favour of God by edifying his neighbour.
He might have been admitted among the
guards of Frederic King of Prussia, for the
sake of his gigantic stature. His black and
bright eyes, his curly hair and beard, his
delicate and regular features -- composed a
physiognomy capable of inspiring wandering
thoughts in the toughest of devotees. So
that it was only for his own defence that he
wore the long cassock of brown cloth, the
bands, and the hat of the seculars.

Athanase Gerbier yielded with so bad a
grace to the pious intentions of his father,
that he only just wiped the dust off the
benches of the theological class, and gained
nothing by his apprenticeship except an
invincible disgust for the gown which he was
destined to wear. He scarcely retained enough
Latin and sufficient technical phrases to answer
the necessary examinations. But as the
clergy at this epoch, estimating their power
by the number of annual recruits, were not
difficult about the choice of their new members,
he was admitted against his own will by the
bishop, and judged fit to be ordained priest
at Whitsuntide. His father, proud of having
such a son as a blessing upon his house and
lands, wrote to him to present himself at
Amiens, where the ceremony of ordination
would take place in the presence of his family.
Gerbier, who had hoped as a last resource, that
an episcopal sentence would favour his wishes
by pronouncing his rejection, fell into a state
of disconsolate helplessness; for he had not
the moral courage to resist the paternal
authority, which despotically disposed of his
future life, and condemned him to a profession
so repugnant to his natural inclinations.
He suffered from this cowardly weakness,
which he secretly acknowledged and cursed
as the cause of his critical position; still he
made no attempt to conquer it. Such is the
effect of childish prejudice.

I had endeavoured to form with him an
intimacy of neighbourhood and of study; but
he was too timid and too silent to accept my
repeated advances, which seemed rather to
embarrass him, if I could judge from his
blushing, his stammering, and his beating a
retreat with overstrained politeness.

I often began with him an entirely personal
conversation, in order to set him at
ease and enter more into his confidence; but
his furbelowed masters had already cured
his natural frankness and engrained him with
hypocrisy. Moreover, he was ashamed of his
ignorance, which I exposed without intending
it, and our meetings occurred less frequently
in proportion as I lost more time in my
intrigue at the window, which I had to carry
on all by myself. There was even between
us a coldness not far from turning into hatred;
for Gerbier avoided me, and darted threatening
glances at me.

One day I found him on the staircase: he
carried a little chest, and stopped at every
step, not so much to take breath under his
burden as to defer the moment of departure;
he shed tears, and wiped them away with the
back of his hand. I noticed him closely
before accosting him, and felt pity for his
grief.

"What reason have you for tears, Monsieur
Athanase?" I asked, with an air of
interest which was not feigned; "has anything
unpleasant occurred in respect to your
thesis?"

"Ah! " replied he, nipping his eyebrows,
"you are very glad of my departure! Yes,
my father has come to fetch me, and take me
to Amiens, to be a priest! Mon dieu! if I
dare confess the truth to him! Yes, I am the
most unfortunate of men!"

"What! you are going to be ordained a
priest? I congratulate you; it is very
respectable, and you may get forward with a
little audacity, address, and talent, especially
if you preach. Bourdaloue, Massillon, and
Bossuet are the models to follow. I advise
you to make your first attempts in the style
of Massillon: his is the eloquence of the
heart; you would thereby get the women on
your side, and they make the reputation of
a preacher."

"Ma foi! preach yourself, if that gives you
any amusement; as to me, I had rather
throw myself into the river. But you
shall not profit much by my absence,
Monsieur; and if I do not come back to tell you
what's what, and have my revenge of your
treachery! 'Tis too bad, much too bad,
Monsieur Jacob!"

As if he was afraid of having expressed too
clearly the bottom of his thoughts, he turned
his back and left me, without the least regard
to my well-meant condolence, and without
acquainting me with the motive for his ill-
will, which I had never suspected.

I reflected a moment on these mysterious
reproaches; and while I was thinking of
following him to obtain an explanation of
these last words, I saw him at the turn of
the Rue d'Ecosse in his fathers char-à-banc.
Nanette, motionless at her window, with red
eyes and clasped hands, looked after him till
he disappeared. She took no notice of the
glances which I shot from the street to her
attic, but shut her window with a slam, and
appeared no more the whole day long, though
I uselessly remained at mine to watch her.

In the evening I observed that she went
out with a basket in her hand, and ran to a
fruit-woman, doubtless to get something for
her supper. I determined to wait for her in
the passage of her house, and bluntly declare
my love to her, which deprived me of all
repose. In fact, when she returned with her
basket full of nothing but charcoal, and
passed close to me without recognising me in
the darkness in which we were, I seized her
by the arm, and suddenly approached my face
so close to hers, undoubtedly through the
force of attraction, that she screamed with
surprise as she endeavoured to escape from