Carhaix, who had been watching Durtal. "You mustn't be too critical,
monsieur. I have only the tools of my trade."

Durtal went over and took a look. The collection consisted largely of
works on bells. He read some of the titles:

On the cover of a slim parchment volume he deciphered the faded legend,
hand-written, in rust-coloured ink, "_De tintinnabulis_ by Jerome
Magius, 1664"; then, pell-mell, there were: _A curious and edifying
miscellany concerning church bells_ by Dom Rémi Carré; another _Edifying
miscellany_, anonymous; a _Treatise of bells_ by Jean-Baptiste Thiers,
curate of Champrond and Vibraye; a ponderous tome by an architect named
Blavignac; a smaller work entitled _Essay on the symbolism of bells_ by
a parish priest of Poitiers; a _Notice_ by the abbé Baraud; then a whole
series of brochures, with covers of grey paper, bearing no titles.

"It's no collection at all," said Carhaix with a sigh. "The best ones
are wanting, the _De campanis commentarius_ of Angelo Rocca and the _De
tintinnabulo_ of Percichellius, but they are so hard to find, and so
expensive when you do find them."

A glance sufficed for the rest of the books, most of them being pious
works, Latin and French Bibles, an _Imitation of Christ_, Görres'
_Mystik_ in five volumes, the abbé Aubert's _History and theory of
religious symbolism_, Pluquet's _Dictionary of heresies_, and several
lives of saints.

"Ah, monsieur, my own books are not much account, but Des Hermies lends
me what he knows will interest me."