pure they may be! Nor am I speaking of the Elect, such
as I saw at La Trappe--merely of young novices, little priestlings whom
I have known. They had eyes like clear glass, undimmed by the haze of a
single sin; and, looking into them, behind those eyes you would have
seen their open soul burning like a soaring crown of fire framing the
smiling face in a halo of white name.

"In fact, Jesus simply fills up all the room in their soul. Do not you
think, Monsieur l'Abbe, that these youths occupy their bodies just
enough for suffering and to expiate the sins of others? Without knowing
it, they have been sent into the world to be safe tenements of the Lord,
the resting-place where Jesus finds a home after wandering over the
frozen steppes of other souls."

"Yes," said the Abbe, taking off his spectacles to wipe them on his
bandana, "but to acquire so fine a strain of being, how much
mortification, penance, and prayer have been needed in the generations
that have ended by giving them birth! The spirits of whom you speak are
the flower of a stem long nourished in a pious soil. The Spirit, of
course, bloweth where it listeth, and may find a saint in the heart of a
listless family; but this mode of operation must always be an exception.
The novices you have known must certainly have had grandmothers and
mothers who frequently incited them to kneel and pray by their side."

"I do not know--I knew nothing of the origin of these lads--but I feel
that you are right. It is obvious, indeed, that children, slowly brought
up from their earliest years, and sheltered from the world under the
shadow of such a sanctuary as this at Chartres, must end in the
blossoming of an unique flower."

And when Durtal told him of the impression made on him by the angelic
service of the Mass, the Abbe smiled.

"Though our boys are not unique, they are no doubt rare. Here, the
Virgin Herself trains them, and note, the little lad you saw is neither
more diligent nor more conscientious than his fellows; they are all
alike. Dedicated to the priesthood from the time when they can first
understand, they learn quite naturally to lead a spiritual life from
their constant intimacy with the services."

"What then is the system of this Institution?"

"The Foundation of the Clerks of Our Lady dates from 1853, or rather it
was reconstituted in that year--for it existed in the Middle Ages--by
the Abbe Ychard. Its purpose is to increase the number of priests by