was
not sorry to let her know that the silver box cost me five hundred
francs.

"But she did not think of that; she listened to me, trembling; in an
ecstasy, and whispering:

"'How I love you!' she threw herself into my arms.

"Just note this: I had committed sacrilege for her sake. I had committed
a theft; I had violated a shrine; violated and stolen holy relics, and
for that she adored me, thought me loving, tender, divine. Such is woman,
my dear Abbe.

"For two months I was the best of lovers. In her room, she had made a
kind of magnificent chapel in which to keep this bit of mutton chop,
which, as she thought, had made me commit that love-crime, and she worked
up her religious enthusiasm in front of it every morning and evening. I
had asked her to keep the matter secret, for fear, as I said, that I
might be arrested, condemned and given over to Germany, and she kept her
promise.

"Well, at the beginning of the summer, she was seized with an
irresistible wish to see the scene of my exploit, and she begged her
father so persistently (without telling him her secret reason), that he
took her to Cologne, but without telling me of their trip, according to
his daughter's wish.

"I need not tell you that I had not seen the interior of the cathedral. I
do not know where the tomb (if there be a tomb), of the Eleven Thousand
Virgins is, and then, it appears that it is unapproachable, alas!

"A week afterwards, I received ten lines, breaking off our engagement,
and then an explanatory letter from her father, whom she had, somewhat
late, taken into her confidence.

"At the sight of the shrine, she had suddenly seen through my trickery
and my lie, and had also found out that I was innocent of any other
crime. Having asked the keeper of the relics whether any robbery had
been committed, the man began to laugh, and pointed out to them how
impossible such a crime was, but from the moment I had plunged my profane
hand into venerable relics, I was no longer worthy of my fair-haired
and delicate betrothed.

"I was forbidden the house; I begged and prayed in vain, nothing could
move the fair devotee, and I grew ill from grief. Well, last week, her
cousin, Madame d'Arville, who is yours also, sent word to me that she
should like to see me, and when I called, she told me on what conditions
I might obtain my pardon, and here they are. I must bring her a relic, a
real, authentic relic, certified to be such by Our Holy Father, th