"Who denies it?" said I. "Their appeals are to the outward senses, which
never influence the heart."

"I think my heart would be very much influenced by them," said
Gabrielle, "if I had not been brought up to think them wrong."

"I cannot bear to hear you talk in that way, sister," said Madeleine.
"Pray, do not seem indifferent to the blessings of a purer faith."

Gabrielle pouted, and said, "Indifferent? no; but perhaps if you and I
had been brought up Catholics, we might have been as positive we held
the purer faith as we are now that we are of the Reformed."

"A very good thing, then, that you were not so brought up," said I,
"for then I should not have been betrothed to Madeleine;" and to prevent
her pursuing so unpleasant a subject, I lifted up my voice and sang.
Little Jules presently dropped asleep in Madeleine's arms, and his
little fat fingers unclosing, the dangerous bauble dropped from them,
and, by a dexterous touch of my whip, I flicked it into the road.
By-and-by, awaking, he cried for it, and beat Madeleine with his tiny
fists; nor was pacified till his attention was diverted by an almost
interminable file of mules, with their five or six olive-faced muleteers
in brown jackets and red sashes.




CHAPTER III.

LES ARÈNES.