what you may say at the moment when it may cease to seem to me
befitting."

"As to that, madame," said the abbe, "I think I can answer for it that
whatever it may please me to say to you, you will hear to the end; but
indeed the matters are so simple that there is no need to make you uneasy
beforehand: I wished to ask you, madame, whether you have perceived a
change in the conduct of your husband towards you."

"Yes, monsieur," replied the marquise, "and no single day has passed in
which I have not thanked Heaven for this happiness."

"And you have been wrong, madame," returned the abbe, with one of those
smiles that were peculiar to himself; "Heaven has nothing to do with it.
Thank Heaven for having made you the most beautiful and charming of
women, and that will be enough thanksgiving without despoiling me of such
as belong to my share."

"I do not understand you, monsieur," said the marquise in an icy tone.

"Well, I will make myself comprehensible, my dear sister-in-law. I am
the worker of the miracle for which you are thanking Heaven; to me
therefore belongs your gratitude. Heaven is rich enough not to rob the
poor."

"You are right, monsieur: if it is really to you that I owe this return,
the cause of which I did not know, I will thank you in the first place;
and then afterwards I will thank Heaven for having inspired you with this
good thought."