fast day according
to the episcopal mandate, which I have read ... and behold my little
priest is devouring meat! The hotel-keeper offered us fish just now,
and I quite understood why, but it seems fasting is not obligatory for
this priest--unless this priest is not a priest!"

Whilst the abbe was enjoying his chicken in silence, with eyes fixed
on his plate, Fandor once again subjected him to a minute examination.
He noted his delicate features, his slim hands, his graceful
attitudes: he was so impressed by this and various little details,
that when the abbe, after dessert and a last glass of cider, rose and
proposed that they should go up to their room for the night, Fandor
declared to himself:

"My head on a charger for it! I bet that little abbe is a woman, then
more mystery, and a probable husband or lover who may come on the
scene presently! Fandor, my boy, beware of this baggage! Not an eye
must you close this night!"

The priest had had the famous package taken upstairs and placed at the
foot of his bed.

Fandor and the abbe wished each other good night.

"As for me," declared Fandor, unlacing his boots, "I cannot keep my
eyes open!"

"I can say the same," replied his companion.

Fandor's next remark had malice in it.

"I pity you, Monsieur l'Abbe! No doubt you have long prayers to
recite--especially if you have not finished your breviary!"

"You are mistaken," answered the abbe, with a slight smile: "I am
dispensed from a certain number of religious exercises!"

"A fig for you, my fine fellow!" said Fandor to himself. "The deuce is
in if I do not catch you out over one of your lies!"

The little abbe was seated on a chair attending to his nails.

Fandor walked to the door, explaining:

"I have a horror of sleeping in an hotel bedroom with an unlocked
door!... You will allow me to turn the key?"

"Turn it, then!"

Locking the door, Fandor drew the key and threw it on to the priest's
lap.

"There, Monsieur l'Abbe, if you like to put it on your bedside table!"

Fandor's action had a purpose. Ten to one you settle the sex of a
doubtful individual by such a test. A man instinctively draws his
knees together when an object is thrown on them: a woman draws them
apart, to make a wider surface of the skirt for the reception of an
article and thus prevent its fall to the ground.

Fandor was not surprised to see the little priest instinctively act as
would a woman.... But, would not a priest, accus