None could know that better than he did, for he was the repository of half the love secrets in his parish.

But all that was part of the evil coming from the fall of Adam, and must be endured till,--till the Pope should have his own again, and be able to set all things right.

In the meantime young women must do the best they could to keep their lovers;--and should one lover break away, then must the deserted one use her experience towards getting a second.

But how was a girl to have a lover at all, if she were never allowed to see a man?
He had been bred a priest from his youth upwards, and knew nothing of love; but nevertheless it was a pain to him to see a young girl, good-looking, healthy, fit to be the mother of children, pine away, unsought for, uncoupled,--as it would be a pain to see a fruit grow ripe upon the tree, and then fall and perish for the want of plucking.

His philosophy was perhaps at fault, and it may be that his humanity was unrefined.