“I will not, I will not!” she cried. “Oh, please to go, monsieur. How can I sit for the Madonna any more when you make me out so wicked!”
CHAPTER VI.
“M. de St Denys,” said Ned, “are you not here the children, so to speak, of an ecclesiastical benefice?”
“We are in the circle of Westphalia, monsieur—children, certainly, of the Duc de Bouillon, who is suffragan of the Archbishop of Cologne.”
“And how does his lordship accept this moral emancipation of little rustic Méricourt?”
The other laughed carelessly.
“As he would accept the antics of children, perhaps. It does not trouble me. In a few years all livings will be in the gift of the people.”
“You are serious in thinking so?”
“Why not?”
“Because I cannot interpret you, or comprehend for what reason you run riot on a road of self-abnegation.”