fairer than Diana, and far purer, for one may guess
the fool Diana made of that poor boy, Endymion.
But what concerning my ward, sir, my most imma-
culate lady?"

"Would you forbid my son access to her?" en-
quired the seigneur.

"Ah! you wish for an injunction;" said the
advocate; "show me cause. I have, sir -- as you
seem aware -- a ward dwelling yonder at my seat at
Stillyside; -- a place I sometimes visit; a sort of
shrine, a kind of hermitage or chapel, wherein two
devotees, two nun-like, holy women consume the
hours; leading there, pious, penitential lives, making
each day a sort of hallowed tide, and every eve a
vigil."

"You are humorous," replied the seigneur. "Ex-
cuse me, I am sorry, but it were best that I should
speak plainly. I would not wish to see your ward
dishonored."

"Dishonored! not a seigneur, nor a seigneur's son
dare dream of such a consummation, nor, daring so to
dream, could compass it," cried the advocate, growing
crimson. "Yet this is kind of you;" he added,
bowing as if deeply grateful; -- "and yet," he con-
tinued, "there can be no fear of an offence: is not
your son a clergyman? for, if he be, and they confess
to him anything worse than to have admitted him to
their confidence -- why, sir, he shall be allowed to
enter, and shrive them when he chooses;" and after
a momentary silence, "Fie! fie!" he resumed, roll-
ing in his chair; "'the fool hath said in his heart
there is no God,' and the wise man of Mainville,
who has been all his life looking for purity in a

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