“Oh, my dear boy, I have been very ill, nearly dead.”
“How was that, uncle?”
“I don't know; it was most surprising. But what is stranger still is that the Jesuit priest who has just left—you know, that excellent man whom I have made such fun of—had a divine revelation of my state, and came to see me.”
I was seized with an almost uncontrollable desire to laugh, and with difficulty said: “Oh, really!”
“Yes, he came. He heard a voice telling him to get up and come to me, because I was going to die. I was a revelation.”
I pretended to sneeze, so as not to burst out laughing; I felt inclined to roll on the ground with amusement.
In about a minute I managed to say indignantly:
“And you received him, uncle? You, a Freethinker, a Freemason? You did not have him thrown out of doors?”
He seemed confused, and stammered:
“Listen a moment, it is so astonishing—so astonishing and providential! He also spoke to me about my father; it seems he knew him formerly.”