me that we are whispering a little too much, dear; let me think over my
little bill."

Madame leans upon her praying-stool. Gracefully she removes, without
taking her eyes off the altar, the glove from her right hand, and with
her thumb turns the ring of Ste-Genevieve that serves her as a rosary,
moving her lips the while. Then, with downcast eyes and set lips, she
loosens the fleur-de-lys-engraved clasp of her Book of Hours, and seeks
out the prayers appropriate to her condition.

She reads with fervency: "'My God, crushed beneath the burden of my sins
I cast myself at thy feet'--how annoying that it should be so cold to the
feet. With my sore throat, I am sure to have influenza,--'that I cast
myself at thy feet'--tell me, dear, do you know if the chapel-keeper has
a footwarmer? Nothing is worse than cold feet, and that Madame de P.
sticks there for hours. I am sure she confesses her friends' sins along
with her own. It is intolerable; I no longer have any feeling in my
right foot; I would pay that woman for her foot-warmer--'I bow my head in
the dust under the weight of repentance, and of........'"

"Ah! Madame de P. has finished; she is as red as the comb of a turkey-
cock."

Four ladies rush forward with pious ardor to take her place.

"Ah! Madame, do not push so, I beg of you."

"But I was here before you, Madame."

"I beg a thousand pardons, Madame."