“That’s the way to talk,” said Veronica. “What a relief it is to hear you, Julius! His resignation makes me boil with rage; it’s impossible to get him to defend himself. He has let himself be plucked like a goose and said ‘thank you’ to everyone who robbed him, as long as they did it in the Lord’s name.” “Veronica! it grieves me to hear you talk like that. Whatever is done in the Lord’s name is well done.” “If you think it’s agreeable to be made a fool of!” said Julius. “God’s fool, dear Julius!” “Just listen to him! That’s what he’s like the whole time! Nothing but Scripture texts in his mouth from morning to night! And after I’ve toiled and slaved and done the marketing and the cooking and the housemaiding, my good gentleman quotes the Gospel and says I’m being busy about many things and tells me to look at the lilies of the field.” “I help you to the best of my power, dear,” said Anthime in a seraphic voice. “Now that I’ve got the use of my legs again, I’ve many a time offered to do the marketing or the housework for you.” “That’s not a man’s business. Content yourself with writing your homilies, only try to get a little better pay for them.” And then, her voice getting more and more querulous (hers, who used to be so smiling!): “Isn’t it a disgrace?” she exclaimed. “When one thinks of what he used to get for his infidel articles in the _Dépêche_! And now when the _Pilgrim_ pays him a miserable two-pence halfpenny for his religious meditations, he somehow or other contrives to give three quarters of it to the poor!” “Then he’s a complete saint!” cried Julius, aghast. “Oh! how he irritates me with his saintliness!... Look here! Do you know what this is?” and she fetched a small wicker cage from a dark corner of the room. “These are the two rats whose eyes my scientific friend put out in the old days.” “Oh, Veronica, why will you harp on it? You used to feed them yourself when I was experimenting on them--and then I blamed you for it.... Yes, Julius, in my unregenerate days I blinded those poor creatures, out of vain scientific curiosity; it’s only natural I should look after them now.” “I wish the Church thought it equally natural to do for you what you do for these rats--after having blinded you in the same way.” “Blinded, do you say! Such words from _you_? Illumined, my dear brother, illumined!” “My words were plain matter-of-fact. It seems to me inadmissible that you should be abandoned in such a state as this. The Church entered into an engagement with you; she must keep it--for her own honour--for our faith’s sake.” Then, turning to Veronica: “If you have obtained nothing so far, you must appeal higher still--and still higher. Rampolla, did I say? It’s to the Pope himself that I shall present a petition--to the Pope. He is acquainted with your story. He ought to be informed of such a miscarriage of justice. I am returning to Rome to-morrow.” “You’ll stop to dinner, won’t you?” asked Veronica, somewhat apprehensively.