"I, convinced?" answered Carlino, in astonishment. "I am not
convinced of anything. I am a doubter. It is my system; you know that.
If now some one were to tell me that the true religion was that of the
Kaffirs, or that of the Redskins, I should say, It may well be! I do not
know them, I see the falsity of those I do know, and for that reason
I should certainly not wish you to become a believing Catholic. As to
driving you from home--"

"Perhaps I had better leave before being driven away?"

So saying, Jeanne took Noemi's arm. Carlino begged them to walk round
the Lac d'Amour. Who knows, perhaps the little window in heaven would
open. He wished it would. Noemi, recalling the conversation of a few
hours before, expressed a doubt that Fomalhaut would be the star to
appear at the window.

"To be sure," said Carlino thoughtfully. "I had forgotten Fomalhaut. If
it is not Fomalhaut now, it will be Fomalhaut then."

But Noemi had other difficulties to suggest. What if no star appeared at
the window, either large or small? For this difficulty Carlino promptly
found a remedy. The star will be there. It may be minute, lost in an
immense profundity, but it will be there. The girl does not see it, but
the priest sees it with the long-sightedness of decrepitude. Later,
through faith, the girl discerns it also."

"And so the poor girl," said Jeanne bitterly, "relying on the faith of
an old, dim-sighted priest, will see stars where there are none, will
lose her common-sense, her youth, her life, her all. I suppose you will
end by having her buried at the Beguinage?"