The worthy man, who cherished his niece, always allowed her to tear him from his meditations with angelic patience.
"Then if I remain unmarried,--supposing that I do,--God wills it ?" "Yes, my child," replied the abbe.
"And yet, as nothing prevents me from marrying to-morrow if I choose, His will can be destroyed by mine ?" "That would be true if we knew what was really the will of God," replied the former prior of the Sorbonne.

"Observe, my daughter, that you put in an _if_." The poor woman, who expected to draw her uncle into a matrimonial discussion by an argument ad omnipotentem, was stupefied; but persons of obtuse mind have the terrible logic of children, which consists in turning from answer to question,--a logic that is frequently embarrassing.
"But, uncle, God did not make women intending them not to marry; otherwise they ought all to stay unmarried; if not, they ought all to marry.

There's great injustice in the distribution of parts." "Daughter," said the worthy abbe, "you are blaming the Church, which declares celibacy to be the better way to God." "But if the Church is right, and all the world were good Catholics, wouldn't the human race come to an end, uncle ?" "You have too much mind, Rose; you don't need so much to be happy." That remark brought a smile of satisfaction to the lips of the poor woman, and confirmed her in the good opinion she was beginning to acquire about herself.

That is how the world, our friends, and our enemies are the accomplices of our defects! At this moment the conversation was interrupted by the successive arrival of the guests.

On these ceremonial days, friendly familiarities were exchanged between the servants of the house and the company.
Mariette remarked to the chief-justice as he passed the kitchen:-- "Ah, Monsieur du Ronceret, I've cooked the cauliflowers au gratin expressly for you, for mademoiselle knows how you like them; and she said to me: 'Now don't forget, Mariette, for Monsieur du Ronceret is coming.'" "That good Mademoiselle Cormon!" ejaculated the chief legal authority of the town.