e d'Angouleme,
afterwards the dauphine, the Duchesse de Berry, the archbishop, later
the chancellor, and several pious persons contributed liberally the
first necessary sums. These funds have been increased by the addition
of our own available property, from which we take only enough for our
actual needs."

Tears came into Godefroid's eyes.

"We are the ministers of a Christian idea; we belong body and soul to
its work, the spirit of which, the founder of which, is the Baronne de
la Chanterie, whom you hear us so respectfully call 'Madame.'"

"Ah! let me belong to you!" cried Godefroid, stretching out his hands to
the kind old man.

"Now you understand why there are some subjects of conversation which
are never mentioned here, nor even alluded to. You can now see the
obligations of delicacy that all who live in this house contract towards
one who seems to us a saint. You comprehend--do you not?--the influence
of a woman made sacred by such sorrows, who knows so many things, to
whom anguish has said its utmost word; who from each adversity has drawn
instruction, in whom all virtues have the double strength of cruel trial
and of constant practice; whose soul is spotless and without reproach,
whose motherhood knew only grief, whose married love knew only
bitterness; on whom life smiled for a brief time only, but for whom
heaven reserves a palm, the reward of resignation and of loving-kindness
under sorrow. Ah! does she not even triumph over Job in never murmuring?
Can you wonder that her words are so powerful, her old age so young,
her soul so communicative, her glance so convincing? She has obtained
extraordinary powers in dealing with sufferers, for she has suffered all
things."

"She is the living image of Charity!" cried Godefroid, fervently. "Can I
ever be one of you?"

"You must first endure the tests, and above all BELIEVE!" said the old
man, gently. "So long as you have no faith, so long as you have not
absorbed into your heart and mind the divine meaning of Saint Paul's
epistle upon Charity, you cannot share our work."

SECOND EPISODE. THE INITIATE

XI. THE POLICE OF THE GOOD GOD

Like evil, good is contagious. Therefore when Madame de la Chanterie's
lodger had lived in that old and silent house for some months after the
worthy Alain's last confidence, which gave him the deepest respect for
the religious lives of those among whom his was cast, he experienced
that well-being of the soul wh