man if I despised thee, or thy thoughts, or thy desire to know the
truth for truth's sake. Therefore to-morrow thou shalt bring me this
afflicted friend of thine, and though I have no divine gifts, I will
do even as the Master commanded,--I will lay my hands on him in
blessing and pray that he may be healed. More than this is not in my
power, my child!--if a miracle is to be worked, it is our dear Lord
only who can work it."

Gently he murmured his formal benediction,--then, turning away, he
entered his own room and shut the door. Babette, grown strangely
serious, turned to her brother and held out her hand, moved by one
of those erratic impulses which often take sudden possession of
self-willed children.

"Come into the Cathedral!" she whispered imperatively--"Come and say
an Ave."

Not a word did the usually glib Henri vouchsafe in answer,--but
clutching his sister's fingers in his own dirty, horny palm, he
trotted meekly beside her out of the house and across the Square
into the silence and darkness of Notre Dame. Their mother watched
their little plump figures disappear with a feeling of mingled
amazement and gratitude,--miracles were surely beginning, she
thought, if a few words from the Cardinal could impress Babette and
Henri with an idea of the necessity of prayer!

They were not long gone, however;--they came walking back together,
still demurely hand in hand, and settled themselves quietly in a
corner to study their tasks for the next day. Babette's doll, once
attired as a fashionable Parisienne, and now degenerated into a one-