The French Twins

The sunlight of the clear September afternoon shone across theroofs of the City of Rheims, and fell in a yellow flood upon thetowers of the most beautiful cathedral in the world, turning theminto two shining golden pillars against the deep blue of theeastern sky.The streets below were already in shadow, but the sunshine stillpoured through the great rose window above the western portal,lighting the dim interior of the church with long shafts ofbrilliant reds, blues, and greens, and falling at last in ashower of broken color upon the steps of the high altar.Somewhere in the mysterious shadows an unseen musician touchedthe keys of the great organ, and the voice of the Cathedralthrobbed through its echoing aisles in tremulous waves of sound.Above the deep tones of the bass notes a delicate melody floated,like a lark singing above the surf.Though the great church seemed empty but for sound and color,there lingered among its shadows a few persons who loved it well.There were priests and a few worshipers. There was also FatherVarennes, the Verger, and far away in one of the small chapelsopening from the apse in the eastern end good Mother Meraut wasdown upon her knees, not praying as you might suppose, butscrubbing the stone floor. Mother Meraut was a wise woman; sheknew when to pray and when to scrub, and upon occasion did bothwith equal energy to the glory of God and the service of hisChurch. Today it was her task to make the little chapel clean andsweet, for was not the Abbe coming to examine the ConfirmationClass in its catechism, and were not her own two children, Pierreand Pierette, in the class? In time to the heart-beats of theorgan, Mother Meraut swept her brush back and forth, and it wasalready near the hour for the class to assemble when at last sheset aside her scrubbing-pail, wiped her hands upon her apron, andbegan to dust the chairs which had been standing outside thearched entrance, and to place them in orderly rows within thechapel.She had nearly completed her task, when there was a tap-tappingupon the stone floor, and down the long aisle, leaning upon hiscrutch, came Father Varennes. He stopped near the chapel andwatched her as she whisked the last chair into place and thenpaused with her hands upon her hips to make a final inspection ofher work."Bonjour, Antoinette," said the Verger.