out of the Benedit's house and went off to make her
complaints to the Cure.
The Cure, very bored, and greatly annoyed at being
disturbed in the middle of his reading, promised
vaguely to speak to Eusebe himself, but once back
with his books forgot all about it. He was not in the
least uneasy for Jan, who could never, he felt sure, be
harmed by such nonsense.
jSo Marie must do her unaided best by telling her
children kindlier stories, and these she would tell
them on Sunday evenings after they had all returned
from Benediction. She would tell how the tear of the
Magdalene was placed in a golden cup by the angels
— and she bruised in spirit because of her sins, and
because of her penitence bruised in body. And of
how those same angels being filled with compassion,
would gather her into their merciful arms and bear her
away over valleys and hills to a place of infinite peace
and refreshment. And of how there would come many
flocks of wild birds to be blessed by the sainted peni-
tent sinner, who continued to weep so persistently
that her tears formed a spring of miraculous water.
And then Marie would tell of that wonderful voyage
which the Holy Ones made on their way to Provence
~ they had come in a sailless and rudderless ship,
guided always by God's inscrutable wisdom. The
three Holy Marys-of-the-sea had come, and Maximus
who promptly converted Aix, and Lazarus who
converted Marseille, and the pitiful Joseph of Arima-
thea who had felt such concern for his Saviour's
body. Aye, and many others had arrived in that
vessel to raise Christ's cross on the soil of the pagan.
Then one evening she remembered that those saints
had brought with them a devoted female slave, by
name Sara, and that Sara had not been white skinned
but black:
'Which shows you, my children/ said Marie gravely,
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