“Yes, mademoiselle; I have just come from there. I do not think she will need our assistance long. Poor woman, or rather, happy woman, she is at last going to receive the reward she so well deserves!... But how many others there are still to be aided when she is gone!... There is so much wretchedness whichever way we turn! If there were only more like you, mademoiselle, to look after the poor!”
“And you also, monsieur. My father has told me something of your plans. I will not speak of my approval: my approbation is of little value; but I assure you they please me. Above all, I hope you will not allow yourself to be discouraged by difficulties you are likely to meet with.”
“I hope, with the help of God, to overcome them, mademoiselle. But the efforts of an isolated individual like myself are of little avail, especially when one has had no more experience and is no richer than I.”
These words were uttered in a tone of frankness and simplicity that produced a lively impression on Eugénie. “If he is sincere in what he says,” said she to herself, “my suspicions about him are unjust; but this frankness and simplicity of manner are perhaps subtle means of blinding my eyes.” She therefore remained on her guard. “Ah! monsieur, it is not money alone we should give the poor! What they need, above all, is advice, which you are much better fitted to give than I who have had no experience of life.”
There was a tinge of irony in these last words that did not escape Louis, but he pretended not to observe it.
“I do not think,” said he, “that I have had as much experience as you suppose, mademoiselle. However, a Christian seeks aid from a different source than the insufficient arsenal of human experience. What we should, above all, remind the poor of, what we should induce them to love, are the precepts of religion which they may have forgotten and no longer practise for want of knowing their value.”
“You are very pious, it seems, monsieur,” she said, in a slight tone of raillery.
“I must put an end to this,” said Louis to himself. “She seems to regard me as a hypocrite. I will prove to her I am not. If she refuses to believe me, her persistency in such odious and unjust suspicions will redound to her own injury.”
“Mademoiselle,” said he, “I am not very pious, but I desire to be so, or rather to become so again, for I was as long as my mother lived. She was taken away too soon for my good, for I had need of her counsels and guidance. I have realized it since! You have doubtless had an account of my life. It may be summed up in three words: folly, despair, and return to God. I dare not pledge my word that this return is irrevocable: I have given too many proofs of weakness to rely on myself. God, who has brought me back to himself, can alone give me the necessary strength to remain faithful to him. But if I cannot promise ever to falter again, I can at least venture to declare that my conversion is sincere—so sincere that, having lost all I had, I regard this loss as extremely fortunate, for it was, in God’s providence, the means of leading me back to the faith. Such a benefit can never be too dearly purchased!”
Louis kept his eyes fastened on Eugénie as he spoke. She looked up more than once; the expression of his face and the tone of his voice were so evidently those of an honest man, that she felt all her doubts give way.