upted in her turn:

"If it was true, however, mademoiselle, that monsieur would be damned on
account of those villainous papers, tell me, ought we to let it happen?
For my part, look you, if he were to tell me to throw myself down from
the terrace, I would shut my eyes and throw myself, because I know that
he is always right. But for his salvation! Oh! if I could, I would work
for that, in spite of him. In every way, yes! I would force him; it is
too cruel to me to think that he will not be in heaven with us."

"You are quite right, my girl," said Felicite approvingly. "You, at
least, love your master in an intelligent fashion."

Between the two, Clotilde still seemed irresolute. In her, belief did
not bend to the strict rule of dogma; the religious sentiment did not
materialize in the hope of a paradise, of a place of delights, where she
was to meet her own again. It was in her simply a need of a beyond, a
certainty that the vast world does not stop short at sensation, that
there is a whole unknown world, besides, which must be taken into
account. But her grandmother, who was so old, this servant, who was so
devoted, shook her in her uneasy affection for her uncle. Did they not
love him better, in a more enlightened and more upright fashion, they
who desired him to be without a stain, freed from his manias as a
scientist, pure enough to be among the elect? Phrases of devotional
books recurred to her; the continual battle waged against the spirit of
evil; the glory of conversions effected after a violent struggle. What
if she set herself to this holy task; what if, after all, in spite of
himself, she should be able to save him! And an exaltation gradually
gained her spirit, naturally inclined to adventurous enterprises.

"Certainly," she said at last, "I should be very happy if he would not
persist in his notion of heaping up all those scraps of paper, and if he
would come to church with us."

Seeing her about to yield, Mme. Rougon cried out that it was necessary
to act, and Martine herself added the weight of all her real authority.
They both approached the young girl, and began to instruct her, lowering
their voices as if they were engaged in a conspiracy, whence was to
result a miraculous benefit, a divine joy with which the whole house
would be perfumed. What a triumph if they reconciled the doctor with
God! and what sweetness, afterward, to live altogether in the celestial
communion of the same faith!

"Well,