. After a pause, during which he appeared absorbed in
religious reflection, he rose, and taking his friend by the hand--

"You are right," said he, "as you always are. Although of course I know
the evil spirit cannot harm an officer of God's Holy Catholic church,
even supposing, for the sake of argument, my poor friend can invoke
Satan, yet if I am to do any good, if I am to save my friend from
destruction, I must be armed with extraordinary grace, and this, as you
truly divine, can only come by fasting."

The other wrung his hand warmly. "I knew you would see it in its proper
light, my dear Henri," he said, "and now I will leave you to recover
your peace of mind by religious meditation."

The Abbe smiled gravely, and let his friend depart. The following letter
was the result of this edifying interview between the two divines:

"MON CHER PRINCE: No doubt you will feel very triumphant when
you learn that my object in writing this letter is to accept
your offer of presentation to _Sa Majeste_; but I do not care
whether you choose to consider this yielding to what is only in
part whimsical curiosity a triumph or no. I will not write to
you any cut-and-dried platitudes about good and evil, but I
frankly assure you that one of the strongest reasons which
induces me to go with you on this fool's errand is a belief
that I can discover the absurdity and imposture, and cure you
of a hallucination which is unworthy of you.

"_Tout a vous_,

"HENRI GERARD."

For two days he received no reply to this letter, nor did he happen, in
the interval, to meet the Prince in society, although he heard of him
from De Frontignan and others; but on the third day the following note
was brought to him:

"MON CHER AMI: There is no question of triumph, any more than
there is of deception. I will call for you this evening at
half-past nine. You must remember your promise to trust
yourself entirely to me.

"_Cordialement a vous_,

"POMERANTSEFF."

So the matter was now arranged, and he, the Abbe Gerard, the renowned
preacher of the celebrated ---- church, was to meet that very night, by
special appointment, at half-past nine, the Prince of Darkness; and this
in January, in Paris--at the height of the season in the capital of
civilization. As may be well imagined, dur