And for thirty years he went on painting
there, ever in colloquy with the angels, and ever having Anne-Marie
beside him. And during those thirty years of love the Countess's beauty
remained unimpaired; she was as young and as fresh at the finish as at
the outset; whereas certain secondary personages, introduced into the
story, wives and mothers of a neighboring little town, sank into physical
and mental decay, and monstrous decrepitude. Mathieu considered the
author's theory that all physical beauty and moral nobility belonged to
virgins only, to be thoroughly imbecile, and he could not restrain
himself from hinting his disapproval of it.
Both Santerre and Seguin, however, hotly opposed him, and quite a
discussion ensued. First Santerre took up the matter from a religious
standpoint. Said he, the words of the Old Testament, "Increase and
multiply," were not to be found in the New Testament, which was the true
basis of the Christian religion. The first Christians, he declared, had
held marriage in horror, and with them the Holy Virgin had become the
ideal of womanhood. Seguin thereupon nodded approval and proceeded to
give his opinions on feminine beauty.
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