enormous sloping roof with gable ends, in which were attics, no doubt
empty, considering the dilapidation of their windows. The ground-floor
had two rooms parted by a corridor, at the farther end of which was a
wooden staircase leading to the second floor, which also had two rooms.
A little kitchen was at the back of the building in a yard, where were
the stable and coach-house, both unused, deserted, and worthless. The
kitchen garden lay between the church and the house; a ruined gallery
led from the parsonage to the sacristy.

When the young abbe saw the four windows with their leaded panes, the
brown and mossy walls, the door in common pine slit like a bundle of
matches, far from being attracted by the adorable naivete of these
details, the grace of the vegetations which draped the roof and the
dilapidated wooden frames of the windows, the wealth of the clambering
plants escaping from every cranny, and the clasping tendrils of the
grape-vine which looked into every window as if to bring smiling ideas
to those within, he congratulated himself heartily on being a bishop in
perspective instead of a village rector.

This house, apparently always open, seemed to belong to everybody. The
Abbe Gabriel entered a room communicating with the kitchen, which was
poorly furnished with an oak table on four stout legs, a tapestried
armchair, a number of chairs all of wood, and an old chest by way
of buffet. No one was in the kitchen except a cat which revealed the
presence of a woman about the house. The other room served as a salon.
Casting a glance about it the young priest noticed armchairs in natural
wood covered with tapestry; the woodwork and the rafters of the ceiling
were of chestnut which had turned as black as ebony. A tall clock in
a green case painted with flowers, a table with a faded green cloth,
several chairs, two candlesticks on the chimney-piece, between which was
an Infant Jesus in wax under a glass case, completed the furniture of
the room. The chimney-piece of wood with common mouldings was filled by
a fire-board covered by a painting representing the Good Shepherd with
a lamb over his shoulder, which was probably the gift of some young
girl,--the mayor's daughter, or the judge's daughter,--in return for the
pastor's care of her education.

The forlorn condition of the house was distressing to behold; the walls,
once whitewashed, were now discolored, and stained to a man's height
by constant friction. The sta