The edifice within him was cracking on all sides; it needed but one more shake, and then, his heart being ripe for God, he was destined to fall into the celestial vineyard as fall the fruits.

Often of an evening, when playing with the abbe, his goddaughter sitting by, he would put questions bearing on his opinions which seemed singular to the priest, who was ignorant of the inward workings by which God was remaking that fine conscience.
"Do you believe in apparitions ?" asked the sceptic of the pastor, stopping short in the game.
"Cardan, a great philosopher of the sixteenth century said he had seen some," replied the abbe.
"I know all those that scholars have discussed, for I have just reread Plotinus.

I am questioning you as a Catholic might, and I ask if you think that dead men can return to the living." "Jesus reappeared to his disciples after his death," said the abbe.
"The Church ought to have faith in the apparitions of the Savior.

As for miracles, they are not lacking," he continued, smiling.

"Shall I tell you the last?
It took place in the eighteenth century." "Pooh!" said the doctor.
"Yes, the blessed Marie-Alphonse of Ligouri, being very far from Rome, knew of the death of the Pope at the very moment the Holy Father expired; there were numerous witnesses of this miracle.