"You are a curious man;" he at length observed, "And a more than
curious priest! Here you are, assuming the guardianship of a boy
concerning whom you know nothing,--when you might as well have
handed him over to one of the orphanages for the poor, or have paid
for his care and education with some of the monastic brethren
established near Rouen,--but no!--you being eccentric, feel as if
you were personally responsible to God for the child, simply because
you found him lost and alone, and therefore you have him with you.
It is very good of you,--we will call it great of you--but it is not
usual. People will say you have a private motive;--you must remember
that the world never gives you credit for doing a good action simply
for the pure sake of doing it,--'There must be something behind it
all,' they say. When the worst cocotte of the age begins to lose her
beauty, the prospect is so alarming that she thinks there may be a
possible hell, after all, and she straightway becomes charitable and
renowned for good works;--precisely in the same way as our famous
stage 'stars', knowing their lives to be less clean than the lives
of their horses and their dogs, give subscriptions and altar-cloths
and organs to the clergy.
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