phalanx of respectability, who make it impossible for the sinner to
reform! You keep the way of repentance so rough that the foot of poor
humanity cannot tread it. God will demand from you the lost souls whom
your hardness has driven back to sin.

_Célie_--God, do you say? When good people forgive they betray his
justice. For punishment is not retribution only, but the acknowledgment
and recompense of those fighting ones that brave hunger and cold in a
garret, Madame, yet do not surrender.

_Clorinde_--Go, child! I cannot bear more--

_Célie_--I have said more than I meant to say. Good-by. This is the
first and last time that I shall ever speak of this.

[_She goes_.]


A CONTENTED IDLER

From 'M. Poirier's Son-in-Law'

[_The party are leaving the dining-room._]

_Gaston_--Well, Hector! What do you think of it? The house is just as
you see it now, every day in the year. Do you believe there is a happier
man in the world than I?

_Duke_--Faith! I envy you; you reconcile me to marriage.