The Master-Christian

" said Abbe Ver

find him so?" asked the Car

xedly, and took a short turn up a

or nothing,-"But he speaks too well, and, surely, thinks too much for his years. Is there nothing further to tell of him save what you have

the Cardinal bewildered. "

ver known. Still, the story of your foundling is exceptional;-you will own that it is somewhat out of the common course of things, for a Cardinal to suddenly constitute himself the protector and guardia

exclaimed t

d Vergniaud, "I am talking profanely, sceptically, and cynically,-I

t I conceive to be my duty," said Felix Bonpre, calmly, "The lad is alone and absol

, and for a moment appe

him with you. It is very good of you,-we will call it great of you-but it is not usual. People will say you have a private motive;-you must remember that the world never gives you credit for doing a good action simply for the pure sake of doing it,-'There must be something behind it all,' they say. When the worst cocotte of the age begins to lose her beauty, the prospect is so alarming that she thinks there may be a possible hell, after all, and she straightway becomes charitable and renowned for good

t the Cardina

discussion,-not because I wanted the notice of the world for them,-for that I do not care about,-but for the sake of wrestling out the subject for myself, and making my pen my confidant. I tell you I envy the woman who can say her rosary with the simple belief that the Virgin Mary hears and takes delight in all those repetit

sensuality in the pure

l repro

m, that He 'descended from Heaven and was made Man'. TRES CHER Felix, I shall bewilder you to death with my specious and frivolous reasoning,-and after all, I had much better come to the main fact of what I intended to tell you,-a sort of confession out of church. You know I have already told you I am going to die soon, and that I am a bad man confessedly and hopelessly,-but among other

e of those amiable yet hypocritical personages, who, by the most jesuitical flatteries and studied delicacies of manner, succeed in influencing weak-minded persons of wealth, (especially women) to the end of securing vast sums of money to the Church,-obtaining by these means such ra

"Do you really mean that you are shadowed by some would-be a

s but by no means alarming. "I want to save him from the guillotine; and if he murders m

his clear blue eyes and

b

," he said gently, "Surely it

ed round her fingers. She was praying, so she told me afterwards, to her guardian angel,-I wonder what that personage was about just then, Bonpre! Anyhow, to her petition came no answer but a devil,-a devil personified in me,-I made her love me,-I tempted her by ever subtle and hellish persuasion I could think of,-I can never even now think of that time without wondering where all the eloquent evil of my tongue came from-and-well!-she never was able to ask the guardian angel any more favours! And I?-I think I loved her for a while,-but no, I am not sure;-I believe there is no such good thing as absolute love in my composition. Anyway, I soon left Touraine, and had almost forgotten her when she wrote to tell me of the birth of her child-a son. I gave her no reply, and then she wrote again,-such a letter!-such words! At the moment they burnt me,-stabbed me-positively hurt me,-and I was not then easily hurt. She swore she would bring the boy up to curse his father,-and, to put

d the Cardinal in a low vo

ight as I can, and it really seems impossible to arrange matters. I am to die soon, according to the doctors;-and so I have made my willleaving everything I possess to this ridiculous boy wh

be recalled, and however much we may regret having uttered it, somehow it is never forgotten. But-" here leaning forward, he laid one hand gently on Vergniaud's arm, "My dear friend-my dear brother-you have told me of your sin;-it is a great sin,-but God forbid that I should presume to judge you harshly when our Lord Himself declared that 'He came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance'. It may be that I can find a way to help you. Arrange for me to

adily, "that you might when you heard all, hurl som

brothers sin against us seventy times seven we are still to forgive, and they are still our brothers

e up and held

hatever you may see fitting and right to retrieve the past?-and to cl

clasped the exte

tenderness, "You have sinned against Heaven, and you have sinned against the Church and your own calling,-but the greatest

as bad as poisoning the Sacrament! I should have kept it sweet and pure; I should have let the Church go, and been honest! I should have seen to it that the child of my love grew up to honour his father,-not to merely live for the murder of him! Yes!-I know what I should have done-I know what I have not d

and his voice died away

his hand again wa

them sweet. And who knows how much God may help us in the task? Never forget the words that tell us

It has been so patient, and so unwearying in searching for stray sheep and bringing them back with love and tenderness and pity to the fold? And Churchmen never say anything which is slanderous or cruel? And we all follow Christ's teaching so accurately? Yes!-Ah well-I wonder! I wonder what will be the end! I

e joys thine h

hy days from

atever thou

ing better

hropic mood. There is no 'not to be' in creation. Each morning that lights the world is an expression of 'to be'! And however much we may

Abbe felt somewhat like a chidden child as he met the gaze of those clear t

the worst of it," he answered, "and having mad

re of attention as a rich mezzo

r c

mi il

e un

on

e il

si

i c

si

on s

e lon

e in

imi i

cari

e Cardinal, "She has a

imi in

cari

till listening, "It is lik

ace, an action which implied much more than the mere outward expression of confidence,-"Nothing is utterly lost, my dear friend. 'The ver

ed controversy,-"Personally, I think the dew is more

an reduce our very selves to the bodiless condition of a dream if we take sufficient pains first to advance a theory, and then to wear it threadbare. Nothing i

have no spiritual insti

fancy it is only because we do not know them sufficiently that we judge them thus. Few, if any, are so utterly materialistic as never to have had some fleeting intuition of

lly admitted to be something of a remarkable character in Europe. Tall and fair, with very bright flashing eyes, and a wonderfully high bred air of concentrated pride and resolution, united to a grace and courtesy which exhaled from him, so to speak, with his every movement and gesture, he was not a man to pass by without comment, even in a crowd. A peculiar distinctiveness marked him,-out of a marching regiment one would have naturally selected him as the commanding officer, and in any crisis of pa

as you determined?" queried the Abbe with a smile

to-morrow," answ

Angela, my child, let me see what you have been doing. All your canvases are covered,

heeled a large oaken chair with a carved and

throned in state,-that canopy is just fitted for you, and you are a picture in yourself!-Yes, you are, dearest uncle! And not all the artists in the

h a smile, "For I want to see everythi

position close to t

asked Vergniaud, "Wher

hed

ago," said Angela, "He

ith the music?" a

A thoughtful lad! He was very silent while I played,

en over the work of Don

t we not express

lain to you first that I am composing a very large picture,-I began it in Rome some three years ago, and it is in my studio there,-but I require a few French types of countenance in order to quite complete it. The sk

th very different eyes,-one with poignant regret and pain,-the other with a sense of shame,-and the