“You are mistaken there, my dear child,” said Madame de Godollo. “Pascal, who was himself a great example of the falseness of your point of view, says, if I am not mistaken, that a little science draws us from religion, but a great deal draws us back to it.”
“And yet, madame,” said Celeste, “every one admits that Monsieur Felix is really very learned; when he helped my brother with his studies nothing could be, so Francois told me, clearer or more comprehensible than his explanations; and you see, yourself, he is not the more religious for that.”
“I tell you, my dear child, that Monsieur Felix is not irreligious, and with a little gentleness and patience nothing would be easier than to bring him back.”
“Bring back a savant to the duties of religion!” exclaimed la Peyrade. “Really, madame, that seems to me very difficult. These gentlemen put the object of their studies before everything else. Tell a geometrician or a geologist, for example, that the Church demands, imperatively, the sanctification of the Sabbath by the suspension of all species of work, and they will shrug their shoulders, though God Himself did not disdain to rest from His labors.”
“So that in not coming here this evening,” said Celeste, naively, “Monsieur Felix commits not only a fault against good manners, but a sin.”
“But, my dearest,” said Madame de Godollo, “do you think that our meeting here this evening to sing ballads and eat ices and say evil of our neighbor—which is the customary habit of salons—is more pleasing to God than to see a man of science in his observatory busied in studying the magnificent secrets of His creation?”
“There’s a time for all things,” said Celeste; “and, as Monsieur de la Peyrade says, God Himself did not disdain to rest.”
“But, my love,” said Madame de Godollo, “God has time to do so; He is eternal.”
“That,” said la Peyrade, “is one of the wittiest impieties ever uttered; those are the reasons that the world’s people put forth. They interpret and explain away the commands of God, even those that are most explicit and imperative; they take them, leave them, or choose among them; the free-thinker subjects them to his lordly revision, and from free-thinking the distance is short to free actions.”
During this harangue of the barrister Madame de Godollo had looked at the clock; it then said half-past eleven. The salon began to empty. Only one card-table was still going on, Minard, Thuillier, and two of the new acquaintances being the players. Phellion had just quitted the group with which he had so far been sitting, to join his wife, who was talking with Brigitte in a corner; by the vehemence of his pantomimic action it was easy to see that he was filled with some virtuous indignation. Everything seemed to show that all hope of seeing the arrival of the tardy lover was decidedly over.