flaws produced by sufferings and age. And ever more I absorbed less
virtue than pride. In doing so I got into the habit of addressing to
the Divine Creator of this world the following prayer: 'My Lord,
preserve me from virtue if it is to lead me from godliness.' Ah!
godliness; this it is possible and necessary to attain. That is our
decent ending. May we reach it some day! In the meantime, give me
something to drink."

"I'll confess," said M. d'Anquetil, "that I do not believe in a
God."

"Now, for once, sir, I must blame you," said the abbe "One must
believe in God, and all the truths of our holy religion."

M. d'Anquetil protested.

"You make game of us, abbe, and take us to be worse ninnies than we
really are. As I have said, I do not believe either in God or devil,
and I never go to Mass--the king's Mass alone excepted. The sermons
of the priests are stories for old women, bearable, perhaps, in such
times as when my grandmother saw the Abbe de Choisy, dressed as a
woman, distribute the holy bread at the Church of Saint Jacques du
Haut Pas. In those times there may have been religion; to-day there
is none, thank God!"

"By all the Saints and all the devils, don't speak like that, my
friend," exclaimed Catherine. "As sure as that pie stands on this
table God exists! And if you want a proof of it, let me say, that
when, last year, on a certain day, I was in direful distress and
penury, I went, on the advice of Friar Ange, to burn a wax candle in