Erect and pure, she had at last
become a lily among the lilies, a great lily whose perfume fortified the
weak and delighted the strong. In fact, she was so truly delicate that
she could never endure the powerful odour of carnations, the musk of
lilacs, the feverish sweetness of hyacinths, and was only at ease with
the scentless blossoms, like the marguerites and the periwinkles.
Once more the Abbe, with the cotton, dried the anointed parts, and
slipped the little tuft into another of the cornets.
Then Monseigneur, descending to the closed mouth, through which the
faint breath was now scarcely perceptible, made upon the lower lip the
sign of the cross.
"_Per istam sanctam unctionem, et suam piissimam misericordiam,
indulgeat tibi Dominus quidquid per gustum deliquisti_."
This time it was the pardon for the base gratifications of taste,
greediness, too great a desire for wine, or for sweets; but especially
the forgiveness for sins of the tongue, that universally guilty member,
the provoker, the poisoner, the inventor of quarrels, the inciter to
wars, which makes one utter words of error and falsehood which at length
obscure even the heavens. Yet her whole mouth was only a chalice of
innocence.
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