disbelieving maggot in his brain, or the butterfly of belief, or
whatever it may be called. It's constitutional--may be criminal, but
constitutional. It seems to me you would stand more chance with the Jew,
Greek, or heretic, than our infidel. He thinks too much--for a tailor,
or for nine tailors, or for one man."

He pulled his nose, as if he had said a very good thing indeed. They
were walking slowly towards the village during this conversation, and the
Cure, stopping short, brought his stick emphatically down in his palm
several times, as he said:

"Ah, you will not see! You will not understand. With God all things are
possible. Were it the devil himself in human form, I should work and
pray and hope, as my duty is, though he should still remain the devil to
the end. What am I? Nothing. But what the Church has done, the Church
may do. Think of Paul and Augustine, and Constantine!"

"They were classic barbarians to whom religion was but an emotion. This
man has a brain which must be satisfied."

"I must count him as a soul to be saved through that very intelligence,
as well as through the goodness of his daily life, which, in its charity,
shames us all. He gives all he earns to the sick and needy. He lives on
fare as poor as the poorest of our people eat; he gives up his hours of
sleep to nurse the sick. Dauphin might not have lived but for him. His
heart is good, else these things were impossible. He could not act
them."

"But that's just it, Cure. Doesn't he act them? Isn't it a whim? What
more likely than that, tired of the flesh-pots of Egypt, he comes here to