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He is the very Cardinal who performed the miracle in my house that has caused us no end of trouble, and he is under the displeasure of the Pope for it now, if all I hear be true." "That is strange!" said Pierre with a laugh, "To be under the displeasure of the Pope for doing a good deed!" "Truly, it seems so," agreed Patoux, "But you must remember there was no paying shrine concerned in it!
If any rascal were to insult my girl by so much as a look, he would find himself in the ditch with a sore back before he had time to cry 'Dieu merci!" He laughed; Patoux laughed with him, and then went on, "I told thee of the miracle in my house, and of the boy the Cardinal found in the streets, well! these things have had their good effect in my own family. My two children, Henri and Babette ah!
"Henri!" gasped Madame Patoux, extending her fat arm and hand with a solemn gesture of reproach "Henri, thou art mad . . . wicked . . ." But Henri went on unheedingly, still addressing Manuel. "Now you are a boy, and I daresay you can read and think, you are about my age I suppose. And you are left all alone in the world, with nobody to care for you, well, do you think that is well- arranged?
Patoux took his pipe out of his mouth altogether, and stared solemnly at the ceiling. "Without doubt! they are compelled to go to school," he answered slowly; "but if I could have had my way, they should never have gone. They learn mischief there in plenty, but no good that I can see.
Some people might have thought Papa Patoux inclined to be poetical, she did not. Henri and Babette listened. "The robe of Our Lady is always blue," said Babette. "And the angels' clothes are always white," added Henri. Madame Patoux said nothing, but passed a second helping of soup all round. Papa Patoux smiled blandly on his offspring.
Just now, however, unusual calm appeared to have settled on the Patoux household, an atmosphere of general placidity and peace prevailed, which had the effect of imparting almost a stately air to the tumble-down house, and a suggestion of luxury to the poorly-furnished rooms Madame Patoux herself was conscious of a mysterious dignity in her surroundings, and moved about on her various household duties with less bounce and fuss than was her ordinary custom, and Henri and Babette sat quiet without being told to do so, moved apparently by a sudden and inexplicable desire to study their lessons.
"How dost thou prove a waif of the streets a holy thing?" enquired Pierre curiously. Patoux shrugged his shoulders, and gave a wide deprecatory wave of both hands. "Ah, that is more than I can tell you!" he said, "It is a matter beyond my skill. But the boy was a fair-faced boy, I never saw him myself " Midon laughed outright.
With this, and an introductory wave of his hand in the direction of the attenuated and sallow-faced personage who had accompanied him, he graciously permitted Madame Patoux to humbly precede him by a few steps, and then followed her with a soft, even tread, and a sound as of rustling silk in his garments, from which a faint odour of some delicate perfume seemed wafted as he moved.
Things went on somehow; Patoux himself was perfectly satisfied with his small earnings and position in life Madame Patoux felt that "le bon Dieu" was specially engaged in looking after her, and as long as the wicked Babette and the wickeder Henri threw themselves wildly into her arms and clung round her fat neck imploring pardon after any and every misdeed, and sat for a while "en penitence" in separate corners reading the "Hours of Mary", they might be as naughty as they chose over and over again so far as the good-natured mother was concerned.
Yet surely the recovery of her child should fill her with thanksgiving and make her a faithful and devout servant " "Pardon, Monsieur," interrupted Madame Patoux, "Believe me, Martine is thankful enough, and devout enough, but truly it has been very hard for her to suffer the things that have been said to her of late, how that the child could never have been really crippled at all, but simply shamming, how that it was all a trick got up between herself and the priests for the purpose of bringing visitors and their money to Rouen, for of course since the miracle was noised abroad there have been many pilgrimages to Notre Dame, it having got about that there was some mysterious spirit or angel in one of the shrines, for look you, our Archbishop, when he came to visit the Cardinal here in this very hotel, distinctly remembers that His Eminence assured him he had heard strange music in the Cathedral, when truly there was no organ unlocked, and no organist on duty, and then there was something about the boy that His Eminence found lost that night . . ."
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