rly the difference in their temperament than their
definitions of the gallows. For Peace it is 'a short cut to Heaven';
for Brodie it is 'a leap in the dark.' Again the Scot has the advantage.
Again you reflect that, if Peace is the most accomplished Classic among
the housebreakers, the Deacon is the merriest companion who ever climbed
the gallows by the shoulders of the incomparable Macheath.

THE MAN IN THE GREY SUIT

THE Abbe Bruneau, who gave his shaven head in atonement for unnumbered
crimes, was a finished exponent of duplicity. In the eye of day and of
Entrammes he shone a miracle of well-doing; by night he prowled in the
secret places of Laval. The world watched him, habited in the decent
black of his calling; no sooner was he beyond sight of his parish than
his valise was opened, and he arrayed himself--under the hedge, no
doubt--in a suit of jaunty grey. The pleasures for which he sacrificed
the lives of others and his own were squalid enough, but they were the
best a provincial brain might imagine; and he sinned the sins of a hedge
priest with a courage and effrontery which his brethren may well envy.
Indeed, the Man in the Grey Suit will be sent down the ages with a
grimmer scandal, if with a staler mystery, than the Man in the Iron
Mask.

He was born of parents who were certainly poor, and possibly honest,
at Asse-le-Berenger. He counted a dozen Chouans among his ancestry,
and brigandage swam in his blood. Even his childhood was crimson with
crimes, which the quick memory of the countryside long ago lost in the
pride of having bred a priest. He stained his first cure of souls with
the poor, sad sin of arson, which the bishop, fearful of scandal and
loth to check a promising career, condoned with a suitable advancement.
At Entrammes, his next benefice, he entered into his full inheritance of
villainy, and here it was--despite his own protest--that he devised the
grey suit which brought him ruin and immortality. To the wild, hilarious
dissipation of Laval, the nearest town, he fell an immediate and
unresisting prey. Think of the glittering lamps, the sparkling taverns,
the bright-eyed women, the manifold fascinations, which are the
character and delight of this forgotten city! Why, if the Abbe Bruneau
doled out comfort and absolution at Entrammes--why should he not enjoy
at Laval the wilder joys of the flesh? Lack of money was the only
hindrance, since our priest was not of those who could pursue bo