There followed a moment of silence, so solemn, so sweet, that it seemed as if a Presence had suddenly entered, and I personally felt my soul in that moment suddenly lifted toward God as it had never been before. And as I looked at Paula standing so humbly there her eyes seemed to say: "Oh, my uncle, my cousin, would that you, too, might love Him and receive Him as the Saviour of your soul!"
"Listen, Paula," my father said; "will you leave the Breton and his friends and his sons in my hands for the present?"
Paula looked at him searchingly for a moment, as if trying to find out what was in his mind.
"Of course!" she finally said.
"Well, then, just rest content. I'll try to see the thing through somehow. If I'm not very much mistaken, these protegés of yours will have very little to complain of."
"Oh, uncle dear!" shouted Paula, delighted, "what are you planning to do?"
"I don't know yet exactly, but I've thought of something. No! No! Don't try to thank me for anything, for I don't know how it will come out. But," he smiled as he laid his hand on Paula's head, "you certainly have a method of asking for things that I don't seem to find any way to refuse you."
CHAPTER FIVE
THE NIGHT SCHOOL
For the first time in my life a great secret had been confided to me. Of course, I felt quite proud that they had considered me important enough to be a sharer of the secret. But my! What a struggle it was not to tell Paula!