By the way, I met that terrible reformer
and socialist Aubrey Leigh at the Embassy the other day--the man who
is making such a sensation in England with his 'Addresses to the
People.' He is quite an optimist, do you know? He believes in
everything and everybody,--even in me!"
Angela laughed, and her laughter sweet and low, thrilled the air
with a sense of music.
"That is wonderful!" she said gaily,--"Even in you! And how does he
manage to believe in you, Monsieur l'Abbe? Do tell me!"
A little frown wrinkled the Abbe's brow.
"Well! in a strange way," he responded. "You know he is a very
strange man and believes in very strange things. When I treat
humanity as a jest--which is really how it should be treated--he
looks at me with a grand air of tolerance, 'Oh, you will progress;'
he says, 'You are passing through a phase.' 'My dear sir,' I assure
him, 'I have lived in this "phase", as you call it, for forty years.
I used to pray to the angels and saints and to all the different
little Madonnas that live in different places, till I was twenty.
Then I dropped all the pretty heaven-toys at once;--and since then I
have believed in nothing--myself, least of all. Now I am sixty--and
yet you tell me I am only passing through a phase.
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