human
There is one in which I make my retreats, Notre Dame de l'Atre, a small Trappist monastery a few leagues from Paris, which is quite the most seductive of shelters. Besides that the Lord really abides there, for it has true saints among its children, it is delightful also with its ponds, its immemorial trees, its distant solitude, far in the woods.
gpt
Yes, but, observed Durtal,
human
Do you know, he said, looking him in the face,
gpt
Are you serious, Monsieur l'Abbé?
human
Ah, no indeed, first I have not the stoutness of soul, and if that be possible I have still less the bodily health needed for such a course, I should fall ill on my arrival, and then ... and then....
gpt
And then, what? I am not proposing to you to shut you up for ever in a cloister.
human
So I suppose,
gpt
But just to remain a week, just the necessary time for a cure. Now a week is soon over, then do you think that if you make such a resolution God will not sustain you?
human
That is all very fine, but ...
gpt
Let us speak on the health question, then;
human
I can promise you at once that as a retreatant, you will not be bound to lead the life of a Trappist in its austerest sense. You need not get up at two in the morning for Matins, but at three, or even at four o'clock, according to the day.
gpt
As to your food it will be better than that of the monks; naturally you will have no fish nor meat, but you may certainly have an egg for dinner, if vegetables are not enough for you.
human
And the vegetables, I suppose, are cooked with salt and water, and no seasoning?
gpt
No, they are dressed with salt and water only on fasting days; at other times you will have them cooked in milk and water, or in oil.
human
Many thanks,