Chapter 23: The Adorer

III. Fumes of Incense

“Il y a un secret, Valérien, que je veux
le dire; j’ ai pour amant un ange de Dieu,
qui, avec une extrême jalousie, veille sur
mon corps.”
Bréviare romain,
Office de sainte Cécile.

“The incense! The incense!

“What incense there is in the censers!

“What fumes there are in the incense!

“That cloud is pagan, Virgin! Fie! to hide yourself in a cloud in order to love. But why? I see the wings of the angel whose whiteness shines under the fragrant cloud. It is with this, with so little, Virgin I fie! that he has intoxicated you to possess you. And you smile at him, I see your eyes whose splendor shines under the fragrant cloud, in the shadow of the white wings.

“Thou, the immaculate! And for whom is so much purity sullied? For an angel?”

“You fancied it was the Holy Spirit?”—”Yes, the dove pecked my lips and I opened my lips and I gave him the end of my tongue. I speak of the past. It was very pleasant and I have always wanted to begin again.”

“Ah! Virgin, fie, you lie like a woman. Doves have no such large wings.”—”They are the wings of my mantle.”

“Ah? Virgin! Fie! doves have not light feathers.”—”But they have, they have! And besides they are not light, figliuolo, they are shot-color.”

Such aplomb confused Delia Preda. What! a Virgin in whom he had placed his whole confidence, sub tuum praesidium!

The colloquy was resumed in this fashion:

“Ah! Virgin! Fie! think of your family, think of your chaste spouse! think of your son! think of God the father! Do you wish to dishonor the creator of heaven and earth? What will become of us, if you awaken his wrath? It is always on us, poor mortals, that his wrath falls, and we will have the plague again.”—”Ecce ancilla Domini! my friend. I am under the orders of the Most High, and what if it pleases him to send me an angel?”