A LESSON IN CHARITY
From the doctor's house Godefroid made his way to the rue Chanoinesse, passing along the quai des Augustins, where he hoped to find one of the shops of the commission-publishers open.He was fortunate enough to do so, and had a long talk with a young clerk on books of jurisprudence.
When he reached the rue Chanoinesse, he found Madame de la Chanterie and her friends just returning from high mass; in reply to the look she gave him Godefroid made her a significant sign with his head.
"Isn't our dear father Alain here to-day?" he said.
"No," she replied, "not this Sunday; you will not see him till a week from to-day--unless you go where he gave you rendezvous.""Madame," said Godefroid in a low voice, "you know he doesn't intimidate me as these gentlemen do; I wanted to make my report to him--""And I?"
"Oh you! I can tell you all; and I have a great deal to tell.For my first essay I have found a most extraordinary misfortune; a cruel mingling of pauperism and the need for luxuries; also scenes of a sublimity which surpasses all the inventions of our great novelists.""Nature, especially moral nature, is always greater than art, just as God is greater than his creatures.But come," said madame de la Chanterie, "tell me the particulars of your first trip into worlds unknown to you."Monsieur Nicolas and Monsieur Joseph (for the Abbe de Veze had remained a few moments in Notre-Dame) left Madame de la Chanterie alone with Godefroid, who, being still under the influence of the emotions he had gone through the night before, related even the smallest details of his story with the force and ardor and action of a first experience of such a spectacle and its attendant persons and things.His narrative had a great success; for the calm and gentle Madame de la Chanterie wept, accustomed as she was to sound the depths of sorrows.
"You did quite right to send the accordion," she said.
"I would like to do a great deal more," said Godefroid; "inasmuch as this family is the first that has shown me the pleasures of charity, Ishould like to obtain for that splendid old man a full return for his great book.I don't know if you have confidence enough in my capacity to give me the means of undertaking such an affair.From information Ihave obtained, it will cost nine thousand francs to manufacture an edition of fifteen hundred copies, and their selling value will be twenty-four thousand francs.But as we should have to pay off the three thousand and some hundred francs due to Barbet, it would be an outlay of twelve thousand francs to risk.Oh! madame, if you only knew what bitter regrets I feel for having dissipated my little fortune!
The spirit of charity has appeared to me; it fills me with the ardor of an initiate.I wish to renounce the world, I long to embrace the life of these gentlemen and be worthy of you.Many a time during the last two days I have blessed the chance that brought me to this house.
I will obey you in all things until you judge me fit to be one of yours.""Then," said Madame de la Chanterie, after reflecting for a time, "listen to me, for I have important things to tell.You have been allured, my child, by the poesy of misfortune.Yes, misfortunes are often poetical; for, as I think, poesy is a certain effect on the sensibilities, and sorrows affect the sensibilities,--life is so intense in grief!""Yes, madame, I know that I have been gripped by the demon of curiosity.But how could I help it? I have not yet acquired the habit of penetrating to the heart of these great misfortunes; I cannot go among them with the calmness of your three soldiers of the Lord.But, let me tell you, it is since I have recovered from that first excitement that I have chiefly longed to devote myself to your work.""Listen to me, my dear angel!" said Madame de la Chanterie, who uttered the last three words with a gentle solemnity that touched the young man strangely."We have forbidden ourselves absolutely,--and we do not trifle with words here; what is forbidden no longer occupies our minds,--we have forbidden ourselves to enter into any speculations.To print a book for sale on the chance of profit is a matter of business, and any operation of that kind would throw us into all the entanglements of commerce.Certainly your scheme seems to me feasible,--even necessary.But do you think it is the first that has offered itself? A score of times, a hundred times, we have come upon just such ways of saving families, or firms.What would have become of us if we had taken part in such affairs? We should be merchants.No, our true partnership with misfortune is not to take the work into our own hands, but to help the unfortunate to work themselves.Before long you will meet with misfortunes more bitter still than these.Would you then do the same thing,--that is, take the burdens of those unfortunates wholly on yourself? You would soon be overwhelmed.
