The crimes which are not
expiated here below will be punished in another world. God himself
avenges innocence."
"Do you think God concerns himself with such trifles?"
"If he did not see the worlds in all their details at a glance, as you
take a landscape into your eye, he would not be God."
"Monsieur l'abbe, will you give me your word of honor that you have
had these facts from my uncle?"
"Your uncle has appeared three times to Ursula and has told them and
repeated them to her. Exhausted by such visions she revealed them to
me privately; she considers them so devoid of reason that she will
never speak of them. You may make yourself easy on that point."
"I am easy on all points, Monsieur Chaperon."
"I hope you are," said the old priest. "Even if I considered these
warnings absurd, I should still feel bound to inform you of them,
considering the singular nature of the details. You are an honest man,
and you have obtained your handsome fortune in too legal a way to wish
to add to it by theft. Besides, you are an almost primitive man, and
you would be tortured by remorse. We have within us, be we savage or
civilized, the sense of what is right, and this will not permit us to
enjoy in peace ill-gotten gains acquired against the laws of the
society in which we live,--for well-constituted societies are modeled
on the system God has ordained for the universe.
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