Yet when, with accumulated reproof on his tongue, M.Savry did come to the Manor Cartier, he felt the inherent supremacy of beauty, not the less commanding because it had not the refinement of the duchess or the margravine.
Once M.Savry ventured to do what the Old Cure would never have done--he spoke to Jean Jacques concerning Carmen's neglect of mass and confession, and he received a rebuff which was almost au seigneur; for in Jean Jacques' eyes he was now the figure in St.Saviour's; and this was an occasion when he could assert his position as premier of the secular world outside the walls of the parish church.

He did it in good style for a man who had had no particular training in the social arts.
This is how he did it and what he said: "There have been times when I myself have thought it would be a good thing to have a rest from the duties of a Catholic, m'sieu' le cure," he remarked to M.Savry, when the latter had ended his criticism.

He said it with an air of conflict, and with full intent to make his supremacy complete.
"No Catholic should speak like that," returned the shocked priest.
"No priest should speak to me as you have done," rejoined Jean Jacques.
"What do you know of the reasons for the abstention of madame?
The soul must enjoy rest as well as the body, and madame has a--mind which can judge for itself.

I have a body that is always going, and it gets too little rest, and that keeps my soul in a flutter too.

It must be getting to mass and getting to confession, and saying aves and doing penance, it is such a busy little soul of mine; but we are not all alike, and madame's body goes in a more stately way.