drew out a thick little
bound volume with clasps, and said aloud:

"Conscience is here."

The book was a Bible.

Then Doctor Herode's tone became softer. "His wish was to render a
service to Mess Lethierry, whom he respected much. As his pastor, it was
his right and duty to offer counsel. Mess Lethierry, however, was free."

Mess Lethierry, plunged once more in his overwhelming absorption, no
longer listened. Deruchette, seated near him, and thoughtful, also did
not raise her eyes, and by her silent presence somewhat increased the
embarrassment of a conversation not very animated. A witness who says
nothing is a species of indefinable weight. Doctor Herode, however, did
not appear to feel it.

Lethierry no longer replying, Doctor Herode expatiated freely. Counsel
is from man; inspiration is from God. In the counsels of the priests
there is inspiration. It is good to accept, dangerous to refuse them.
Sochoh was seized by eleven devils for disdaining the exhortations of
Nathaniel. Tiburianus was struck with a leprosy for having driven from
his house the Apostle Andrew. Barjesus, a magician though he was, was
punished with blindness for having mocked at the words of St. Paul.
Elxai and his sisters, Martha and Martena, are in eternal torments for
despising the warnings of Valentianus, who proved to them clearly that
their Jesus Christ, thirty-eight leagues in height, was a demon.
Aholibamah, who is also called Judith, obeyed the Councils, Reuben and
Peniel listened to the counsels from on high, as their names indeed
indicate. Reuben signifies son of the vision; and Peniel, "the face of
God.":

Mess Lethierry struck the table with his fist.

"Parbleu!" he cried; "it was my fault."

"What do you mean?" asked M. Jaquemin Herode.

"I say that it is my fault."

"Your fault? Why?"

"Because I allowed the Durande to return on Fridays."

M. Jaquemin Herode whispered in Caudray's ear:

"This man is superstitious."

He resumed, raising his voice, and in a didactic tone:

"Mess Lethierry, it is puerile to believe in Fridays. You ought not to
put faith in fables. Friday is a day just like any other. It is very
often a propitious day. Melendez founded the city of Saint Augustin on a
Friday; it was on a Friday that Henry the Seventh gave his commission
to John Cabot; the Pilgrims of the _Mayflower_ landed at Province Town
on a Friday. Washington was born on Friday, the 22nd of February 1732;
Christopher Columbus disco