LI.
CHAMBER MORALITY.
"Practise moderation and prudence with regard to certain virtues which may ruin the health of the body."
THE REV. FATHER LAURENT SCUPOLI (Le Combat Spirituel).
—What a strange story, said Marcel. Oh, Veronica. But did you not make more resistance?
—Resistance! I was lame from it for more than a fortnight. I walked like a duck. People said to me: "What is the matter with you, Mademoiselle Veronica? They say you have broken something!" Ah, if they had suspected what it was.
—What a scandal! Monsieur Fortin!
—He was stronger than I; but I don't give him all the blame. We must be just. It was my fault too. That is what comes of playing with fire.
—But it seems to me, Veronica, that you displayed a little willingness.
—Ah, Monsieur le Curé, you are scolding me for telling you all this so plainly. Was it not better for me to act thus, than to let Monsieur Fortin run right and left and expose himself to all sorts of affronts, as some do? That man had a temperament of fire. And that temperament must have expended itself on someone. The business about little Gilquin made me reflect. I sacrificed myself, and I acted as much in his interests as in the interests of religion.
—And does not temperament speak in you also, Veronica?
—Ah, that is only told in confession.
—Nevertheless it is fine to rule your passions, to be chaste.
—Ah, yes, as you were saying once when I came in: "Chaste without hope." All that is rubbish. God has well done all that he has done; I can't get away from that.
—How can you bring the holy name of God into these abominable things?
—Abominable! that is rubbish again. Monsieur Fortin and I often asked ourselves what evil that could do to God, when neither of us did any to other people. Monsieur Fortin used to say to me: "Are we doing evil to our neighbours, Veronica?" "Not that I know of, Monsieur le Curé." "Are we causing a scandal?" "Ah, Jesus, no, Monsieur le Curé." "Are we setting a bad example?" "No, Monsieur le Curé, no." "Are we populating the land with orphans?" "Oh, as to that, no." "Well then, in what way can we be offending God?" That was very well said all the same, the more so as his health depended on it.
—But, replied Marcel, wishing to change the conversation which was verging upon dangerous ground, have you not told me that you have been in the service of ecclesiastics for nearly five-and-twenty years. That appears to me to be very extraordinary for, after all, you are hardly forty.
—Thirty-nine, corrected Veronica, who was past forty-five.
—Reason the more.
—That is true, Monsieur le Curé, but I began early. At fifteen I went to the Abbé Braqueminet's.
—I was acquainted with a Braqueminet, who was Bishop in partibus. A very worthy prelate.
—That he is, sir; he went to America.
—Come! this is too much, Veronica; you want to make a fool of me. At fifteen, do you say, that is too much! At thirty you were with the Abbé Fortin. I have no objection to that, since you passed as his relation, although with regard to this, our rules are precise, and we cannot take a housekeeper, till she is over a certain age. Sometimes, it is true, they smuggle in a few years: but fifteen years!
—It is the exact truth, however, sir. I was fifteen years old, and no more at the Abbé Braqueminet's, and you will believe me, when I tell you that I was his niece.
-Monseigneur Braqueminet's niece! you, Veronica?
-Yes, sir, his niece; the Holy Virgin who hears me, will tell you that I was his niece, and I will explain to you how.