was necessary. They put me up; I might say, they almost locked me up, and
I saw nobody but people in tears, who almost deafened me with their
lamentations; I operated on a man who appeared to be in a moribund state,
and who nearly died under my hands, and with whom I remained two nights,
and then, when I saw that there was a chance for his recovery, I drove to
the station. I had, however, made a mistake in the trains, and I had an
hour to wait, and so I wandered about the streets, still thinking of my
poor patient, when a man accosted me. I do not know German, and he was
totally ignorant of French, but at last I made out that he was offering
me some relics. I thought of Gilberte, for I knew her fanatical devotion,
and here was my present ready to hand, so I followed the man into a shop
where religious objects were for sale, and I bought _a small piece of a
bone of one of the Eleven Thousand Virgins_.

"The pretended relic was enclosed in a charming, old silver box, and that
determined my choice, and putting my purchase into my pocket, I went to
the railway station, and so to Paris.

"As soon as I got home, I wished to examine my purchase again, and on
taking hold of it, I found that the box was open, and the relic lost! It
was no good to hunt in my pocket, and to turn it inside out; the small
bit of bone, which was no bigger than half a pin, had disappeared.

"You know, my dear little Abbé, that my faith is not very great, but, as
my friend, you are magnanimous enough to put up with my coldness, and to
leave me alone, and to wait for the future, so you say. But I absolutely
disbelieve in the relics of second-hand dealers in piety, and you share
my doubts in that respect. Therefore, the loss of that bit of sheep's
carcass did not grieve me, and I easily procured a similar fragment,
which I carefully fastened inside my jewel, and then I went to see my