. ."
"Stop! Stop!" said Cazeau, growing impatient, "Your eloquence is so
impressive, Madame, and you say so much that is excellent in one
breath, that you must pardon my inferior capacity in not being able
to follow you quite coherently! There are conflicting statements,
you say--"
"No, there are none," said Patoux himself, drawing his pipe out of
his mouth slowly, and looking intently at its well-sucked stem--"It
is all the same sort of thing. A child is sick--a child is cured--
and it is either God or the Devil who has done it. Some people
prefer to think it is the Devil,--some give the praise to God. It
was exactly like that whenever our Lord did a good deed. Half the
folks said he was God,--the other half that he had a devil.
Jerusalem was like Rouen, Rouen is like Jerusalem. Jerusalem was
ancient and wicked; Rouen is modern and wickeder,--that's all! As
for music in the church, we have only the Archbishop's warrant that
the Cardinal ever said anything about hearing music."
"'ONLY' the Archbishop's warrant!" echoed Cazeau meaningly.
"I said 'ONLY', Monsieur!--Make the best of it!" answered Patoux,
sticking his pipe into his mouth again, and resuming his smoke with
undisturbed tranquillity.
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