For a moment Jules appeared confused. "But can't you go to early mass?"
Madame Perrault, who was in the next room, called out: "It's no use trying to persuade her not to go to high mass, monsieur. She'd think something terrible was going to happen to her if she didn't go. Now, I go at eight o'clock; so I have the rest of the day free."
Jules looked at Mademoiselle Blanche and smiled, and she smiled back.
"I like to hear the music," she explained apologetically.
"Oh, she's too religious for this world," Madame Perrault laughed. "I believe she'd go to mass every morning of her life if she didn't have to stay up so late at night. She ought to be in a convent instead of a circus."
"In a convent!" Jules exclaimed, in mock alarm.
"Don't you ever go to church?" the girl asked, turning to Jules.
He looked confused again. "I? Well, no. To tell the truth, I haven't been in a church for nearly ten years. Oh, yes I have. I went to a funeral two years ago at the Trinity."
"But weren't you—weren't you brought up to go to church?"
"Brought up to go to church? Oh, yes; my mother went to church every Sunday of her life. I used to go with her after my father died."