statement made by Saint Jerome in his Epistle to Damasus. . . .”
“Monsieur,” said Madame des Aubels, “go away, I beg you.”
But the Angel hearkened not, and continued:
“Saint Augustine, in his True Religion, Chapter XIII; Saint Gregory, in his Morals, Chapter XXIV; Isidore———”
“Monsieur, let me get my things on; I am in a hurry.”
“In his treatise on The Greatest Good, Book I, Chapter XII; Bede on Job———”
“Oh, please, Monsieur . . .”
“Chapter VIII; John of Damascus on Faith, Book II, Chapter III. Those, I think, are sufficiently weighty authorities, and there is nothing for it, Maurice, but to admit your error. What has led you astray is that you have not duly considered my nature, which is free, active, and mobile, like that of all the angels, and that you have merely observed the grace and felicity with which you deem me so richly endowed. Lucifer possessed no less, yet he rebelled.”
“But what on earth are you rebelling for?” asked Maurice.
“Isaiah,” answered the child of light, “Isaiah has already asked, before you: ‘Quomodo cecidisti de cælo, Lucifer, qui mane oriebaris?’ Hearken, Maurice. Before Time was, the Angels rose up to
