"That is a serious culinary error and a spiritual danger," said the priest, smiling. He then went on:-- "Anger may also be figured by the balsam, which especially symbolizes impatience by reason of the irritability of its seed-vessels, which fly at a touch and explode, sending them to some distance.... "Sloth finally has the whole tribe of poppies, which give sleep. "As to the opposite virtues, the explanation they need is childish. For humility you have the bracken, the hyssop, the knotweed, and the violet, which, says Peter of Capua, is, by that same token, emblematical of Christ." "And likewise, according to Saint Melito, of the Confessors; or, according to Saint Mechtildis, of widows," added the Abbe Gevresin. "For indifference to the things of this world we find the lichen symbolizing solitude; for chastity, the orange-flower and the lily; for charity, the water-lily, the rose, and the saffron flower--so say Raban Maur and the Anonymous monk of Clairvaux; for temperance, the lettuce, which also stands for fasting; for meekness, mignonette; for watchfulness, the elder, signifying zeal; and thyme, which, with its sharp, pungent aroma, symbolizes activity. "You may dispense with the sins, which have no place in the precincts of Our Lady, and lay out your plots with the devout flowers." "How is that to be done?" asked the Abbe Gevresin. "Why," said Durtal, "there are two plans. One would be to sketch the plan of a real church and supply the place of its statues with plants, which would be the better way from the point of view of art; or else to compose a whole sanctuary with trees and shrubs." He rose, and went to pick up a stick that was lying in the field. "There," said he, tracing the cruciform outline of a church on the ground, "there you have the plan of our cathedral. Supposing now we build it, beginning at the end, the apse; there we naturally place the Lady chapel, as we find it in most cathedrals. "Plants emblematic of Our Lady's attributes are abundant." "The mystical rose of the Litanies!" exclaimed Madame Bavoil. "H'm!" said Durtal; "the rose has been much bedraggled. Not only was it the erotic blossom of Paganism, but in the Middle Ages Jews and prostitutes were compelled in many places to wear a rose as a distinctive mark of infamy." "True," said the Abbe Plomb, "and yet Peter of Capua uses it, with an interpretation of love and charity, to figure the Virgin; Saint Mechtildis, again, says that roses are symbolical of martyrs, and in another passage of her work on 'Specific Grace,' she compares this flower to the virtue of patience." "Walafrid Strabo, in his '_Hortulus_,' also speaks of the rose as the blood of the martyred saints," the Abbe Gevresin murmured. "'_Rosae martyres, rubore sanguinis_,' according to the key of Saint Melito," the other priest added, in confirmation. "We will admit that shrub," cried Durtal. "Now for the lily--"