t. It is certainly
no light task, because the Kingdom of Heaven is a military autocracy and
there is no public opinion in it. Nevertheless, I do not despair of
starting an intellectual movement. I do not wish to boast, but no one is
more closely acquainted than I with the different classes of angelic
society."

Throwing away her cigarette, Zita pondered for a moment, then, amid the
click of ivory balls on the billiard table, the clinking of glasses,
the curt voices of the players announcing their points, the monotonous
answers of the waiters to their customers, the Archangel enumerated the
entire population of the spirits of light.

"We must not count on the Dominations, the Virtues, nor the Powers,
which compose the celestial lower middle class. I have no need to tell
you, for you know it as well as I, how selfish, base, and cowardly the
middle classes are. As to the great dignitaries, the Ministers, the
Generals, Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim, you know what they are; they
will take no action. Let us, however, once prove ourselves the stronger,
and we shall have them with us. For if autocrats do not readily
acquiesce in their own downfall, once overthrown, all their forces
recoil upon themselves. It will be well to work the Army. Entirely loyal
as the Army is, it will allow itself to be influenced by a clever
anarchist propaganda. But our greatest and most constant efforts ought
to be brought to bear upon the angels of your own category, Arcade; the
guardian angels, who dwell upon earth in such great numbers. They fill
the lowest ranks of the hierarchy, are for the most part discontented
with their lot, and more or less imbued with the ideas of the present
century."

She had already conferred with the guardian angels of Montmartre,
Clignancourt, and Filles-du-Calvaire. She had devised the plan of a
vast association of Spirits on Earth with the view of conquering Heaven.

"To accomplish this task," she said, "I have established myself in
France. But not because I had the folly to believe myself freer in a
republic than in a monarchy. Quite the contrary, for there is no country
where the liberty of the individual is less respected than in France.
But the people are indifferent to everything connected with religion;
nowhere else, therefore, should I enjoy such tranquillity."

She invited Arcade to unite his efforts to hers, and when they separated
at the door of the _brasserie_ the steel shutter was already making