“Why do you wish to read those unsafe writings?” she would ask. “Do you know, Nathalie, that if people hear of it they will imagine you to be a Protestant or an unbeliever.”
“But I am neither. I read because it interests one to know what is thought in other countries.”
“That cannot be right,” said Félicie, decidedly. “It is flinging away safeguards.”
“How?”
“Because here you can ask your priest whether a book is allowable.”
Nathalie looked at her bending short-sightedly over her frame, wistful wonder in her own eyes.
“Do you mean that you always ask the priest before you read!”
“Always, always!” exclaimed Félicie. “If not, it is very certain that one might be led into a sin. Do not you?”
“I have never been accustomed to such restrictions,” said Mme. Léon in a low voice. “Perhaps your priest is a great reader?”
“He reads his breviary,” her sister-in-law answered, reproachfully.