Monsieur de Merret one night came home quite late, and as he was about to enter his wife’s apartments he heard a closet door, opening into her room, close very quietly. He thought it was his wife’s maid, but just then the maid entered the room from another door. The husband sent the maid away and asked his wife who had gone into the closet. She answered him that no one was there. He said, “I believe you. I will not open it. But see, here is your crucifix--swear before God that there is no one in there. I will believe you--I will never open that door.” Madame de Merret took up the crucifix and said, “I swear it.” Monsieur de Merret sent away the servants--all but one trusted one. He then sent for a mason, and had the closet securely walled in. At dawn the work was completed, the mason had gone, and Monsieur, on some pretext, left the house. As soon as he was gone, Madame de Merret called her maid, and together they began to tear down the wall--hoping to replace the bricks before Monsieur returned. They had just begun the work when Monsieur entered the room. For twenty days he remained in his wife’s apartment, and when a noise was heard in the closet and she wished to intercede for the dying man, her husband would answer: “You swore on the cross that there was no one there.” No need even for a Balzac to read a moral! A fifth side of Balzac’s genius is sweeter to contemplate--that of _The Idealistic Philosopher_. Take time to read _The Personal Opinions of Honoré de Balzac_, edited by Katharine Prescott Wormeley, you who would know how the man interpreted himself, and you will find idealism lifting its lily crest from the field of ooze. Doubtless “A Legend of Jesus Christ in Flanders” is Balzac’s most ethically idealistic story--a true symbolical tale of Hawthorne’s legendary type. Night was falling. The ferry-boat that carried passengers from the island of Cadzand to Ostend was ready to depart. Just then a man appeared who wished to enter the boat. It was already full. There was no place in the stern for the stranger, for the “aristocrats” of Flanders were seated there--a baroness, a cavalier, a young lady, a bishop, a rich merchant, and a doctor. So he made his way to the bow, where the more humble folk were seated. They at once made room for him. As soon as the boat had moved out on the water, the skipper called to his rowers to pull with all their might, for they were in the face of a storm. All the while the tempest was growing more terrifying, and all the while the men and women in the boat questioned in their hearts who might the stranger be. On his face shone a light and a quiet peace they could not understand. Finally, the boat was capsized. Then the stranger said to them, “Those who have faith shall be saved; let them follow me.” With a firm step he walked upon the waves, and those who followed him came safe to shore.