CHAPTER II.

THE FEAST OF ST. MAGDALEN.


We looked about us till dinner, and after dinner we looked about us
again; for the women and children seemed as though they would never be
sated with sightseeing; and as for me, I was never sated of going about
with Madeleine. All at once she cried out in a frightened voice, "Where
is Gabrielle?"

We looked about and could see neither her nor Alice; and as it was
nearly the hour they call vesper, though the days were still pretty
long, we were greatly alarmed at their disappearance. Little Louison,
however, plucked my sleeve, and said, "I think they went in there,"
pointing to a church-door; so, although my father specially objected to
my setting foot within a Catholic place of worship, Madeleine and I went
in to look for her sister; but my mother kept the children outside. As
soon as we entered we found ourselves almost in darkness, what little
light there was proceeding from great wax candles; and there was a good
deal of tawdry finery and trumpery all about, and a strong smell of
incense. I was looking about me with curiosity and interest, mixed with
a certain repulsion, when Madeleine, in an eager undertone, exclaimed,
"There she is!" and pressed forward, I close following, to a little
side-altar, where Gabrielle and Alice were listening, with amused
wonder, to a priest, who was telling a group of people about him that
what he was exhibiting to them was one of Mary Magdalen's bones; and
that she and Lazarus, and Martha his sister, had put to sea in an old
boat, and in process of time, after being sorely buffeted by winds and