"May I?" said Madelon. "And will you take me, papa? What makes
so many people go? Madame said they went every Sunday and _fête_
day."

"I suppose they like it," answered M. Linders. "Some people go
every day, and all day long--nuns, for instance, who have
nothing else to do."

"It is, then, when people have nothing else to do that they
go?" asked Madelon, misunderstanding him, with much
simplicity.

"Something like it," answered M. Linders, rather grimly; then,
with a momentary compunction, added, "Not precisely. They do
it also, I suppose, because they think it right."

"And do you not think it right, papa? Why should they? I have
seen people coming out of church before, but I never knew what
it was like inside. I _may_ go again some day?"

"When you are older, my child, I will take you again,
perhaps."

"But that little girl Nanette, papa, was only five years old
when she went first, her mother said, and I have never been at
all," said Madelon, feeling rather aggrieved.

"Well, when we go to Florence next winter, Madelon, you shall
visit all the churches. They are much more splendid than