"Ecclesiastes calls you the
All-powerful; the Maccabees call you the Creator; the Epistle to the Ephesians
calls you liberty; Baruch calls you Immensity; the Psalms call you Wisdom and
Truth; John calls you Light; the Books of Kings call you Lord; Exodus calls you
Providence; Leviticus, Sanctity; Esdras, Justice; the creation calls you God;
man calls you Father; but Solomon calls you Compassion, and that is the most
beautiful of all your names."
Toward nine
o'clock in the evening the two women retired and betook themselves to their
chambers on the first floor, leaving him alone until morning on the ground
floor.
It is
necessary that we should, in this place, give an exact idea of the dwelling of
the Bishop of D----
BOOK FIRST--A JUST MAN
CHAPTER VI
WHO GUARDED
HIS HOUSE FOR HIM
The house
in which he lived consisted, as we have said, of a ground floor, and one story
above; three rooms on the ground floor, three chambers on the first, and an
attic above.
Behind the
house was a garden, a quarter of an acre in extent.
The two
women occupied the first floor; the Bishop was lodged below.
The first
room, opening on the street, served him as dining-room, the second was his
bedroom, and the third his oratory.
There was no
exit possible from this oratory, except by passing through the bedroom, nor
from the bedroom, without passing through the dining-room. At the end of the
suite, in the oratory, there was a detached alcove with a bed, for use in cases
of hospitality.
The Bishop
offered this bed to country curates whom business or the requirements of their
parishes brought to D----
The pharmacy
of the hospital, a small building which had been added to the house, and
abutted on the garden, had been transformed into a kitchen and cellar.
In addition
to this, there was in the garden a stable, which had formerly been the kitchen
of the hospital, and in which the Bishop kept two cows.
No matter what the quantity
of milk they gave, he invariably sent half of it every morning to the sick
people in the hospital.
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