Such a scene is
worth anything! Madame, I entreat of you,' to Meg, who was stepping
forward.
However, of course it could not last long, though as d'Aubepine
almost instantly began to swear, as he recovered his senses, Madame
Darpent unconsciously maintained the delusion, by saying solemnly in
her voice, the gravest and deepest that I ever heard in a
Frenchwoman: 'Add not another sin, sir, to those with which you have
profaned this holy place.'
The Abbe thereupon took one look and broke into another tempest of
entreaties and vows, which Madame Darpent by this time heard. 'M.
l'Abbe,' she said, 'I pray you to be silent, I am no saint, but a
friend, if Madame will allow me so to call myself, who has come to
see her home. But Oh! Monsieur,' she added, with the wonderful
dignity that surrounded her, 'forget not, I pray you, that what is
invisible is the more real, and that the vows and resolution you have
addressed to me in error are none the less registered in Heaven.'
Mocker as the Coadjutor habitually was, he stood impressed, and
uttered no word to mar the effect, simply saying: 'Madame, we thank
you for the lesson you have given us! And now, I think, these ladies
will be glad to close this painful scene.'
Meg, who with Madame Darpent, had satisfied herself that the wretch
d'Aubepine had not hurt himself anything like as much as he deserved,
declared herself ready and thankful to go away.
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