For instance, he professes perfect horror of the Jesuits." With a light exclamation Nani stopped the young man.

And he wore the most sincerely, frankly astonished air that could be imagined.

"What! horror of the Jesuits! In what way can the Jesuits disquiet him?
The Jesuits, there are none, that's all over! Have you seen any in Rome?
Have they troubled you in any way, those poor Jesuits who haven't even a stone of their own left here on which to lay their heads?
No, no, that bogey mustn't be brought up again, it's childish." Pierre in his turn looked at him, marvelling at his perfect ease, his quiet courage in dealing with this burning subject.

He did not avert his eyes, but displayed an open face like a book of truth.

"Ah!" he continued, "if by Jesuits you mean the sensible priests who, instead of entering into sterile and dangerous struggles with modern society, seek by human methods to bring it back to the Church, why, then of course we are all of us more or less Jesuits, for it would be madness not to take into account the times in which one lives.