"Will you oblige me by a neighbourly kindness?"

"What is it, Derues?" asked Madame Legrand. A violent cough, which
appeared to rend his chest, prevented him from answering immediately.
When it ceased, he looked at the abbe, and said, with a melancholy
smile--

"What I ought to ask in my present state of health is your blessing, my
father, and your intercession for the pardon of my sins. But everyone
clings to the life which God has given him. We do not easily abandon
hope; moreover, I have always considered it wrong to neglect such means
of preserving our lives as are in our power, since life is for us only a
time of trial, and the longer and harder the trial the greater our
recompense in a better world. Whatever befalls us, our answer should be
that of the Virgin Mary to the angel who announced the mystery of the
Incarnation: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to
Thy word.'"

"You are right," said the abbe, with a severe and inquisitorial look,
under which Derues remained quite untroubled; "it is an attribute of God
to reward and to punish, and the Almighty is not deceived by him who
deceives men. The Psalmist has said, 'Righteous art Thou, O Lord, and
upright are Thy judgments.'"

"He has said also, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether,'" Derues promptly replied. This exchange of quotations from
Scripture might have lasted for hours without his being at a loss, had
the abbe thought fit to continue in this strain; but such a style of
conversation, garnished with grave and solemn words, seemed almost
sacrilegious in the mouth of a man of such ridiculous appearance--a