it is finished for ever. I have conquered myself, and my
nature is freed from the evil tendencies it had. Ah! dear Seigneur,
I love you so much! Do not let us do the slightest thing to mar our
happiness. To be happy it is always necessary to submit."

As he took another step towards her, she was at the threshold of the
great window, which was now wide open on to the balcony. She had stopped
him with a half-smile as she said:

"You would not like to force me to throw myself down from here. Listen,
and understand me when I say to you that everything which surrounds
me is on my side. I have already told you that for a long time objects
themselves have spoken to me. I hear voices in all directions, and never
have they been so distinct as at this moment. Hear! It is the whole
Clos-Marie that encourages me not to spoil my life and yours by giving
myself to you without the consent of your father. This singing voice is
the Chevrotte, so clear and so fresh that it seems to have put within me
a purity like crystal since I have lived so near it. This other
voice, like that of a crowd, tender and deep, it is that of the entire
earth--the grasses, the trees, all the peaceable life of this sacred
corner which has so constantly worked for the good of my soul.

"And there are other voices which come from still farther away, from the
elms of the garden of Monseigneur, and from this horizon of branches,
the smallest of which interests itself in me, and wishes for me to be
victorious.

"Then, again, this great, sovereign voice, it is that of my old friend,
the Cathedral, who, eternally awake, both day and night, has taught me
many important things. Each one of the stones in the immense building,
the little columns in the windows, the bell-towers of its piers,
the flying buttresses of its apse, all have a murmur which I can
distinguish, a language which I understand. Listen to what they say:
that hope remains even in death. When one is really humble, love alone
remains and triumphs. And at last, look! The air itself is filled with
the whisperings of spirits. See, here are my invisible companions, the
virgins, who are ever near me and aid me. Listen, listen!"

Smiling, she had lifted up her hand with an air of the deepest
attention, and her whole being was in ecstasy from the scattered
breathings she heard. They were the virgins of the "Golden Legend"
that her imagination called forth, as in her early childhood, and whose
mystic flight