ts;' and you are thinking about the satisfaction
you will have in playing the part of the good genii in the tales of
benevolence you are inventing. Ah, my dear boy! that shame-faced laugh
of yours proves to me that we were quite right in that conjecture. How
do you expect to conceal any feeling from persons whose business it is
to divine the most hidden motion of souls, the tricks of poverty, the
calculations of indigence,--honest spies, the police of the good God;
old judges, whose code contains nothing but absolutions; doctors of
suffering, whose only remedy is oftentimes the wise application of
money? But, you see, my child, we don't wish to quarrel with the motives
which bring us a neophyte, provided he will really stay and become a
brother of the order. We shall judge you by your work. There are two
kinds of curiosity,--that of good and that of evil; just at this moment
you have that of good. If you should work in our vineyard, the juice of
our grapes will make you perpetually thirsty for the divine fruit. The
initiation is, as in that of all natural knowledge, easy in appearance,
difficult in reality. Benevolence is like poesy; nothing is easier
than to catch the appearance of it. But here, as in Parnassus, nothing
contents us but perfection. To become one to us, you must acquire a
great knowledge of life. And what a life,--good God! Parisian life,
which defies the sagacity of the minister of police and all his agents!
We have to circumvent the perpetual conspiracy of Evil, master it in
all its forms, while it changes so often as to seem infinite. Charity in
Paris must know as much as vice, just as a policeman must know all the
tricks of thieves. We must each be frank and each distrustful; we must
have quick perception and a sure and rapid judgment. And then, my child,
we are old and getting older; but we are so content with the results we
have now obtained, that we do not want to die without leaving successors
in the work. If you persist in your desire, you will be our first pupil,
and all the dearer to us on that account. There is no risk for us,
because God brought you to us. Yours is a good nature soured; since you
have been here the evil leaven has weakened. The divine nature of Madame
has acted upon yours. Yesterday we took counsel together; and inasmuch
as I have your confidence, my good brothers resolved to give me to you
as guardian and teacher. Does that please you?"

"Ah! my kind Monsieur Alain, your elo