Churches take them on, ready to fire them at a moment's notice, and keep strict watch over them while waiting for them to be interdicted or to have their _celebret_ taken away.

I simply mean that the provincial parishes excavate on the city the priests who for one reason or another have ceased to please." "But what do the curates and other titulary abbes _do_, if they unload their duties onto the backs of others ?" "They do the elegant, easy work, which requires no effort, no charity.
They shrive society women who come to confession in their most stunning gowns; they teach proper little prigs the catechism, and preach, and play the limelight roles in the gala ceremonials which are got up to pander to the tastes of the faithful.

At Paris, not counting the scratch priests, the clergy is divided thus: Man-of-the-world priests in easy circumstances: these are placed at la Madeleine and Saint Roch where the congregations are wealthy.

They are wined and dined, they pass their lives in drawing-rooms, and comfort only elegant souls.

Other priests who are good desk clerks, for the most part, but who have neither the education nor the fortune necessary to participate in the inconsequentialities of the idle rich.