have said on this
important subject. His book was divided into two parts: firstly, the
duties of all; secondly, the duties of each individual, according to the
class to which he belongs. The duties of all are the great duties. There
are four of these. Saint Matthew points them out: duties towards God
(Matt. vi.); duties towards one's self (Matt. v. 29, 30); duties towards
one's neighbor (Matt. vii. 12); duties towards animals (Matt. vi. 20,
25). As for the other duties the Bishop found them pointed out and
prescribed elsewhere: to sovereigns and subjects, in the Epistle to the
Romans; to magistrates, to wives, to mothers, to young men, by Saint
Peter; to husbands, fathers, children and servants, in the Epistle
to the Ephesians; to the faithful, in the Epistle to the Hebrews; to
virgins, in the Epistle to the Corinthians. Out of these precepts he was
laboriously constructing a harmonious whole, which he desired to present
to souls.

At eight o'clock he was still at work, writing with a good deal of
inconvenience upon little squares of paper, with a big book open on his
knees, when Madame Magloire entered, according to her wont, to get the
silver-ware from the cupboard near his bed. A moment later, the Bishop,
knowing that the table was set, and that his sister was probably
waiting for him, shut his book, rose from his table, and entered the
dining-room.

The dining-room was an oblong apartment, with a fireplace, which had a
door opening on the street (as we have said), and a window opening on
the garden.

Madame Magloire was, in fact, just putting the last touches to the
table.

As she performed this service, she was conversing with Mademoiselle
Baptistine.

A lamp stood on the table; the table was near the fireplace. A wood fire
was burning there.

One can easily picture to one's self these two women, both of whom
were over sixty years of age. Madame Magloire small, plump, vivacious;
Mademoiselle Baptistine gentle, slender, frail, somewhat taller than her
brother, dressed in a gown of puce-colored silk, of the fashion of 1806,
which she had purchased at that date in Paris, and which had lasted
ever since. To borrow vulgar phrases, which possess the merit of giving
utterance in a single word to an idea which a whole page would hardly
suffice to express, Madame Magloire had the air of a peasant, and
Mademoiselle Baptistine that of a lady. Madame Magloire wore a white
quilted cap, a gold Jeannette cross on a velv