第16章

Command me as you will and I obey.I owe you my life, and it is yours.""Well, well, young man!" said the kind Alain, "then be wise, be virtuous,--only, /work/; but do not attack religion in your books.

Moreover, remember that you owe a debt."

And he handed him an envelope thick with the bank-notes he had counted out.The tears were in Victor de Vernisset's eyes; he kissed Madame de la Chanterie's hand respectfully, and went away, after shaking hands with Monsieur Alain and Godefroid.

"You have not obeyed madame," said the goodman Alain solemnly, with a sad expression on his face that Godefroid had never before seen there;"and that is a great wrong; if it happens again we must part.This may seem hard to you after we had begun to give you our confidence.""My dear Alain," said Madame de la Chanterie, "have the kindness for my sake to say no more about this piece of thoughtlessness.We ought not to ask too much a new arrival, who has been spared great misfortunes and knows nothing of religion; and who, moreover, has only an excessive curiosity about our vocation, and does not yet believe in us.""Forgive me, madame," said Godefroid; "I do desire, from this time forth, to be worthy of you.I will submit to any trial you think necessary before initiating me into the secrets of your work; and if the Abbe de Veze will undertake to instruct me I will listen to him, soul and mind."These words made Madame de la Chanterie so happy that a faint color stole upon her cheeks.She took Godefroid's hand and pressed it, then she said, with strange emotion, "It is well."That evening, after dinner, visitors came in: a vicar-general of the diocese of Paris, two canons, two former mayors of Paris, and one of the ladies who distributed the charities of Notre-Dame.No cards were played; but the conversation was gay, without being vapid.

A visit which surprised Godefroid greatly was that of the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne, one of the highest personages in aristocratic society, whose salon was inaccessible to the bourgeoisie and to parvenus.The presence of this great lady in Madame de la Chanterie's salon was sufficiently surprising; but the manner in which the two women met and treated each other seemed to Godefroid inexplicable; for it showed the closest intimacy and a constant intercourse which gave Madame de la Chanterie an added value in his eyes.Madame de Cinq-Cygne was gracious and affectionate in manner to the four friends of her friend, and showed the utmost respect to Monsieur Nicolas.

We may see here how social vanities still governed Godefroid; for up to this visit of Madame de Cinq-Cygne he was still undecided; but he now resolved to give himself up, with or without conviction, to whatever Madame de la Chanterie and her friends might exact of him, in order to get affiliated with their order and initiated into their secrets, assuring himself that in that way he should find a career.

The next day he went to a book-keeper whom Madame de la Chanterie recommended, and arranged with him the hours at which they should work together.His whole time was now employed.The Abbe de Veze instructed him in the mornings; he was two hours a day with the book-keeper; and he spent the rest of his time between breakfast and dinner in doing imaginary commercial accounts which his master required him to write at home.

Some time passed thus, during which Godefroid felt the charm of a life in which each hour has its own employment.The recurrence of a settled work at settled moments, regularity of action, is the secret of many a happy life; and it proves how deeply the founders of religious orders had meditated on the nature of man.Godefroid, who had made up his mind to listen to the Abbe de Veze, began to have serious thoughts of a future life, and to find how little he knew of the real gravity of religious questions.