I got up with
pleasure, for I said to myself, 'here is an artist or a poet,--one
of those persons who are unlike anyone else'--just as I am myself
unlike anyone else--'and so we two shall have a pleasant evening.'
But when I opened the door there was no one but a priest, and poor-
looking even at that; and he was young and pale, and very uneasy in
his manner, and he said to me, 'Jean Lapui'--(that is my name)--'let
me pass up to the platform.' 'Willingly,' said I, 'if I may go with
you.' 'Nay, I would rather be alone,' he answered. 'That may not
be,' I told him, 'I am as pleased to see the moonbeams shining on
the beasts and devils as any man,--and I shall do you no harm by my
company.' Well, he agreed to have me then, and up we went the three
hundred and seventy-eight steps,--(it is a long way, Monseigneur;--
)and he mounted quickly, I slowly,--but always keeping my eye upon
him. At last we reached this platform, and the moonlight was
beautiful, and clear as day. Then my little priest sat down and
began to laugh. 'Ha, my Lapui!' he said, 'Is it not droll that this
should be all a lie! All this fine building, and all the other fine
buildings of the kind in Paris! Strange, my Lapui, is it not, that
this Cathedral should be raised to the worship of a God whom no one
obeys, or even thinks of obeying! All show, my good Lapui! All to
feed priests like me, and keep them going--but God has nothing to do
with it--nothing at all, I swear to you!'--'You may be right, mon
reverend,' I said, (for I saw he was not in a mood to be argued
with)--"Yet truly the Cathedral has not always been a place of
holiness.
Pages:
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236