GRACE
331
Duperrier made no protest and withdrew to his bedroom
to pray.
"My God," he said in substance, "you have granted me the
highest recompense a man may hope for on this earth, martyrdom
excepted. For this I thank you. But I share with my wife the bread
of the sorrows which you deign to send me no less than the honey of
your mercies.
It
is only thus that a wedded pair may do the bidding
of their Maker. My wife, it so happens, cannot bear the sight, or
even the thought, of my halo, not because it is a gift from Heaven,
but simply because it is a halo. You know how women are. Any
unwonted happening upsets the whole mechanism of the little
schemes they have boxed up in their little heads. And there
is nothing you can do about it. My wife could live another
hundred years and there would still not be the smallest place in her
universe for my halo. Dear God, you who have the power to look into
my heart, you know what small store I set by my own peace and
comfort. For the joy of wearing the mark of your beneficence on my
forehead, I would endure the most violent domestic scenes with equa–
nimity. Unfortunately, it is not my own peace and tranquillity which
are at stake. My wife is losing her zest for living. Worse still, I foresee
the day when, out of hatred for my halo, she will curse the very name
of Him who gave it to me.
Am
I to stand by and see the companion
you have chosen for me die in damnation, and do nothing to save
her? I am now at a point where I must choose one of two ways. May
the spirit of your infinite justice speak through the voice of my con–
science. That is the humble prayer which, dear God, in
this
hour of
perplexity, I lay at your radiant feet."
He had no sooner spoken than his conscience declared itself
in favor of the way of sin, making it appear the better part of Chris–
tian charity. Duperrier came back into the dining room where his
wife was waiting for him nervously.
"God is just," he said, putting
his
thumbs in the armholes
of his vest. "He knew what He was doing when He gave me this
halo. Nobody ever deserved
it
more than
I.
They simply don't make
them like me any more. Why, when I think of the common run of
humanity, and then look at myself, I feel like spitting
in
the face of
every man I meet. God has rewarded me, that I grant. But how
about the Church?
If
justice were done, wouldn't they make me at
least an archbishop?"
