oduction of gas into the
chapels, will end by installing mechanical chimes instead of bells. That
will be charming. The machinery will be run by electricity and we shall
have real up-to-date, timbreless, Protestant peals."

"Then Carhaix's wife will have a chance to go back to Finistere."

"No, they are too poor, and then too Carhaix would be broken-hearted if
he lost his bells. Curious, a man's affection for the object that he
manipulates. The mechanic's love for his machine. The thing that one
tends, and that obeys one, becomes personalized, and one ends by falling
in love with it. And the bell is an instrument in a class of its own. It
is baptized like a Christian, anointed with sacramental oil, and
according to the pontifical rubric it is also to be sanctified, in the
interior of its chalice, by a bishop, in seven cruciform unctions with
the oil of the infirm that it may send to the dying the message which
shall sustain them in their last agonies.

"It is the herald of the Church, the voice from without as the priest is
the voice from within. So you see it isn't a mere piece of bronze, a
reversed mortar to be swung at a rope's end. Add that bells, like fine
wines, ripen with age, that their tone becomes more ample and mellow,
that they lose their sharp bouquet, their raw flavour. That will
explain--imperfectly--how one can become attached to them."

"Why, you seem to be an enthusiast yourself."

"Oh, I don't know anything about it. I am simply repeating what I have
heard Carhaix say. If the subject interests you, he will be only too
glad to teach you the symbolism of bells. He is inexhaustible. The man
is a monomaniac."

"I can understand," said Durtal dreamily. "I live in a quarter where
there are a good many convents and at dawn the air is a-tingle with the
vibrance of the chimes. When I was ill I used to lie awake at night
awaiting the sound of the matin bells and welcoming them as a
deliverance. In the grey light I felt that I was being cuddled by a
distant and secret caress, that a lullaby was crooned over me, and a
cool hand applied to my burning forehead. I had the assurance that the
folk who were awake were praying for the others, and consequently for
me. I felt less lonely. I really believe the bells are sounded for the
special benefit of the sick who cannot sleep."

"The bells ring for others, notably for the trouble-makers. The rather
common inscription for the side of a bell, '_Paco cruentos_,' 'I