n. "Let it be done. I will undergo
it, with the help of God, as their pastor should, for the sake of my
dear children in Auvergne."

The baron sat at his desk, and wrote a few lines--

"Present this note," said he, "at the _Salle St Agnes_ in the _Hotel
Dieu_. Go at once. The sisters there will take care that you want for
nothing. Take rest for a day or two, and I will see what afterwards may
be done for you."

The priest thanked the baron many times for his kindness--bowed
respectfully, and retired. The free-thinking surgeon sat for a few
minutes after his departure, silent and thoughtful.

"Happy man!" he exclaimed at last, sighing as the words escaped him.

"Happy, sir?" said I enquiringly.

"Yes! happy, Mr Walpole. False and fabulous as the system is on which he
builds, is he not to be envied for the faith that buoys him up so well
through the great sea of trouble, as your poet justly calls this
pitiable world! Could one _purchase_ this all-powerful faith, what price
would be too dear for such an acquisition? Who would not give all that
he possesses here to grasp that hope and anchor?"

"And yet, sir, you might have it. The gift is freely offered, and you
spurn it."

"No such thing!" replied the surgeon hastily. "I may NOT have it. This
weak yet amiable priest is content to take for granted what every
rational mind rejects without fair proofs. He receives as a postulate
that which I must have demonstrated. I try to solve the problem, and the
first links of the argument lead to an absurdity."

"The weak man, then, has reason to be thankful?" said I.

"Ay, ay! I grant you that. He cannot tell how much!"

"How differently, sir, do things appear to different men! The very
endurance of this old man, founded as it is upon his faith, is to me
proof sufficient of the truth and heavenly origin of that faith."

"You talk, Mr Walpole, like a schoolboy, who knows nothing of religion
out of his catechism--and nothing of the world beyond his school walls.
If the ability to bear calamity with fortitude shall decide the
genuineness of the creed, there is your North American Indian or Hindoo
nearer to truth and heaven than the Christian. So much for your '_proof
sufficient_' as you term it."

This discussion, like all the rest, for all useful purposes ended as it
began, leaving us both just where it had found us--our tempers rather
than our views suffering in the conflict. Two or three times I was
tempted to rattle o