“True, Catherine, no others are wanted. Your friends surround you in sufficient numbers.” “M. Jacques, do not insult me, if you please.” “I do not insult you, Catherine. I acknowledge your charms, to which I should like to render the same homage that others do.” “M. Jacques, what you have now said smells odiously of the cookshop, of that old codger who is your father.” “Not so very long ago, Mam’selle Catherine, you were mighty glad to smell its cooking-stove.” “Fie! the villain! the mean rascal! He outrages a woman!” And now she began to squeak and squeal, and M d’Anquetil left his servants, came up to us, and pushed her into the house, calling her a cheat and a rake, went into the passage behind her, and slammed the door in my face. CHAPTER XV In the Library with M. Jerome Coignard--A Conversation on Morals--Taken to M. d’Asterac’s Study--Salamanders again--The Solar Powder--A Visit and its Consequences. The thought of Catherine occupied my mind all the week following that vexatious adventure. Her image glittered on the leaves of the folios over which I bent in the library, close to my dear tutor; so much so that Plotinus, Olympiodorus, Fabricius, Vossius spoke of nothing else to me than a tiny damsel in a lace chemise. These visions rendered me lazy. But, indulgent to others, as to himself, M. Jerome Coignard had a kind smile for my trouble and distraction. “Jacques Tournebroche,” he said to me, one day, “are you not struck by the variations in morals during the course of the centuries? The books in this admirable Asteracian collection witness to the uncertainties of mankind on this subject. If I reflect upon it, my son, it is to put into your mind that solid and salutary idea that no good morals are to be found outside religion, and that the maxims of the philosophers, who pretend to institute a natural morality, are nothing but whims and babblings of foolish trash. The rationality of good morals is not to be found in nature, which in itself is indifferent, ignorant of good or evil. It is in the divine word, which is not to be trespassed against without after regret. The laws of humanity are based on utility, and that can only be an apparent and illusory utility, for nobody knows naturally what is useful to mankind, nor what is really appropriate to them. And we must not forget that our habits contain a good moiety of articles which are of prejudice alone. Upheld by the menace of chastisement, human laws may be eluded by cunning and dissimulation. Every man capable of reflection stands above them. Really they are nothing but booby traps.