" exclaimed the Abbe, looking at his
watch. "Will you come the day after to-morrow at about two o'clock? We
will hope it may be fine enough to examine the outside of the
Cathedral."

"And if it still rains?"

"Come all the same. But I must fly."

He pressed Durtal's hand and was gone.

CHAPTER VI.

"Yes, I know when I confessed in her presence that I did not yet know of
which Saint I might write the history, Madame Bavoil--dear Madame
Bavoil, as the Abbe Gevresin calls her--exclaimed: 'The life of Jeanne
de Matel! Why not?'

"But it is a biography that is not easy to deal with or that can be
lightly handled," said Durtal to himself, as he arranged the notes he
had collected by degrees as bearing on this Venerable woman.

And he sat meditating.

"What is quite unintelligible," said he to himself, "is the
disproportion between the promises made to her by Jesus and the results
achieved. Never, I really believe, have so many tribulations and
hindrances, or so much ill-fortune attended the founding of a new Order.
Jeanne spent her days on the high roads, running from one monastery to
another, and toil as she would to dig up the conventual soil, nothing
would grow. She could not even assume the habit of her Institution, or
at any rate only a few minutes before her death, for, in order to travel
with greater ease all over France, she wore the livery of a world she
abominated, and to which she appealed in vain in the name of the Lord to
take an interest in the formation of her cloister. Unhappy woman! She
went to Court--as her confessor Father de Gibalin bears witness, while
he testifies that he had never known a humbler soul--as others go to the
stake.

"And yet the Lord certainly commanded her to found this Order of the
Incarnate Word. He sketched the scheme, laid down the rule, and
prescribed the costume, explaining its symbolism, declaring that the
white robe of its maidens would do honour to that with which He was
mockingly invested in Herod's palace; that their red cloak would keep
in memory that which was cast over Him in the house of Pilate; that
their crimson scapulary and girdle would preserve the remembrance of the
stake and the cords dyed in His blood. And He seems to have mocked her.

"He solemnly assured her that after sorrowful trials the seed she had
sown should bring forth an abundant harvest of nuns. He expressly told
her that she would rank as the sister of Saint Theresa and Saint Clare;