“It is, they say, like a buckler, a—a palladium over the diocese of Perpignan. Ask Monsieur Jeufroy, then!”
Bouvard could not stand this kind of talk any longer; and, after he had looked over his Louis Hervieu, he took Pécuchet off with them.
The clergyman was finishing his dinner. Reine offered them chairs, and, at a gesture from her master, she went to fetch two little glasses, which she filled with Rosolio.
After this Bouvard explained what had brought him there.
The abbé did not reply candidly.
“Everything is possible to God, and the miracles are a proof of religion.”
“However, there are laws of nature—”
“That makes no difference to Him. He sets them aside in order to instruct, to correct.”
“How do you know whether He sets them aside?” returned Bouvard. “So long as Nature follows her routine we never bestow a thought on it, but in an extraordinary phenomenon we believe we see the hand of God.”
“It may be there,” replied the ecclesiastic; “and when an occurrence has been certified by witnesses——”