lastly, scoffers, who,
believing in nothing, looked on all religion as a mockery.

He presently stopped walking--in his utmost excitement I remarked that
he never forgot my mother, but trod more lightly when he drew near the
alcove--and spoke again. 'You are a Huguenot?' he said.

'Yes,' I replied.

'So is she,' he rejoined, pointing towards the bed. 'But do you feel no
doubts?'

'None,' I said quietly.

'Nor does she.' he answered again, stopping opposite me. You made up
your mind--how?'

'I was born in the Religion,' I said.

'And you have never questioned it?'

'Never.'

'Nor thought much about it?'

'Not a great deal,' I answered.

'Saint Gris!' he exclaimed in a low tone. 'And do you never think of
hell-fire--of the worm which dieth not, and the fire which shall not be
quenched? Do you never think of that, M. de Marsac?'

'No, my friend, never!' I answered, rising impatiently; for at
that hour, and in that silent, gloomy room I found his conversation
dispiriting. 'I believe what I was taught to believe, and I strive to
hurt no one but the enemy. I think little; and if I were you I would
think less. I would do something, man--fight, play, work, anything but
think! I leave that to clerks.'

'I am a clerk,' he answered.

'A poor one, it seems,' I retorted, with a little scorn in my tone.
'Leave it, man. Work! Fight! Do something!'

'Fight?' he said, as if the idea were a novel one. 'Fight? But there, I
might be killed; and then hell-fire, you see!'

'Zounds, man!' I cried, out of patience with a folly which, to tell the
truth, the lamp burning low, and the rain pattering on the roof, made
the skin of my back feel cold and creepy. 'Enough of this! Keep your
doubts and your fire to yourself! And answer me,' I continued, sternly.
'How came Madame de Bonne so poor? How did she come down to this place?'

He sat down on his stool, the excitement dying quickly out of his face.
'She gave away all her money,' he said slowly and reluctantly. It may be
imagined that this answer surprised me. 'Gave it away?' I exclaimed. 'To
whom? And when?'

He moved uneasily on his seat and avoided my eye, his altered manner
filling me with suspicions which the insight I had just obtained into
his character did not altogether preclude. At last he said, 'I had
nothing to do with it, if you mean that; nothing. On the contrary, I
have done all I could to make it up to her. I followed her here. I swear
that is so, M. de Mar