Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/141

 “To me, dead?”

“Yes. All the good works that I might be able to do should be done in your name to redeem your mistakes. I should pray to God every day, so that in His infinite mercy He might not eternally punish the errors of a day, and that He might place a soul as beautiful and pure as yours close to Himself, among the souls of the blessed.”

This answer, said with angelic candor and pronounced in an accent full of conviction, overwhelmed fallacy and converted Denis Minoret as Saint-Paul was converted. A ray of inward light dazzled him, whilst this tenderness, reaching all through his life to come, made his eyes fill with tears. There was something electric in this sudden effect of grace. The curé clasped his hands and rose, disturbed. The child, astonished at her success, burst into tears. The old man stood up as if someone had called him, gazed into space as if he could see some aurora, then he bent his knee upon his armchair, folded his hands and cast his eyes upon the ground like a profoundly humiliated man.

“O God!” he said in a voice of emotion, and raising his forehead, “if anyone can obtain my forgiveness and lead me to Thee, is it not this spotless creature? Forgive the repentant old age that this glorious child offers Thee!”

He mentally lifted up his soul to God, praying Him to complete his enlightenment by His science after having overwhelmed him with His mercy; he turned to the curé and stretching out his hand, said: