“That seems to be unprecedented advice,” said Florian, sternly, “to have come from a saint of the Calendar.”
He tried, at least, to speak sternly: but a dreadful thought had smitten him, and Florian knew that he, who had wondered what people meant when they talked about fear, had done with wondering.
“It was for your own good and eternal salvation,” observed Melior, “though, to be sure, all men are like that, and, as I often think, the more you do for them the less they seem to appreciate your trouble—”
Florian said only, “May I inquire, madame, without appearing unduly intrusive, who was your collaborator in arranging this infant’s début?”
“Why, but of course she received all the necessary assistance,” replied St. Hoprig, “from me. I never grudge the efforts necessary to a good action of this sort: and all night long, my son, I labored cheerfully for your salvation. For it was my plain duty as your celestial patron to save you, at any cost, from falling into grave sin: and, besides, it was a matter hardly to be entrusted to any other gentleman without considerable possibilities of scandal.”
Florian looked from one to the other. “So it was to prevent scandal that my wife and my patron saint have put together their heads: and beauty and holiness—they also!—must combine to avoid offending against the notions of the neighbors. You will permit the remark that here is ambiguous logic.”
“Ah, but my dear,” replied Melior, “can you with logic deny that we did it for your own good? So often, when affairs look wrong, if you will just regard the spirit of the thing—”
“Madame,” said Florian, without unkindliness, “let us not argue about that. I am sure you were persuaded as to the spirit of the thing, when no doubt Monsieur Hoprig went into it at full length—”
Yet Florian spoke perturbedly, for in his heart remained despair and terror. To find that he had been hoodwinked was not a discovery to upset a person used to the ways of the world and of more wives than he had ever married: to be hoodwinked was the métier of husbands. Moreover, reflection had already suggested that the saint had followed the honorable old tradition of various nations who deputed exactly the task which Hoprig had spared Florian to their most holy persons.
Florian took snuff. With his chin well up, he inhaled luxuriously....