this question! my dear young lady! you ask me this
question!--and yet you have been confined here as a mad person! Is it not
enough to tell you that the master of this house is one of the most
devoted lay members of the Company, and therefore the blind instrument of
the Abbe d'Aigrigny?"

"So," said Adrienne, this time without smiling, "Dr. Baleinier"

"Obeyed the Abbe d'Aigrigny, the most formidable chief of that formidable
society. He employs his genius for evil; but I must confess he is a man
of genius. Therefore, it is upon him that you and yours must fix all your
doubts and suspicions; it is against him that you must be upon your
guard. For, believe me, I know him, and he does not look upon the game as
lost. You must be prepared for new attacks, doubtless of another kind,
but only the more dangerous on that account--"

"Luckily, you give us notice," said Dagobert, "and you will be on our
side."

"I can do very little, my good friends; but that little is at the service
of honest people," said Rodin.

"Now," said Adrienne, with a thoughtful air, completely persuaded by
Rodin's air of conviction, "I can explain the inconceivable influence
that my aunt exercised in the world. I ascribed it chiefly to her
relations with persons in power; I thought that she, like the Abbe
d'Aigrigny, was concerned in dark intrigues, for which religion served as
a veil--but I was far from believing what you tell me."

"How many things you have got to learn!" resumed Rodin. "If you knew, my
dear young lady, with what art these people surround you, without your
being aware of it, by agents devoted to themselves! Every one of your
steps is known to them, when they have any interest in such knowledge.
Thus, little by little, they act upon you--slowly, cautiously, darkly.
They circumvent you by every possible means, from flattery to
terror--seduce or frighten, in order at last to rule you, without your
being conscious of their authority. Such is their object, and I must
confess they pursue it with detestable ability."

Rodin had spoken with so much sincerity, that Adrienne trembled; then,
reproaching herself with these fears, she resumed: "And yet, no--I can
never believe in so infernal a power; the might of priestly ambition
belongs to another age. Heaven be praised, it has disappeared forever!"

"Yes, certainly, it is out of sight; for they now know how to disperse
and disappear, when circumstances require it. But then are they the m