Also it may be noted that when she speaks of the saints she is loftier, quite different; she soars up in a flame of the spirit.

But all these hypotheses are in vain," he concluded, "for I cannot judge of her from one brief impression, one rapid view.

What is quite certain is that, though she is not in the least like the Abbe, she too is in two halves--two persons in one.

He, with the innocent gaze, the pure eyes of a girl at her first Communion, has the sometimes bitter mouth of an old man; she is proud of feature and humble of heart; they both, though by different outward signs and acts, achieve the same result, an identical semblance of paternal indulgence and mature goodness." And Durtal had gone again and again to see them.

His reception was always the same; Madame Bavoil greeted him with the invariable formula: "Here is our friend," while the priest's eyes smiled as he grasped his hand.