magnificence might ransom a duke. She wore a gown bright as lapis lazuli—a shawl worth a thousand francs: she was decked with ornaments so brilliant, I never saw any with such a beautiful sparkle; but her figure looked as if it had been broken in two and bent double; she seemed also to have outlived the common years of humanity, and to have attained those which are only labor and sorrow. She was become morose—almost malevolent; yet somebody, it appears cared for her in her infirmities—somebody forgave her trespasses, hoping to have his trespasses forgiven. They lived together, these three people—the mistress, the chaplain, the servant—all old, all feeble, all sheltered under one kind wing".
He covered with his hand the upper part of his face, but did not conceal his mouth, where I saw hovering an expression I liked.
"I see you have entered into my secrets", said he; "but how was it done?"
So I told him how—the commission on which I had been sent, the storm which had detained me, the abruptness of the lady, the kindness of the priest. "As I sat waiting for the rain to cease, Père Silas whiled away the time with a story", I said.
"A story! What story? Père Silas is no romancist".
"Shall I tell monsieur the tale?"
"Yes: begin at the beginning. Let me hear some of Miss Lucy's French—her best or her worst—I don't much care which; let us have a good poignée of barbarisms, and a bounteous dose of the insular accent".
"Monsieur is not going to be gratified by a tale of ambitious proportions, and the spectacle of the narrator sticking fast in the midst. But I will tell him the title—the 'Priest's Pupil'".
"Bah!" said he, the swarthy flush again dyeing his dark cheek. "The good old father could not have chosen a worse subject; it is his weak point. But what of the 'Priest's Pupil?'"
"Oh! many things".
You may as well define what things. I mean to know".
"There was the pupil's youth, the pupil's manhood—his avarice, his ingratitude, his implacability, his inconstancy. Such a bad pupil, monsieur!—so thankless, cold-hearted, unchivalrous, unforgiving!
