Scarce a demon is to be seen watching and grinning on its walls to torture souls; in a few small figures it shows indeed the variety of penance, but that is all; and within, the Virgin is above all else the Mother of Bethlehem.

Jesus, too, is more or less Her Child; He yields to Her when she entreats Him.
"It proclaims the plenitude of Her patience and charity by the length of the crypt and the breadth of the nave, which are greater than those of other churches.
"In fact, it is the mystical cathedral--that where the Madonna is most graciously ready to receive the sinner.
"Now," said Durtal, looking at his watch, "the Abbe Gevresin must have finished his breakfast.

It is time to take leave of him before joining the Abbe Plomb at the station." He crossed the forecourt of the palace and rang at the priest's door.
"So you are sure you are going!" said Madame Bavoil, who opened the door, and admitted him to her master.
"Well, yes--" "I envy you," sighed the Abbe, "for you will be present at wonderful services and hear admirable music." "I hope so.

And if only that could relieve the tension, could release me a little from this incoherent frame of mind in which I wander, and allow me to feel at home once more in my own soul and not in a strange place open to all the winds!--" "Ah, your soul wants locks and latches," said Madame Bavoil, laughing.
"It is a public mart where every distraction meets to chatter.

I am constantly driven out, and when I want to go home again they are in possession." "Oh, I quite understand that.