"Ah, that is just the point! I should think she will go into a convent."
"I thought you said she was a Huguenot?"
"So she was, but she is generally supposed to be a Catholic now."
"What a pity!" said Celia, thoughtfully. "How much good she might have done in turning the King's heart towards the Huguenots, if God had permitted her!"
"On the contrary, she is thought to have turned him from them. Many persons say that we may thank her for the revocation of the Edict of Nantes."
"I can scarce believe that, Philip!"
"I hardly do myself."
"Do you think, Philip," asked Celia, slowly, after a pause, "that there is one really good man or woman among all your acquaintance?"
"My dear," replied Philip, in his gravest manner, "I have met with so many good men and women that I have lost all faith in the article. I have seen excellent mothers whose children have died from neglect, excellent husbands who have run away with other people's wives, excellent sons and daughters who have left a kind mother alone in her old age, and excellent friends who have ruined their friends' reputations by backbiting. Never a one of your good men and women for me, if you please. We are all a bad lot together—that is the truth; and the best of us is only a trifle less bad than the others."
"But, Philip, do you really know none who has the fear of God in his heart?"