doing kindnesses, no matter what the results to ourselves may be. It is understood–is it not? that we are to be misjudged in this world. If we had nothing to suffer, what would be the use of exercising such virtues as patience and endurance?”
“Ah, Monseigneur, for you it is different,” said Madame Patoux shaking her head and sighing–“You are like the blessed saints–safe in a niche of Holy Church, with Our Lady for ever looking after you. But for poor people such as we are–we see the rough side of life, Monseigneur–and we know that there is very little goodness about in the world,–and as for patience and endurance!–why, no one in these days has the patience to endure even the least contradiction! Two men,–aye even brothers,–will fight for a word like mongrels quarrelling over a bone;–and two women will scream themselves hoarse if one should have a lover more than the other–asking your pardon, Monseigneur, for such wicked talk! Still, wicked as it may be, it is true–and not all the powers of Heaven seem to care about making things better. And for this boy,–believe me,–you had better leave him to his own way–for there will be no chance of getting such a poor little waif into the school unless his father and mother are known, or unless someone will adopt him, which is not likely . . . for Rouen is full of misery, and there are enough mouths to feed in most families–and . . . mon Dieu!–is that the child?”
Thus abruptly she broke off her speech, utterly taken aback as she suddenly perceived the little Manuel standing before her. Poorly clad in the roughest garments as he was, his grace and plaintive beauty moved her heart to quick compassion for his loneliness as he came towards the Cardinal, who, extending one hand, drew him gently to his side and asked if he had slept well?
“Thanks to your goodness, my lord Cardinal,” the boy replied, “I slept so well that I thought I was in Heaven! I heard the angels singing in my dreams;–yes!–I heard all the music of a happy world, in which there never had been known a sin or sorrow!”
He rested his fair head lightly against the Cardinal’s arm and smiled. Madame Patoux gazed at him in fascinated silence,–gazed and gazed,–till she found her eyes suddenly full of tears. Then she turned away to hide them,–but not before Cardinal Bonpre had observed her emotion.
“Well, good MOTHER” he said with gentle emphasis on the word–“Would you have me forsake this child that I have found?”
“No, Monseigneur,–no,” said Madame Patoux very softly and tremulously–“It is almost as if he were a little lost Angel sent to comfort you.”
A curious thrill went through the Cardinal. An angel to comfort him! He looked down at Manuel who still clung caressingly to his arm, and who met his earnest scrutiny with a sweet candid smile.
“Where did you come from, Manuel?” asked Bonpre suddenly.
“I cannot tell you,” the boy answered, straightly, yet simply.
The Cardinal paused a moment, his keen penetrating eyes dwelling kindly on the noble young face beside him.
“You do not wish to tell me,–is that so?” he pursued.
“Yes,” said Manuel quietly–“I do not wish to tell you. And if, because of this, you regret your kindness to me, my lord Cardinal, I will go away at once and trouble you no more.”
But at these words the Cardinal felt such a sharp consciousness of pain and loss that his nerves ached with positive fear.
“Nay, nay, my child,” he said anxiously–“I cannot let you go. It shall be as you please,–I will not think that you could do yourself or me a wrong by concealing what would be right for you to tell. It is true that you are alone in the world?”
“Quite, quite alone!” answered Manuel, a faint shadow darkening the serenity of his eyes–“No one was ever more alone than I!”
Madame Patoux drew nearer and listened.
“And there is no person living who has the right to claim you?”
“None!”
“And is it not strange, Monseigneur,” murmured Madame Patoux at this juncture–“The little lad does not speak as if he were ignorant! It is as though he had been well taught and carefully nurtured.”
Manuel’s deep eyes dwelt upon her with a meditative sweetness.
“I have taught myself;” he said simply–“Not out of books, perhaps, but out of nature. The trees and rivers, the flowers and birds have talked to me and explained many things;–I have learned all I know from what God has told me.”
His voice was so gentle and tender that Madame Patoux was infinitely touched by its soft plaintiveness.
“Poor child!” she murmured,–“He has no doubt been wandering through the country, without a soul to help him. Alas, that troubles should begin for one so young! Perhaps he does not even know a prayer!”
“Oh yes!” said Manuel quickly–“Prayer is like thought,–God is so good that it is only natural to thank and praise Him. Is it not so?”
“It should be natural, my boy,” answered the Cardinal slowly and with a slight accent of melancholy,–“But for many of us in these days I fear it is more natural still to forget than to remember. Too often we take gifts and ignore the giver. But come now and breakfast in my room;–for the present you shall remain with me, and I will see what can best be done for your future welfare.”
And turning to Madame Patoux he added smilingly–“You, my daughter, with children of your own to care for, will no longer blame me for my interest in this child, who is without protection in a somewhat rough world. We of the Church dare not ‘offend one of these little ones’.”
“Ah, Monseigneur!” murmured Madame,–“If all in the Church were like you, some poor folks would believe in God more willingly. But when people are starving and miserable, it is easy to understand that often they will curse the priests and even religion itself, for making such a mock of them as to keep on telling them about the joys of heaven, when they are tormented to the very day of their death on earth, and are left without hope or rescue of any kind–“
But the Cardinal had disappeared with his young charge and Madame’s speech was lost upon him. She had therefore to content herself with relating the story of “Monseigneur’s foundling” to her husband, who just then came into the kitchen to take his breakfast before starting off to work in his market-garden. He listened with interest and attention.
“A boy is always a trouble,” he said sententiously–“And it is likely that so Monseigneur will find it. How old would the child be?”
“About twelve, I should say,” answered Madame–“But beautiful as a little angel, Jean!”
“That’s a pity!” and Patoux shook his head ominously–“Tis bad enough when a girl is beautiful,–but a boy!–Well, well! Monseigneur is a wise man, and a saint they say,–he knows best,– but I fear he has taken a burden upon himself which he will very soon regret! What dost thou think of it, petite?”
Madame hesitated a moment before replying.
“Truly, I do not know what to think,” she answered–“For myself, I have not spoken to the child. I have seen him,–yes!–and at the sight of him a something in my throat rose up and choked me as it were,–and stopped me from saying a rough word. Such a lonely gentle lad!–one could not be harsh with him, and yet–“
“Yet! Oh, yes, I know!” said Patoux, finishing his coffee at a gulp and smiling,–“Women will always be women,–and a handsome face in girl or boy is enough to make fools of them all. Where are the children? Are they gone to school?”
“Yes–they went before the Cardinal was up. ‘Tis a Saturday, and they will be back early,–they are going to bring little Fabien Doucet to Monseigneur.”
“What for?” enquired Patoux, his round eyes opening widely in amazement.
“Oh, for a strange fancy! That he may bless the child and pray Our Lady to cure him of his lameness. It was Babette’s whim. I told her the Cardinal was a saint,–and she said,–well! she said she would never believe it unless he worked a miracle! The wicked mischief that girl is!–as bad as Henri, who puts a doubt on everything!”
“‘Tis the school,” said Jean gloomily–“I must speak to Pere Laurent.”
“Truly that would be well,” said Madame–“He may explain what we cannot. All the same, you may be sure the children WILL bring Fabien Doucet to Monseigneur;–they have made up their minds about it,–and if the little miserable’s lameness gets no better, we shall have work enough in future to make the saints respected!”
Patoux muttered something inaudible, and went his way. Life was in his opinion, a very excellent thing,–nevertheless there were a few details about it which occasionally troubled him, and one of these details was decidedly the “national education” question. It struck him as altogether remarkable that the State should force him to send his children to school whether he liked it or no; and moreover that the system of instruction at the said school should be totally opposed to his own ideas. He would have certainly wished his son to learn to read and write, and then to have been trained as a thorough florist and gardener;–while for his daughter he also desired reading and writing as a matter of course, and then a complete education in cooking and domestic economy, so that she might be a useful and efficient wife and mother when the proper time for such duties came. Astronomy he felt they could both do without, and most of the “physical sciences.” Religion he considered an absolute necessity, and this was the very thing that was totally omitted from the national course of education. He was well aware that there are countless numbers of unhappy people nowadays who despise religion and mock at the very idea of a God. Every day he saw certain works exposed for sale on the out-of-door bookstalls which in their very titles proclaimed the hideous tone of blasphemy which in France is gradually becoming universal,–but this did not affect his own sense of what was right and just. He was a very plain common man, but he held holy things in reverence, and instinctively felt that, if the world were in truth a bad place, it was likely to become much worse if all faith in God were taken out of it. And when he reached his plot of ground that morning, and set to work as usual, he was, for a non-reflective man, very much absorbed in thought. His heavy tramping feet over the soil startled some little brown birds from their hidden nests, and sent them flying to and fro through the clear air uttering sharp chirrups of terror,–and, leaning on his spade, he paused and looked at them meditatively.
“Everything is afraid,” he said,–“Birds, beasts, and men,–all are afraid of something and cannot tell what it is that frightens them. It seems hard sometimes that there should be so much trouble and struggle just to live–however, the good God knows best,–and if we could not think and hope and believe He knew best, we might just as well light up a charcoal fire, shut all the doors and windows, and say ‘Bon jour! Bon jour, Monsieur le bon Dieu!–for if YOU do not know YOUR business, it is evident we do not know ours, and therefore ’tis best for both our sakes to make an end of sheer Stupidity!'”
He chuckled at his own reasoning, and moistening his hands vigorously, seized his spade and began to bank up a ridge of celery, singing “Bon jour, Monsieur le bon Dieu!” under his breath without the slightest idea of irreverence. And looking up at the bright sky occasionally, he wished he had seen the stray boy rescued from the streets by Cardinal Bonpre.
“That he will be a trouble, there is no doubt,” he said as he turned and patted the rich dark earth–“Never was there a boy born yet into the world that was not a trouble except our Lord, and even in His case His own people did not know what to make of Him!”
Meantime, while Jean Patoux dug in his garden, and sang and soliloquized, his two children, Henri and Babette, their school hours being ended, had run off to the market, and were talking vivaciously with a big brown sturdy woman, who was selling poultry at a stall, under a very large patched red umbrella. She was Martine Doucet, reported to have the worst temper and most vixenish tongue in all the town, though there were some who said her sourness of humour only arose from the hardships of her life, and the many troubles she had been fated to endure. Her husband, a fine handsome man, earning good weekly wages as a stone-mason, had been killed by a fall from a ladder, while engaged in helping to build one of the new houses on the Boulevards, and her only child Fabien, a boy of ten had, when a baby, tumbled from the cart in which his mother was taking her poultry to market, and though no injury was apparent at the time, had, from the effects of the fall, grown into a poor little twisted mite of humanity with a bent spine, and one useless leg which hung limply from his body, while he could scarcely hobble about on the other, even with the aid of a crutch. He had a soft, pretty, plaintive face of his own, the little Fabien, and very gentle ways,–but he was sensitively conscious of his misfortune, and in his own small secret soul he was always praying that he might die while he was yet a child, and not grow up to be a burden to his mother. Martine, however, adored him; and it was through her intense love for this child of hers that she had, in a strange vengeful sort of mood abandoned God, and flung an open and atheistical defiance in the face of her confessor, who, missing her at mass, had ventured to call upon her and seriously reproach her for neglecting the duties of her religion. Martine had whirled round upon him,–a veritable storm in petticoats.
“Religion!” she cried–“Oh–he! What good has it done for ME, if you please! When I said my prayers night and morning, went to mass and confession, and told my rosary every Mary-Feast, what happened? Was not my man killed and my child crippled? And then,–(not to lose faith–) did I not give the saints every chance of behaving themselves? For my child’s sake did I not earn good money and pay it to the Church in special masses that he might be cured of his lameness? And Novenas in plenty, and candles in plenty to the Virgin, and fastings of my own and penitences? And is the child not as lame as ever? Look at him!–the dear angel!–with never an evil thought or a wicked way,–and will you try to make me believe there is a good God, when He will not help a poor little creature like that, to be happy, though He is prayed to night and morning for it! No–no! Churches are kept up for priests to make a fat living out of,–but there is never a God in them that I can see;–and as for the Christ, who had only to be asked in order to heal the sick, there is not so much as a ghost of Him anywhere! If what you priests tell us were true, poor souls such as I am, would get comfort and help in our sorrows, but it is all a lie!–the whole thing!–and when we are in trouble, we have got to bear it as best we can, without so much as a kind word from our neighbours, let alone any pity from the saints. Go to mass again? Not I!–nor to confession either!–and no more of my earnings will click into your great brass collection plate, mon reverend! Ah no!–I have been a foolish woman indeed, to trust so long in a God who for all my tears and prayers never gives me a sign or a hope of an answer,–and though I suppose this wretched world of ours was made by somebody, whoever it is that has done it is a cruel creature at best, so _I_ say,–without as much good feeling as there is in the heart of an ordinary man, and without the sense of the man either! For who that thinks twice about it would make a world where everything is only born to die?–and for no other use at all! Bah! It is sheer folly and wickedness to talk to me of a God!–a God, if there were one, would surely be far above torturing the creatures He has made, all for nothing!”
And the priest who heard this blasphemous and savage tirade on the part of Martine Doucet, retreated from her in amazement and horror, and presently gave out that she was possessed of a devil, and was unfit to be admitted to the Holy Sacrament. Whereat, when she heard of it, Martine laughed loudly and ferociously.
“Look you!–what a charitable creature a priest is!” she cried–“If you don’t do the things he considers exactly right and fitting, he tells your neighbours that the devil has got you!–and so little does he care to pick you out of the clutches of this same devil, that he refuses you the Sacrament, though THAT is said to drive away Satan by the mere touch of it! But wait till I ASK to have the Sacrament given to me!–it will be time enough then to refuse it! Many a fat chicken of my stock has the reverend father had as a free gift to boil in his soup maigre!” and again she laughed angrily–” But no more of them does he get to comfort his stomach while doing penance for his soul!–the hypocrite! He must find another silly woman to cheat with his stories of a good God who never does anything but kill and curse us every one!–he has had all that he will ever get out of Martine Doucet!”
It was to this redoubtable virago that Henri and Babette had betaken themselves in the market place directly school was over. She always held the same stall in the same position on market days,–and she sat under her red umbrella on a rough wooden bench, knitting rapidly, now keeping an eye on her little lame son, coiled up in a piece of matting beside her, and anon surveying her stock-in-trade of ducks and geese and fowls, which were heaped on her counter, their wrung necks drooping limply from the board, and their yellow feet tied helplessly together and shining like bits of dull gold in the warm light of the September sun. She listened with an impassive countenance while Babette poured out her story of the great Cardinal,–the Cardinal Felix Bonpre, whom people said was a saint,- -how he had come unexpectedly to stay two nights at the Hotel Poitiers,–how “petite maman” had declared he was so good that even angels might visit him,–how kind and gentle and grand he seemed,– “Yes,” said Babette somewhat eagerly, “there was no doubt that he LOOKED good,–and we have told him all about Fabien and he has promised to bless him and ask Our Lord to cure his lameness.”
“Well, and of what use is that, mignonne?” demanded Martine, clicking her knitting-needles violently and stooping over her work to wink away the sudden tears that had risen in her bold brown eyes at Babette’s enthusiastic desire to benefit her afflicted child.– “Asking our Lord is poor business,–you may ask and ask, but you never get answered!”
Babette hung her curly brown head despondingly, and looked appealingly at her brother. Now Henri was a decided cynic;–but his sister exercised a weird fascination over him,–a sort of power to command which he always felt more or less constrained to obey. He stared solemnly at Martine, and then at the little Fabien, who, half rising from his mat, had listened with a visibly painful interest to Babette’s story.
“I think you might let us take Fabien and see if a Cardinal CAN do anything,” he said with a kind of judicial air, as of one who, though considering the case hopeless, had no objection to try a last desperate remedy. “This one is a very old man, and he must know a good deal. He could not do any harm. And I am sure Babette would like to find out if there is any use at all in a Cardinal. I should like it too. You see we went into Notre Dame last night,–Babette and I,–and everything was dark,–all the candles were out at Our Lady’s statue–and we had only ten centimes between us. And the candles are ten centimes each. So we could only light one. But we lit that one, and said an Ave for Fabien. And the candle was all by itself in the Cathedral. And now I think we ought to take him to the Cardinal.”
Martine shook her head, pursed up her lips, and knitted more violently than ever.
“It is all no use–no use!” she muttered–“There is no God,–or if there is, He must be deaf as well as blind!”
But here suddenly the weak plaintive voice of Fabien himself piped out–
“Oh, mother, let me go!”
Martine looked down at him.
“Let thee go? To see the Cardinal? Why he is nought but an old man, child, as helpless as any of us. What dost thou think he can do for thee?”
“Nothing!” and the boy clambered up on his crutch, and stood appealingly before his mother, his fair curls blowing back in the breeze,–“But I SHOULD like to see him. Oh, do let me go!”
Babette caught him by the hand.
“Yes, oh yes, Martine!” she exclaimed–“Let him come with us!”
Martine hesitated a moment longer, but she could never altogether resist an imploring look in her boy’s eyes, or refuse any request he made of her,–and gradually the hard lines of her mouth relaxed into a half smile. Babette at once perceived this, and eagerly accepted it as a sign that she had gained her point.
“Come, Fabien!” she exclaimed delightedly–“Thy mother says yes! We will not be long gone, Martine! And perhaps we will bring him home quite well!”
Martine shook her head sorrowfully, and paused for a while in her knitting to watch the three children crossing the market-place together, Henri supporting her little son on one side, Babette on the other, both carefully aiding his slow and halting movements over the rough cobbles of the uneven pavement. Then as they all turned a corner and disappeared, she sighed, and a couple of bright tears splashed down on her knitting. But the next moment her eyes were as bold and keen and defiant as ever while she stood up to attend to two or three customers who just then approached her stall, and her voice was as shrill and sharp as any woman’s voice could be in the noisy business of driving a bargain. Having disposed of three or four fat geese and fowls at a good profit, she chinked and counted the money in her apron pockets, hummed a tune, and looked up at the genial sky with an expression of disfavour.
“Oh, yes, ’tis a fine day!” she muttered,–“And the heavens look as if the saints lived in them;–but by and by the clouds will come, and the cold!–the sleet, the snow, the frost and the bitterness of winter!–and honest folk will starve while thieves make a good living!–that is the way the wise God arranges things in this world.”
She gave a short laugh of scorn, and resumed the clicking of her needles, not raising her eyes from her work even when her neighbour, the old woman who sold vegetables at the next stall, ventured to address her.
“Where is thy unfortunate boy gone to, Martine?” she enquired,–“Is it wise to let him be with the Patoux children? They are strong and quick and full of mischief,–they might do him fresh injury in play without meaning it.”
“I will trust them,” answered Martine curtly,–“They have taken him to see a Cardinal.”
“A Cardinal!” and the old woman craned her withered neck forward in amazement and began to laugh feebly,–“Nom de Jesus! That is strange! What does the Cardinal want with him?”
“Nothing,” said Martine gruffly–“It seems that he is an old man who is kind to children, and the girl Babette has a fancy to get his blessing for my Fabien,–that is all.”
“And that is little enough,” responded the old vegetable-vendor, still laughing, or rather chuckling hoarsely–“A blessing is not worth much nowadays, is it Martine? It never puts an extra ounce of meat in the pot-au-feu,–and yet it is all one gets out of the priests for all the prayers and the praise. Last time I went to confession I accused myself of the sin of envy. I said ‘Look here, my father, I am a widow and very old; and I have rheumatism in all my bones, and I have only a bit of matting to sleep on at home, and if I have a bad day with the market I can buy no food. And there is a woman living near me who has a warm house, with a stove in it,– and blankets to cover her, and a bit of money put by, and I envy her her blankets and her stove and her house and her money. Is that a sin?’ And he said it was a sin; but that he would absolve me from it if I said ten Paters and ten Aves before Our Lady of Bon-Secours. And then he gave me his blessing,–but no blankets and no stove and no money. And I have not said ten Paters and Aves yet, because my bones have ached too much all the week for me to walk up the hill to Bon-Secours. And the blessing has been no use to me at all.”
“Nor is it likely to be!” scoffed Martine–“I thought you had given up all that Church-nonsense long ago.”
“Nay–nay–not altogether,”–murmured the old woman timidly–“I am very old,–and one never knows–there may be truth in some of it. It is the burning and the roasting in hell that I think of,–you know that is very likely to happen, Martine!–because you see, in this life we have nothing but trouble,–so whoever made us must like to see us suffering;–it must be a pleasure to God, and so it is sure to go on and on always. And I am afraid!–and if a candle now and then to St. Joseph would help matters, I am not the one to grudge it,–it is better to burn a candle than burn one’s self!”
Martine laughed loudly, but made no answer. She could not waste her time arguing against the ridiculous superstitions of an old creature who was so steeped in ignorance as to think that a votive candle could rescue her soul from a possible hell. She went on knitting in silence till a sudden shadow came between her and the sunlight, and a girl’s voice, harsh, yet with a certain broken sweetness in it, said–
“A fine morning’s killing, aye! All their necks wrung,–all dead birds! Once they could fly–fly and swim! Fly and swim! All dead now–and sold cheap in the open market!”
A shrill laugh finished this outburst, but Martine knew who it was that spoke, and maintained her equanimity.
“Is that you again, Marguerite?” she said, not unkindly–“You will tire yourself to death wandering about the streets all day.”
Marguerite Valmond, “la folle” as she was called by the townsfolk, shook her head and smiled cunningly. She was a tall girl, with black hair disordered and falling loosely about her pale face,–her eyes were dark and lustrous, but wild, and with a hunted expression in them,–and her dress was composed of the strangest remnants of oddly assorted materials and colours pinned about her without any order or symmetry, the very idea of decent clothing being hardly considered, as her bosom was half exposed and her legs were bare. She wore no head-covering, and her whole aspect was that of one who had suddenly awakened from a hideous dream and was striving to forget its horrors.
“I shall never be tired!” she said–“If I could be tired I should sleep,–but I never sleep! I am looking for HIM, you know!–it was at the fair I lost him–you remember the great fair? And when I find him I shall kill him! It is quite easy to kill–you take a sharp glittering thing, so!” and she snatched up a knife that lay on Martine’s counter–“And you plunge it–so!” and she struck it down with singular fury through the breast of one of the “dead birds” which were Martine’s stock-in-trade. Then she threw the knife on the ground–rubbed her hands together, tossed her head, and laughed again–“That is how I shall do it when I meet him!”
Martine said nothing. She simply removed the one stabbed bird from among the others, and setting it aside, picked up the knife from the ground and went on knitting as calmly as ever.
“I am going to see the Archbishop,” proceeded Marguerite, tossing back her dishevelled locks and making one or two fantastic dance- steps as she spoke–“The great Archbishop of this wonderful city of Rouen! I want to ask him how it happened that God made men. It was a mistake which He must be sorry for! The Archbishop knows everything;–he will tell me about it. Ah!–what a beautiful mistake is the Archbishop himself!–and how soon women find it out! Bon jour, Martine!”
“Bon jour, Marguerite!” responded Martine quietly.
Singing to herself, the crazed girl sauntered off. Several of the market women looked after her.
“She killed her child, they say,” muttered the old vegetable-seller- -“But no one knows–“
“Sh–sh–sh!” hissed Martine angrily–“What one does not know one should not say. Mayhap there never was a child at all. Whatever the wrong was, she has suffered for it;–and if the man who led her astray ever comes nigh her, his life is not worth a centime.”
“Rough justice!” said one of the market porters, who had just paused close by to light his pipe.
“Aye, rough justice!” echoed Martine–“When justice is not given to the people, the people take it for themselves! And if a man deals ill by a woman, he has murdered her as surely as if he had put a knife through her;–and ’tis but even payment when he gets the knife into himself. Things in this life are too easy for men and too hard for women; men make the laws for their own convenience, and never a thought of us at all in the making. They are a selfish lot!”
The porter laughed carelessly, and having lit his pipe to his satisfaction went his way.
A great many more customers now came to Martine’s stall, and for upwards of an hour there was shrill argument and driving of bargains till she had pretty well cleared her counter of all its stock. Then she sat down again and looked to right and left of the market-place for any sign of the Patoux children returning with her little son, but there was not a glimpse of them anywhere.
“I wonder what they are doing!” she thought–“And I wonder what sort of a Cardinal it is they have taken the child to see! These great princes of the Church care nothing for the poor,–the very Pope allows half Italy to starve while he shuts himself up with his treasures in the Vatican;–what should a great Cardinal care for my poor little Fabien! If the stories of the Christ were true, and one could only take the child to Him, then indeed there might be a chance of cure!–but it is all a lie,–and the worst of the lie is that it would give us all so much comfort and happiness if it were only true! It is like holding out a rope to a drowning man and snatching it away again. And when the rope goes, the sooner one sinks under the waves the better!”
VI.
The Cardinal was still in his room alone with the boy Manuel, when Madame Patoux, standing at her door under the waving tendrils of the “creeping jenny” and shading her eyes from the radiance of the sun, saw her children approaching with Fabien Doucet between them.
“Little wretches that they are!” she murmured–“Once let them get an idea into their heads and nothing will knock it out! Now I shall have to tell Monseigneur that they are here,–what an impertinence it seems!–and yet he is so gentle, and has such a good heart that perhaps he will not mind . . .”
Here she broke off her soliloquy as the children came up, Babette eagerly demanding to know where the Cardinal was. Madame Patoux set her arms akimbo and surveyed the little group of three half- pityingly, half derisively.
“The Cardinal has not left his room since breakfast,” she answered– “He is playing Providence already to a poor lad lost in the streets, and for that matter lost in the world, without father or mother to look after him,–he was found in Notre Dame last night,–“
“Why, mother,” interrupted Henri–“how could a boy get into Notre Dame last night? When Babette and I went there, nobody was in the church at all,–and we left one candle burning all alone in the darkness,–and when we came out the Suisse swore at us for having gone in, and then locked the door.”
“Well, if one must be so exact, the boy was not found actually in Notre Dame, obstinate child,” returned his mother impatiently–“It happened at midnight,–the good Cardinal heard someone crying and went to see who it was. And he found a poor boy outside the Cathedral weeping as if his heart were breaking, and leaning his head against the hard door for a pillow. And he brought him back and gave him his own bed to sleep in;–and the lad is with him now.”
Little Fabien Doucet, leaning on his crutch, looked up with interest.
“Is he lame like me?” he asked.
“No, child,” replied Madame compassionately–“He is straight and strong. In truth a very pretty boy.”
Fabien sighed. Babette made a dash forward.
“I will go and see him!” she said–“And I will call Monseigneur.”
“Babette! How dare you! Babette!”
But Babette had scurried defiantly past her mother, and breathless with a sense of excitement and disobedience intermingled, had burst into the Cardinal’s room without knocking. There on the threshold she paused,–somewhat afraid at her own boldness,–and startled too at the sight of Manuel, who was seated near the window opposite the Cardinal, and who turned his deep blue eyes upon her with a look of enquiry. The Cardinal himself rose and turned to greet her, and as the wilful little maid met his encouraging glance and noted the benign sweetness of his expression she trembled,–and losing nerve, began to cry.
“Monseigneur . . . Monseigneur . . .” she stammered.
“Yes, my child,–what is it?” said the Cardinal kindly–“Do not be afraid,–I am at your service. You have brought the little friend you spoke to me of yesterday?”
Babette peeped shyly at him through her tears, and drooping her head, answered with a somewhat smothered “Yes.”
“That is well,–I will go to him at once,”–and the Cardinal paused a moment looking at Manuel, who as if responding to his unuttered wish, rose and approached him–“And you, Manuel–you will also come. You see, my child,” went on the good prelate addressing Babette, the while he laid a gently caressing hand on her hair–“Another little friend has come to me who is also very sad,–and though he is not crippled or ill, he is all alone in the world, which is, for one so young, a great hardship. You must be sorry for him too, as well as for your own poor playmate.”
But Babette was seized with an extraordinary timidity, and had much ado to keep back the tears that rose in her throat and threatened to break out in a burst of convulsive sobbing. She did not know in the least what was the matter with her,–she was only conscious of an immense confusion and shyness which were quite new to her ordinarily bold and careless nature. Manuel’s face frightened yet fascinated her; he looked, she thought, like the beautiful angel of the famous stained glass “Annunciation” window in the crumbling old church of St. Maclou. She dared not speak to him,–she could only steal furtive glances at him from under the curling length of her dark tear-wet lashes,–and when the Cardinal took her by the hand and descended the staircase with her to the passage where the crippled Fabien waited, she could not forbear glancing back every now and then over her shoulder at the slight, supple, almost aerial figure of the boy, who, noiselessly, and with a light gliding step, followed. And now Madame Patoux came forward;–a bulky, anxious figure of gesticulation and apology.
“Alas, Monseigneur!” she began plaintively–“It is too shameful that your quiet should be disturbed in this way, but if you could only know the obstinacy of these children! Ah yes!–if you knew all, you would pity their parents!–you would indeed! And this is the unhappy little creature they have brought to you, Monseigneur,–a sad sight truly!–and afflicted sorely by the will of God,–though one could hardly say that God was anywhere about when he fell, poor baby, from his mother’s cart and twisted his body awry,–one would rather think the devil was in the business, asking your pardon, Monseigneur; for surely the turning of a human creature into a useless lump has little of good, or divine kindness in it! Now make thy best bow to the Cardinal,” went on Madame with a gasp for breath in her voluble speech, addressing the little cripple–” And it is a pity them hast no time to confess thy sins and take the Sacrament before so holy a man lay hands on thee!”
But at these words Cardinal Bonpre turned to her with a reproving gesture.
“I pray you do not call me holy, my daughter,” he said earnestly, the old shadows of pain and prote gathering in his eyes, “Nothing can make me more sorrowful than to hear such an epithet applied to one who is so full of errors and sins as myself. Try to look upon me just as I am,–merely an old man, nearing the grave, with nothing of merit in me beyond the desire to serve our Lord and obey His commands,–a desire which is far stronger than the practical force to obey it. Much that I would do I cannot; and in much that I attempt I fail. Come to me, my child.”
Here, interrupting himself, he bent down, and putting his arms tenderly round Fabien, lifted him bodily, crutch and all, and carried him into the next room, and as he did so, the young Manuel glided in before him, and stood beside his chair, his blue eyes shining with a soft and eager light of interest, and a little smile lifting the delicate upper curve of his lips as he looked on. Fabien meanwhile, perched on the Cardinal’s knee, and held close in the Cardinal’s arms, was not at all frightened,–he simply sat, contented, gazing up confidingly at the pale venerable face above him. Henri and Babette, having as they considered, got their way, stayed at the door half afraid to enter, and their mother peered over their heads at the little scene in mingled awe and curiosity.
“My poor child,” then said the Cardinal gently–“I want you to understand quite clearly how sorry I am for you, and how willingly I would do anything in the world to make you a strong, well, and happy boy. But you must not fancy that I can cure you. I told your little friends yesterday that I was not a saint, such as you read about in story-books,–and that I could not work miracles, because I am not worthy to be so filled with the Divine Spirit as to heal with a touch like the better servants of our Blessed Lord. Nevertheless I firmly believe that if God saw that it was good for you to be strong and well, He would find ways to make you so. Sometimes sickness and sorrow are sent to us for our advantage,–sometimes even death comes to us for our larger benefit, though we may not understand how it is so till afterwards. But in Heaven everything will be made clear; and even our griefs will be turned into joys,–do you understand?”
“Yes,” murmured Fabien gravely, but two large tears welled up in his plaintive eyes as the faint glimmer of hope he had encouraged as to the possibility of his being miraculously cured by the touch of a saintly Cardinal, expired in the lonely darkness of his little afflicted soul.
“That is well,” continued the Cardinal kindly–“And now, since it is so difficult for you to kneel, you shall stay where you are in my arms,–so!”–and he set him on his knee in a position of even greater comfort than before, “You shall simply shut your eyes, and clasp your little hands together as I put them here,”–and as he spoke he crossed the child’s hands on his silver crucifix-“And I will ask our Lord to come and make you well,–for of myself I can do nothing.”
At these words Henri and Babette glanced at each other questioningly, and then as if simultaneously moved by some inexplicable emotion, dropped on their knees,–their mother, too stout and unwieldy to do this with either noiselessness or satisfaction to herself, was contented to bend her head as low as she could get it. Manuel remained standing. Leaning against the Cardinal’s chair, his eyes fixed on the crippled Fabien, he had the aspect of a young Angel of compassion, whose sole immortal desire was to lift the burden of sorrow and pain from the lives of suffering humanity. And after a minute or two passed in silent meditation, the Cardinal laid his hands tenderly on Fabien’s fair curly head and prayed aloud.
“Oh merciful Christ! Most pitying and gentle Redeemer!–to Whom in the days of Thy sacred life on earth, the sick and suffering and lame and blind were brought, and never sent away unhealed or uncomforted; consider, we beseech Thee, the sufferings of this Thy little child, deprived of all the joys which Thou hast made so sweet for those who are strong and straight in their youth, and who have no ailment to depress their courage or to quench the ardour of their aspiring souls. Look compassionately upon him, oh gentle King and Master of all such children!–and even as Thou wert a child Thyself, be pleased to heal him of his sad infirmity. For, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make this bent body straight and these withered muscles strong,–from death itself Thou canst ordain life, and nothing is impossible to Thee! But above all things, gracious Saviour, we do pray Thee so to lift and strengthen this child’s soul, that if it is destined he should still be called upon to bear his present pain and trouble, grant to him such perfection in his inward spirit that he may prove worthy to be counted among Thy angels in the bright Hereafter. To Thy care, and to Thy comfort, and to Thy healing, great Master, we commend him, trusting him entirely to Thy mercy, with perfect resignation to Thy Divine Will. For the sake and memory of Thy most holy childhood mercifully help and bless this child! Amen!”
A deep silence ensued. Only the slow ticking of the big old- fashioned clock in Madame Patoux’s kitchen, which was next door to the room they were all in, could be distinctly heard. Henri and Babette were the first to stir. They got up from their knees, brushed the dust of the floor from their clothes, and stared curiously at Fabien. Was a miracle going to happen? Fabien, however- -still resting against the Cardinal’s breast, with his meagre little hands clasped tight on the Cardinal’s crucifix, kept his eyes solemnly shut and gave no sign, till the Cardinal himself gently moved him and set him down. Then he glanced around him bewilderingly, tottered, and would have fallen had he not been given his little crutch for support. Very pathetic was the smile which then quivered on his pale lips,–very doleful was the shake of his head as he prepared to hobble away.
“Thank you very much, Monseigneur,” he murmured gently–“I felt almost cured while you were praying,–but I am afraid it is no use! You see there are so many miserable people in the world,–many cripples, too,–I am not the only one. Our Lord must have enough to do if He is asked to heal them all! But I am sure you have done everything you can for me, and I am grateful to you, Monseigneur. Good-bye!”
“Good-bye, my child!” and the Cardinal, strongly moved by the sight of the little helpless twisted figure, and painfully impressed too by the sense of his own entire powerlessness to remove the cause of the trouble, bent down and kissed him–“Believe me, if the giving of my own life could make you strong, you should have that life willingly. May God bless and heal you!”
At that moment Manuel moved from the place he had kept near the Cardinal’s chair. With a light, eager step forward, he went up to the little cripple, and putting his arms round him kissed him on the forehead.
“Good-bye, dear little brother!” he said smiling–“Do not be sad! Have patience! In all the universe, among all the millions and millions of worlds, there is never a pure and unselfish prayer that the great good God does not answer! Be sure of that! Take courage, dear little brother! You will soon be well!”
Fabien stared, half amazed, at the gentle young face that shone upon him with such an expression of hope and tenderness.
“You are very kind,” he said–“And you are just a boy yourself,–so you can perhaps guess how it must feel not to be like other boys who can run and leap and walk for miles and miles through the fields and the green shady forests where the birds sing,–and where there is so much to see and think about,–when one is lame one cannot go far you know–and then there is my mother–she is very sad about me,–and it will be hard for her if I live to be a man and still can do nothing to help her . . .”
His weak voice broke, and two large tears filled his eyes and brimmed over, trickling slowly down his pale cheeks. Manuel took his hand and pressed it encouragingly.
“Do not cry!” he said gently–“Believe in what I say–that you will soon be quite well. The Cardinal has prayed for you as only good men CAN pray,–without one selfish thought, in faith and deep humility,- -such prayers draw angels down! Be patient–be brave! Believe in the best and the best will come!”
His words rang out with a sweet convincing clearness, and even Cardinal Bonpre felt a sense of comfort as he listened. The little cripple smiled through his tears.
“Oh, yes,” he murmured–“I WILL hope and I WILL believe! I am always sure God is near us, though my mother thinks He must be very far away. Yes,–I will be as brave as I can. You are very good to me,–I know you understand just how I feel, and I thank you very much. I hope you will be happy yourself some day. Good-bye!” Then, turning to Henri and Babette he asked, “Shall we go now?”
Henri’s brows were drawn together in a dark frown.
“I suppose so,” he replied–“I suppose there’s nothing more to be done?” This, with a somewhat sarcastic air of inquiry directed at the Cardinal, who met his bold bright glance, mildly and half compassionately.
“Nothing more my child”–he answered–“Did you expect a miracle? I told you from the first that I was no saint,–I can do no good unless our Lord wills it.”
“The Pope believes in miracles”–said Henri, flushing as he spoke with the heat of a sudden angry emotion–“But only those that are performed on his own behalf! HE thinks that God’s chief business is to look after HIM!”
A silence ensued,–whether of horror or embarrassment could hardly be determined. The Cardinal said nothing,–Babette trembled a little,–what a dreadful boy Henri really was, she thought!–Madame Patoux shut up her eyes in horror, crossed herself devoutly as against some evil spirit, and was about to speak, when Henri, nothing daunted, threw himself into the breach again, and turned with a fiery vehemence of appeal towards the young and thoughtful- looking Manuel.
“It’s just as I say!” he declared hotly–“The Pope is taken as much care of as if he were a peach wrapped in wadding! Was Christ taken care of? No,–He suffered all sorts of hardships and at last was crucified! The Pope shuts himself up in the Vatican with millions and millions of money’s worth, while thousands of people around him in Italy alone, are starving and miserable. Christ would not allow such a thing. Christ said ‘Sell half that thou hast and give to the poor’–now the Pope doesn’t sell half, nor a quarter, nor a bit of a quarter! He takes all he can get and keeps it! And yet God is supposed to work miracles for an old man like that!–Oh I know all about it! Boys read the newspapers as well as grown men!”
“Henri!” gasped Madame Patoux, extending her fat arm and hand with a solemn gesture of reproach–“Henri, thou art mad . . . wicked . . .”
But Henri went on unheedingly, still addressing Manuel.
“Now you are a boy, and I daresay you can read and think,–you are about my age I suppose. And you are left all alone in the world, with nobody to care for you,–well, do you think that is well- arranged?–And do you think there is any sense in believing in a God who does such a lot of cruel things? And when He won’t help us ever so little? How can people be good if they keep on praying and praying, and hoping and hoping, and working and working–and yet nothing comes of it all but trouble and pain and loss . . .” He stopped for sheer lack of breath to go on.
Manuel looked at him quietly, full in the eyes.
“Yes, it is hard!” he said–“Very hard! But it is not God who does any cruel thing. God is Love,–and the Spirit of Love cannot be cruel. It is the people of the world themselves,–the people who injure each other in thought, word and deed,–and who have no spirit of love in them,–these invite sorrow and pain, and rush upon misfortune. Then they blame God for it! Ah, it is easy to blame God!–so much easier than to blame one’s self! And if you ask me if it is well for those who suffer cruel things to still believe in God, I say yes, I do think it well,–for it is the only chance they have of finding the right way of life after much wandering in the wrong.”
His sweet voice fell on the silence like a soft chime, and Henri, for no particular reason that he could give, felt suddenly abashed. Cardinal Bonpre listened to the words of this strange foundling with a singular emotion,–an emotion too deep to find any outlet in speech. Babette raised her brown trustful eyes, and timidly ventured to put in her opinion.
“Yes”–she said–“I am sure that is true. You see Henri”–with a wise glance at her brother–“you see it is always the same,–when anyone suffers something unfortunate, there is certain to be some cause for it. Now everybody says that if poor Martine had not put Fabien in the cart to save herself the trouble of holding him on her knee, he would not have tumbled out and been hurt. That was the beginning of it. And that was not God’s fault. Come Fabien!–we’ll take you back now.”
At this, Madame Patoux started from her stricken condition of horrified dumbness into speech and action.
“Ah yes, it is indeed time!” she exclaimed–“Enough trouble has been given, I am sure, to Monseigneur, and if such a prayer as his does not reach Heaven, why then there is no Heaven at all, and it is no good bothering ourselves about it. And what things have been said by my son!–MY son!–against the Holy Father! Ah, mon Dieu! The wickedness of it!–The horror! And if thou learnest such blasphemy from newspapers, Henri, thou shalt not read them–“
“Who is to prevent me?” demanded Henri, his eyes sparkling defiantly.
“Hush–hush my child!” interposed the Cardinal quietly “Nothing indeed can prevent thee,–no one can hinder thee from walking the world according to thine own will and direction. Thou must take good and evil as they come, and strive thy best to discern between them– and if the love of God cannot help thee–well!–perchance the love of thy mother may!”
There was a pause. Henri’s head drooped, and quick tears filled his eyes. He said nothing further, but turned to assist Babette in guiding the little Fabien’s hesitating steps as he hobbled from the room. The emotional Madame Patoux choked back a rising sob.
“God bless you Monseigneur!” she murmured–“Henri will not forget those words–the lad has a hasty temper, but a good heart–yes, believe me–a good heart–“
“That I am sure of”–responded the Cardinal–“He is quick and intelligent–and seeks to know the truth. If he could feel an asserted ‘truth’ to be really true, I am confident he would frame his life upon it, and be a good, brave man. Yes–he is a clever lad,–and our modern system of education pushes the brain to a precocity exceeding bodily years,–his impatience and anger only come from puzzling over what he finds it difficult to understand. It is all a puzzle to him–all a puzzle!–as it is to most of us!” He sighed–then added in a lighter tone–“I shall want nothing more at your kindly hands, my daughter. I have decided to leave Rouen for Paris to-day and will take an early afternoon train. Manuel”–and he hesitated a moment–“Manuel will go with me.”
Madame was scarcely surprised at this announcement. She had indeed expected it. She glanced at Manuel himself to see how he accepted this sudden change in his fortunes, but he was entirely absorbed in watching Henri and Babette lead their little crippled friend away. After all, there was nothing to be said. The Cardinal was a free agent,–he had a perfect right to befriend a homeless boy and give him sustenance and protection if he chose. He would make, thought Madame, a perfect acolyte, and would look like a young angel in his little white surplice. And so the good woman, deciding in her own mind that such was the simple destiny for which the Cardinal intended him, smiled, murmured something deferential and approving, and hastened from the room, to prepare for Monseigneur, whether he asked for it or not, a dish of her most excellent soup, to strengthen and support him before starting on his journey. And ere four o’clock had chimed from all the towers of the city, the Hotel Poitiers was deprived of its honoured guest,–the Cardinal, accompanied by his foundling, had departed, and the black, smoky, snake-like train had rushed with them through the smiling peace of the Normandy pasture-lands on towards the brilliant “city enthroned in wickedness,” which sparkles like a jewel on the borders of the Seine as gloriously as ever Babylon sparkled on the shores of Euphrates. As godless, as hollow to the very core of rottenness, as her sister of ancient days, wanton “Lutetia” shines,–with the ghastly and unnatural lustre of phosphorescent luminance arising from old graves–and as divinely determined as the destruction of the old-time city splendid, is the approaching downfall of the modern capital. To the inhabitants of Rouen, the very name of Paris carries with it a kind of awe,–it excites various emotions of wonder, admiration, longing, curiosity and even fear,–for Paris is a witches’ cauldron in which Republicanism, Imperialism, Royalism, Communism and Socialism, are all thrown by the Fates to seethe together in a hellish broth of conflicting elements–and the smoke of it ascends in reeking blasphemy to Heaven. Not from its church- altars does the cry of “How long, O Lord, how long!” ascend nowadays,–for its priests are more skilled in the use of the witty bon-mot or the polished sneer than in the power of the prophet’s appeal,–it is from the Courts of Science that the warning note of terror sounds,–the cold vast courts where reasoning thinkers wander, and learn, and deeply meditate, knowing that all their researches but go to prove the fact that apart from all creed and all forms of creed, Crime carries Punishment as surely as the seed is born with the flower,–thinkers who are fully aware that not all the forces of all mankind, working with herculean insistence to support a Lie, can drive back the storm-cloud of the wrath of that “Unknown Quantity” called God, whose thunders do most terribly declare the truth “with power and great glory.” “How long O Lord, how long!” Not long, we think, O friends!–not long now shall we wait for the Divine Pronouncement of the End. Hints of it are in the air,–signs and portents of it are about us in our almost terrific discoveries of the invisible forces of Light and Sound,–we are not given such tremendous powers to play with in our puny fashion for the convenience of making our brief lives easier to live and more interesting,–no, there is some deeper reason,–one, which in our heedless way of dancing over our own Earth-grave, we never dream of. And we go on making our little plans, building our ships and making loud brags of our armies, and our skill, and our prowess both by land and sea, and our amazing importance to ourselves and to others,–which importance has reached such a height at the present day as to make of us a veritable spectacle for Olympian laughter,– and we draw out our little sums of life from the Eternal exchequer, and add them up and try to obtain the highest interest for them, always forgetting to calculate that in making up the sum total, that mysterious “Unknown Quantity” will have to come in, and (un less it has been taken into due counting from the first) will be a figure likely to swamp the whole banking business. And in this particular phase of speculation and exchange, Paris has long been playing a losing game. So steadily has she lost, in honour, in prestige, in faith, in morals, in justice, in honesty and in cleanly living, that it does not seem possible she can ever retrieve herself. Her men are dissolute,–her women shameless–her youth of both sexes depraved,– her laws are corrupt–her arts de cadent–her religion dead. What next can be expected of her?–or rather to what extent will Destiny permit her to go before the bolt of destruction falls? “Thus far, and no farther” has ever been the Principle of Nature–and Paris has almost touched the “Thus far.”
Sitting quietly in her tidy kitchen near the open window, after the Cardinal’s departure, Madame Patoux knitted busily, her thoughts flying faster than her glittering needles. A certain vague impression of solemnity had been left on her mind by the events of the morning,–she could not quite reason out the why or the wherefore of it–and yet–it was a fact that after Monseigneur had gone, she had, when entering the rooms he had vacated, felt a singular sense of awe.
“Almost as if one were in the Cathedral at the ringing of the ‘Sanctus'” she murmured under her breath, glancing about timidly at the plain furniture and bare walls. And after putting everything in order, she closed and locked the doors jealously, with a determination that she would not let those rooms to the first chance-comer for a long time,–no, though she might have to lose money by her refusal. And now, as she sat actively employed in knitting socks for Henri, whom she could see sitting with his sister outside on the bench under the house porch, reading or pretending to read, she began to wonder what opinion those two young miscreants had formed in their minds respecting the Cardinal, and also what they thought of the boy who had been taken so suddenly under his protection. She was almost tempted to call Henri and ask him a few questions on the subject,–but she had learnt to value peace and quietness when she could secure those rare blessings at the hands of her children, and when they were employed with a book and visibly out of mischief she thought it wisest to leave them alone. And so she left them in the present instance, pushing her window open as she sat and knitted, for the air was warm and balmy, and the long rays of sunshine streaming across the square were of the hue of a ripe nectarine just gathered, and the delicate mouldings and traceries and statues on the porch of the Cathedral appeared like so many twinings of grey gossamer web glistening in a haze of gold. Now and then neighbours passed, and nodded or called a greeting which Madame Patoux answered cheerily, still knitting vivaciously; and the long shafts of sunshine grew longer, casting deeper shadows as the quarters chimed. All at once there was a cry,–a woman’s figure came rushing precipitately across the square,–Madame Patoux sprang up, and her children ran out of the porch as they recognised Martine Doucet.
“Martine! Martine! What is it!” they all cried simultaneously.
Martine, breathless, dishevelled, laughing and sobbing alternately, tried to speak, but could only gesticulate and throw up her hands in a kind of ecstasy, but whether of despair or joy could not be guessed. Madame Patoux shook her by the arm.
“Martine!–speak–what is it!”
Martine made a violent effort.
“Fabien!–Fabien–” she gasped, flinging herself to and fro and still sobbing and laughing.
“Mon Dieu!” cried Madame in horror. “Is the child dead?”
“No, no!–” and Martine again tossed her arms aloft in a kind of frenzy. “No–but look you!–there IS a God! Yes!–we thought He was an invention of the priests–but no–He is a real God after all!–Oh mes enfants!” and she tried to grasp the amazed Henri and Babette in her arms, “You are two of His angels!–you took my boy to the Cardinal–“
The children glanced at each other.
“Yes–yes!” they murmured breathlessly.
“Well! and see what has happened!–See!–Here comes Fabien–!”
And as she spoke exultantly with an excitement that seemed to inspire every nerve of her body, a little figure came running lightly towards them,–the light strong figure of a boy with fair curls flying in the wind, and a face in which the large, grey, astonished eyes flashed with an almost divine joy.
“Mother!–Mother!” he cried.
Madame Patoux felt as though the heavens had suddenly opened to let the angels down. Was this Fabien? Fabien, who had hobbled painfully upon crutches all his life, and had left her house in his usual condition an hour or so ago?–This straight-limbed child, running with the graceful and easy movement of a creature who had never known a day’s pain?
“Fabien, is it thou?” almost screamed Henri, “Speak, is it thou?”
“It is I” said Fabien, and he stopped, panting for breath,–then threw his arms round his mother’s neck and faced them,–“It is I– strong and well!–thanks to God and the prayers of the Cardinal!”
For a moment there was a dead silence,–a silence of stupefied amazement unbroken save by the joyful weeping of Martine. Then suddenly a deep-toned bell rang from the topmost tower of Notre Dame–and in the flame-red of the falling sun the doves that make their homes among the pinnacles of the great Cathedral, rose floating in cloudy circles towards the sky. One bell–and then another–yet another!–
“The Angelus!” cried Babette dropping on her knees and folding her hands, “The Angelus!–Mother–Martine–Henri!–Fabien!–the Angelus!”–
Down they all knelt, a devotional group, in the porch through which the good Cardinal had so lately passed, and the bells chimed sweetly and melodiously as Fabien reverently repeated the Angelic Salutation amid responses made with tears and thanksgiving, and neighbours and townfolk hearing of the miracle came hastening to the Hotel Poitiers to enquire into its truth, and pausing as they saw the cluster of kneeling figures in the porch instinctively and without question knelt also,–then as the news spread, group after group came running and gathering together, and dropping on their knees amazed and awe- struck, till the broad Square showed but one black mass of a worshipping congregation under the roseate sky, their voices joining in unison with the clear accents of one little happy child; while behind them rose the towers of Notre Dame, and over their heads the white doves flew and the bells of the Angelus rang. And the sun dropped slowly into the west, crimson and glorious like the shining rim of a Sacramental Cup held out and then drawn slowly back again by angel hands within the Veil of Heaven.
VII.
Meanwhile, unconscious of the miracle his prayer had wrought, Cardinal Bonpre and his young charge Manuel, arrived in Paris, and drove from the station direct to a house situated near the Bois du Boulogne, where the Cardinal’s niece, Angela Sovrani, only daughter of Prince Sovrani, and herself famous throughout Europe as a painter of the highest promise, had a suite of rooms and studio, reserved for her occasional visits to the French capital. Angela Sovrani was a rare type of her sex,–unlike any other woman in the world, so those who knew her best were wont to declare. Without being actually beautiful, according to the accepted lines and canons of physical perfection, she created around her an effect of beauty, which was dazzling and exciting to a singular degree,–people who came once within the charmed circle of her influence could never forget her, and always spoke of her afterwards as a creature apart;–a “woman of genius,–yes!”–they said, “But something more even than that.” And this “something more,” was just the inexplicable part of her which governed her whole being, and rendered her so indescribably attractive. And she was not without beauty–or perhaps it should be termed loveliness rather,–of an exquisitely suggestive kind, which provoked the beholder into questioning where and how the glamour of it fell. In her eyes, perhaps, the secret lay,–they were violet- grey in hue, and drowsy-lidded, with long lashes that swept the delicate pale cheeks in a dark golden fringe of shadow, through which the sparkle of vision gleamed,–now warningly, now tenderly,– and anon, these same half-shut and deep fringed lids would open wide, letting the full brilliance of the soul behind the eyes pour forth its luminance, in flashes of such lightning-like clearness and compelling force, that it was impossible not to recognise something higher than mere woman in the dazzle of that spiritual glory. In figure she was wonderfully slight,–so slight indeed that she suggested a delicate willow-withe such as can be bent and curved with one hand–yet this slightness stood her in good stead, for being united with extreme suppleness, it gave her a grace of movement resembling that of some skimming mountain bird or sea- swallow, which flies with amazing swiftness yet seeming slowness. Angela never moved quickly,–no one had ever seen her in what is termed a “rush,” or a vulgar hurry. She did everything she had to do without haste, without noise, without announcement or assertion of any kind;–and all that she did was done as perfectly as her ability could warrant. And that ability was very great indeed, and displayed itself in small details as well as large attempts. Whether she merely twisted her golden-brown hair into a knot, or tied a few flowers together and fastened them on her dress with a pearl pin, either thing was perfectly done–without a false line or a discordant hue. Her face, form, voice and colouring were like a chord of music, harmonious,–and hence the impression of satisfaction and composure her presence always gave. In herself she was a creature of remarkable temperament and character;–true womanly in every delicate sentiment, fancy and feeling, but with something of the man-hero in her scorn of petty aims, her delight in noble deeds, her courage, her ambition, her devotion to duty and her unflinching sense of honour. Full of rare perceptions and instinctive knowledge of persons and motives, she could only be deceived and blinded where her deepest affections were concerned, and there she could certainly be fooled and duped as completely as the wisest of us all. Looking at her now as she stood awaiting her uncle’s arrival in the drawing-room of her “suite,” the windows of which faced the Bois, she expressed to the air and surroundings the personality of a thoughtful, charming young woman,–no more. Her black silk gown, cut simply in the prevailing mode of definitely outlining the figure from throat to hips, and then springing out in pliant folds of trailing drapery, had nothing remarkable about it save its Parisian perfection of fit,–the pale “Gloire de France” rose that rested lightly amongst the old lace at her neck, pinned, yet looking as though it had dropped there merely out of a languid desire to escape from further growing, was her only ornament. Her hair, full of curious lights and shades running from brown to gold and gold to brown again, in a rippling uncertain fashion, clustered thickly over her brow and was caught back at the sides in a loose twist after the style of the Greek vestals,–and her fine, small white hands and taper fingers, so skilled in the use of the artist’s brush, looked too tiny and delicate to be of any service save to receive the kisses of a lover’s lips,–or to be raised, folded pure and calm, in a child-like appeal to Heaven. Certainly in her fragile appearance she expressed nothing save indefinable charm–no one, studying her physiognomy, would have accredited her with genius, power, and the large conceptions of a Murillo or a Raphael;–yet within the small head lay a marvellous brain–and the delicate body was possessed by a spirit of amazing potency to conjure with. While she watched for the first glimpse of the carriage which was to bring her uncle the Cardinal, whom she loved with a rare and tender devotion, her thoughts were occupied with a letter she had received that morning from Rome,–a letter “writ in choice Italian,” which though brief, contained for her some drops of the essence of all the world’s sweetness, and was worded thus–
“MY OWN LOVE!–A century seems to have passed away since you left Rome. The hours move slowly without you–they are days,–even years!–but I feel your spirit is always with me! Absence for those who love, is not absence after all! To the soul, time is nothing,– space is nothing,–and my true and passionate love for you makes an invisible bridge, over which my thoughts run and fly to your sweet presence, carrying their delicious burden of a thousand kisses!–a thousand embraces and blessings to the Angela and angel of my life! From her devoted lover,
“Florian.”
Her devoted lover, Florian! Yes; Florian Varillo–her comrade in art, was her lover,–a genius himself, who had recognised HER genius and who bowed before it, conquered and subdued! Florian, the creator of exquisitely delicate landscapes and seascapes, with nymphs and cupids and nereids and sirens all daintily portrayed therein,– pictures so ethereal and warm and bright in colour that they were called by some of the best Italian critics, the “amoretti” of painting,–he, this wonderful man, had caught her soul and heart by storm, in a few sudden, quickly-whispered words one night when the moon was at the full, hanging high over the gardens of the Pincio,– and, proud of her security in the love she had won, Angela had risen by leaps and bounds to a magnificence of creative effort and attainment so far beyond him, that old and wise persons, skilled in the wicked ways of the world, would sometimes discourse among themselves in dubious fashion thus: “Is it possible that he is not jealous? He must surely see that her work is superior to his own!” And others would answer, “Oh no! No man was ever known to admit, even in thought, that a woman can do better things in art than himself! If a masculine creature draws a picture on a paving-stone he will assure himself in his own Ego, that it is really much more meritorious simply as ‘man’s work’ than the last triumph of a Rosa Bonheur. Besides, you have to remember that in this case the man is the woman’s lover–he could soon kill her genius if he chose. He has simply to desert her,–such an easy thing!–so often done!–and she will paint no more. Women are all alike,–they rest on love,–when that fails, then everything fails, and they drop into old age without a groan.” And then perhaps a stray cynic would say, “But Angela Sovrani need not depend on one lover surely?–” and he would get for answer, “No, she need not–but it so happens that she does,”–which to everybody seemed extraordinary, more particularly in Italy, where morals are so lax, that a woman has only to be seen walking alone in the public gardens or streets with one of the opposite sex, and her reputation is gone for ever. It is no use to explain that the man in question is her father, her brother or her uncle,–he simply could not be. He is THE man, the one inevitable. Few Italians (in Italy) believe in the chastity of English women,– their reasons for doubt being simply because they see the fair and free ones going to parties, theatres and other places of amusement with their friends of the other sex in perfect ease and confidence. And in the case of Angela Sovrani, though she was affianced to Florian Varillo with her father’s consent, (reluctantly obtained,) and the knowledge of all the Roman world of society, she saw very little of him,–and that little, never alone. Thus it was very sweet to receive such consoling words as those she had had from him that day–“Time is nothing,–space is nothing,–and my true and passionate love for you makes an invisible bridge over which my thoughts run and fly to your sweet presence!” The letter lay warm in her bosom just under the “Gloire de France” rose; she pressed it tenderly with her little hand now simply for the childish pleasure of hearing the paper rustle, and she smiled dreamily.
“Florian,” she murmured half aloud!–“MY Florian!” And she recalled certain lines of verse he had written to her,–for most Italians write verse as easily as they eat maccaroni;–and there are countless rhymes to “amor” in the dulcet Dante-tongue, whereas our rough English can only supply for the word “love” some three or four similar sounds,–which is perhaps a fortunate thing. Angela spoke English and French as easily and fluently as her native Tuscan, and had read the most notable books in all three languages, so she was well aware that of all kinds of human speech in the world there is none so adapted for making love and generally telling lies in, as the “lingua Toscana in bocca Romana.” And this particular “lingua” Florian possessed in fullest perfection of sweetness, so far as making love was concerned;–of the telling of lies he was, according to Angela’s estimate of him, most nobly ignorant. She had not many idle moments, however, for meditation on her love matters, or for dreamy study of the delicate beginnings of the autumnal tints on the trees of the Bois, for the carriage she had been awaiting soon made its appearance, and bowling rapidly down the road drew up sharply at the door. She had just time to perceive that her uncle had not arrived alone, when he entered,–and with a pretty grace and reverence for his holy calling, she dropped on one knee before him to receive his benediction, which he gave by laying a hand on her soft hair and signing the cross on her brow. After which he raised her and looked at her fondly.
“My dear child!”–he said, tenderly,–and again “My dear child!”
Then he turned towards Manuel, who had followed him and was now standing quietly on the threshold of the apartment.
“Angela, this is one of our Lord’s ‘little ones,'” he said,–“He is alone in the world, and I have made myself his guardian and protector for the present. You will be kind to him–yes–as kind as if you were his sister, will you not?–for we are all one family in the sight of Heaven, and sorrow and loneliness and want can but strengthen the love which should knit us all together.”
Raising her candid eyes, and fixing them on Manuel, Angela smiled. The thoughtful face and pathetic expression of the boy greatly attracted her, and in her heart she secretly wondered where her uncle had found so intelligent and inspired-looking a creature. But one of her UNfeminine attributes was a certain lack of curiosity concerning other people’s affairs, and an almost fastidious dislike of asking questions on matters which did not closely concern her. So she contented herself with giving him that smile of hers which in itself expressed all sweetness, and saying gently,–
“You are very welcome! You must try to feel that wherever my uncle is,–that is ‘home’.”
“I have felt that from the first,”–replied Manuel in his soft musical voice, “I was all alone when my lord the Cardinal found me,- -but with him the world seems full of friends.”
Angela looked at him still more attentively; and the fascination of his presence became intensified. She would have liked to continue the conversation, but her uncle was fatigued by his journey, and expressed the desire for an hour’s rest. She therefore summoned a servant to show him to the rooms prepared for his reception, whither he went, Manuel attending him,–and when, after a little while, Angela followed to see that all was arranged suitably for his comfort, she found that he had retired to his bed-chamber, and that just outside his door in a little ante-room adjoining, his “waif and stray” was seated, reading. There was something indescribable about the boy even in this reposeful attitude of study,–and Angela observed him for a minute or two, herself unseen. His face reminded her of one of Fra Angelico’s seraphs,–the same broad brow, deep eyes and sensitive lips, which seemed to suggest the utterance of wondrous speech or melodious song,–the same golden hair swept back in rich clusters,–the same eager, inspired, yet controlled expression. A curious fluttering of her heart disturbed the girl as she looked–an indefinable dread–a kind of wonder, that almost touched on superstitious awe. Manuel himself, apparently unconscious of her observation, went on reading,–his whole attitude expressing that he was guarding the door to deter anyone from breaking in upon the Cardinal’s rest, and Angela at last turned away reluctantly, questioning herself as to the cause of the strange uneasiness which thrilled her mind.
“It is foolish, of course,”–she murmured, “but I feel just as if there were a supernatural presence in the house, . . . however,–I always do have that impression with Uncle Felix, for he is so good and noble-minded,–almost a saint, as everyone says–but to-day there is something else–something quite unusual–“
She re-entered the drawing-room, moving slowly with an abstracted air, and did not at once perceive a visitor in the room,–a portly person in clerical dress, with a somewhat large head and strongly marked features,–a notable character of the time in Paris, known as the Abbe Vergniaud. He had seated himself in a low fauteuil, and was turning over the pages of the month’s “Revue de Deux Mondes”, humming a little tune under his breath as he did so,–but he rose when he saw Angela, and advanced smilingly to greet her as she stopped short, with a little startled exclamation of surprise at the sight of him.
“Forgive me” he said, with an expressively apologetic gesture,– “Have I come at an inopportune moment? I saw your uncle arrive, and I was extremely anxious to see him on a little confidential matter– I ventured to persuade your servant to let me enter–“
“No apologies are necessary, Monsieur l’Abbe” said Angela, quickly, “My uncle Felix is indeed here, but he is tired with his journey and is resting–“
“Yes, I understand!” And Monsieur l’Abbe, showing no intention to take his leave on account of the Cardinal’s non-presence, bowed low over the extended hand of “the Sovrani” as she was sometimes called in the world of art, where her name was a bone for envious dogs-in- the-manger to fight over–“But if I might wait a little while–“
“Your business with my uncle is important?” questioned Angela with slightly knitted brows.
“My dear child, all business is important,”–declared the Abbe, with a smile which spread the light of a certain satirical benevolence all over his plump clean-shaven face, “or so we think–we who consider that we have any business,–which is of course a foolish idea,–but one that is universal to human nature. We all imagine we are busy–which is so curious of us! Will you sit here?–Permit me!” And he dexterously arranged a couple of cushions in an arm-chair and placed it near the window. Angela half-reluctantly seated herself, watching the Abbe under the shadow of her long lashes as he sat down opposite to her. “Yes,–the emmets, the flies, the worms and the men, are all of one equality in the absurd belief that they can do things–things that will last. Their persistent self-credulity is astonishing,–considering the advance the world has made in science, and the overwhelming proofs we are always getting of the fact that we are only One of an eternal procession of many mighty civilizations, all of which have been swept away with everything they have ever learnt, into silence,–so that really all we do, or try to do, amounts to doing nothing in the end!”
“That is your creed, I know,” said Angela Sovrani with a faint sigh, “But it is a depressing and a wretched one.”
“I do not find it so,” responded the Abbe, complacently looking at a fine diamond ring that glittered on the little finger of his plump white hand, “It is a creed which impresses upon us the virtue of being happy during the present moment, no matter what the next may bring. Let each man enjoy himself according to his temperament and capabilities. Do not impose bounds upon him–give him his liberty. Let him alone. Do not try to bamboozle him with the idea that there is a God looking after him. So will he be spared much disappointment and useless blasphemy. If he makes his own affairs unpleasant in this world’, he will not be able to lift up his hands to the innocent skies, which are only composed of pure ether, and blame an impossible Large Person sitting up there who can have no part in circumstances which are entirely unknown outside the earth’s ridiculously small orbit.”
He smiled kindly as he spoke, and looked paternally at “the Sovrani,” who flushed with a sudden warmth that sent a wave of pale rose over her face, and made her cheeks the colour of the flower she wore.
“How cruel you are!” she said,–“How cold–how didactic! You would give each man his freedom according to habit and temperament,–no matter whether such habit and temperament led to crime or otherwise,–you would impose upon him no creed,–no belief in anything higher than himself,–and yet–you remain in the Church!”
The Abbe laughed softly.
“Chere Sovrani! You are angry–deliciously angry! Impulsively, enthusiastically, beautifully vexed with me! I like to see you so,– you are a woman of remarkable genius, and yet you are quite a little child in heart,–a positive child, with beliefs and hopes! I should not wonder if you even believed that love itself is eternal!–that most passing of phantoms!–yes–and you exclaim against me because I venture to think for myself? It is appalling that I should think for myself and yet remain in the Church? My dear lady, you might just as well, after unravelling the dirty entanglement of the Dreyfus case, have turned upon our late friend Faure ancl exclaimed ‘And yet you remained President!'”
Angela’s violet eyes glowed.
“He was not allowed to remain President,” she said.
“No, he was not. He died. Certainly! And I know you think he would not have died if he had done his best to clear the character of an innocent man. To women of your type, it always seems as if God–the Large Person up above–stepped in exactly at the right moment. It would really appear as if it were so at times. But such things are mere coincidences.”
“I do not believe in coincidences,” said Angela decisively, “I do not believe in ‘chance’ or ‘luck’, or what you call ‘fortuitous’ haphazard arrangements of any sort. I think everything is planned by law from the beginning; even to the particular direction in which a grain of dust floats through space. It is all mathematical and exact. And the moving Spirit–the Divine Centre of things, whom I call God,–cannot dislodge or alter one particle of the majestic system without involving the whole in complete catastrophe. It is our mistake to ‘chance’ things–at least, so I think. And if I exclaim against you and say,–“Why do you remain in the Church?’ it is because I cannot understand a man of conscience and intellect outwardly professing one thing while inwardly he means another. Because God will take him in the end at his own interior valuation, not at his outward seeming.”
“Uncomfortable, if true,” said the Abbe, still smiling. “When one has been at infinite pains all one’s life to present a charmingly virtuous and noble aspect to the world, it would be indeed distressing if at the last moment one were obliged to lift the mask . . .”
“Sometimes one is not given the chance to lift it,” interposed Angela, “It is torn off ruthlessly by a force greater than one’s own. ‘Call no man happy till his death,’ you know.”
“Yes, I know,” and the Abbe settled himself in his chair more comfortably;–he loved an argument with “the Sovrani”, and was wont to declare that she was the only woman in the world who had ever made him wish to be a good man,–“But that maxim can be taken in two ways. It may mean that no man is happy till his death,–which I most potently believe,–or it may mean that a man is only JUDGED after his death, in which case it cannot be said to affect his happiness, as he is past caring whether people think ill or well of him. Besides, after death it must needs be all right, as every man is so particularly fortunate in his epitaph!”
Angela smiled a little.
“That is witty of you,” she said, “but the fact of every man having a kindly-worded epitaph only proves goodness of heart and feeling in his relatives and friends–“
“Or gratitude for a fortune left to them in his will,” declared the Abbe gaily, “or a sense of relief that the dear creature has gone and will never come back. Either motive, would, I know, inspire me to write most pathetic verses! Now you bend your charming brows at me,–mea culpa! I have said something outrageous?”
“Not from the point of view at which YOU take life,” said Angela quietly, “but I was just then thinking of a cousin of mine,–a very beautiful woman; her husband treated her with every possible sort of what I should term civil cruelty,–polite torture–refined agony. If he had struck her or shot her dead it would have been far kinder. But his conduct was worse than murder. He finally deserted her, and left her penniless to fight her own way through the world. Then he died suddenly, and she forgot all his faults, spoke of him as though he had been a model of goodness, and lives now for his memory, ever mourning his loss. In her case the feeling of regret had nothing to do with money, for he spent all her fortune and left her nothing even of her own. She has to work hard for her living now,–but she loves him and is as true to him as if he were still alive. What do you say to that?”
“I say that the lady in question must be a charming person!” replied the Abbe, “Perfectly charming! But of course she is deceiving herself; and she takes pleasure in the self-deception. She knows that the man had deserted her and was quite unworthy of her devotion;–but she pretends to herself that she does NOT know. And it is charming, of course! But women will do that kind of thing. It is extraordinary,–but they will. They all deceive themselves in matters of love. Even you deceive yourself.”
Angela started.
“I?” she exclaimed.
“Yes–you–why not?” And the Abbe treated her to one of his particularly paternal smiles. “You are betrothed to Florian Varillo,–but no man ever had or ever could have all the virtues with which you endow this excellent Florian. He is a delightful creature,–a good artist–unique in his own particular line,–but you think him something much greater than even artist or man–a sort of god, (though the gods themselves were not impeccable) only fit to be idealised. Now, I am not a believer in the gods,–but of course it is delightful to me to meet those who are.”
“Signor Varillo needs neither praise nor defence,” said Angela with a slight touch of hauteur, “All the world knows what he is.”
“Yes, precisely! That is just it,–all the world knows what he is,– ” and the Abbe rubbed his forehead with an air of irritation, “And I am vexing you by my talk, I can see! Well, well!–You must forgive my garrulity;–I admit my faults–I am old–I am a cynic–I talk too much–I have a bad opinion of man, and an equally bad opinion of the Forces that evolved him. By the way, I met that terrible reformer and socialist Aubrey Leigh at the Embassy the other day–the man who is making such a sensation in England with his ‘Addresses to the People.’ He is quite an optimist, do you know? He believes in everything and everybody,–even in me!”
Angela laughed, and her laughter sweet and low, thrilled the air with a sense of music.
“That is wonderful!” she said gaily,–“Even in you! And how does he manage to believe in you, Monsieur l’Abbe? Do tell me!”
A little frown wrinkled the Abbe’s brow.
“Well! in a strange way,” he responded. “You know he is a very strange man and believes in very strange things. When I treat humanity as a jest–which is really how it should be treated–he looks at me with a grand air of tolerance, ‘Oh, you will progress;’ he says, ‘You are passing through a phase.’ ‘My dear sir,’ I assure him, ‘I have lived in this “phase”, as you call it, for forty years. I used to pray to the angels and saints and to all the different little Madonnas that live in different places, till I was twenty. Then I dropped all the pretty heaven-toys at once;–and since then I have believed in nothing–myself, least of all. Now I am sixty–and yet you tell me I am only passing through a phase.’ ‘Quite so,’ he answered me with the utmost coolness, ‘Your forty years–or your sixty years, are a Moment merely;–the Moment will pass–and you will find another Moment coming which will explain the one which has just gone. Nothing is simpler.’ And when I ask him which will be the best Moment,–the one that goes, or the one that comes–he says that I am making the coming Moment for myself–‘which is so satisfactory’ he adds with that bright smile of his, ‘because of course you will make it pleasant!’ ‘Il faut que tout homme trouve pour lui meme une possibilite particuliere de vie superieure dans l’humble et inevitable realite quotidienne.’ I do not find the ‘possibilite particuliere’–but this man assures me it is because I do not trouble to look for it. What do you think about it?” Angela’s eyes were full of dreamy musing.
“I think Mr. Leigh’s ideas are beautiful,” she said, slowly, “I have often heard him talk on the subject of religion–and of art, and of work,–and all he says seems to be the expression of a noble and sincere mind. He is extraordinarily gifted.”