Now he was
sincere, and the young minds grasped what he was talking about; the
noisiest among them became quiet.
The registration began. What a number of marriage certificates were
missing! How could the children come to Christ when their parents had
not been legally married? How could they approach the altar when their
fathers had been in prison? Oh! what sinners they were!
Theodore was deeply moved by the exhibition of so much shame and
disgrace. He longed to tear his thoughts away from the subject, but
was unable to do so. Now it was his turn to hand in his certificates
and the minister read out: son: Theodore, born on such and such a
date; parents: professor and knight ... a faint smile flickered like a
feeble sunbeam over his face, he gave him a friendly nod and asked:
"And how is your dear father?" But when he saw that the mother was
dead (a fact of which he was perfectly well aware) his face clouded
over. "She was a child of God," he said, as if he were talking to
himself, in a gushing, sympathetic, whining voice, but the remark
conveyed at the same time a certain reproach against the "dear father,"
who was only a professor and knight. After that Theodore could go.
When he left the assembly-room he felt that he had gone through an
almost impossible experience.
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