Paula the Waldensian - Eva Lecomte

Hardly had she finished when uncertain steps were heard coming down
the passage. The door suddenly burst open and a man staggered into the
room.
"What's this you're doing?" he shouted.
"We're praying," the old woman answered tranquilly.
"No more praying then! Do you hear me? I forbid you!" he shouted
again in such a terrible voice that it was all I could do to keep from
screaming with fright "You know very well," said Celestina calmly, "that
you cannot prohibit my doing the thing that pleases me in my own house."
"And what pleasure do you get out of praying, tell me, you pious old
hypocrite!"
"Well, if you'll sit down calmly in that chair yonder, I'll answer your
questions."
"And suppose I don't care to sit down! Do I look as if I were tired?"
"Perhaps not, but when you visit your friends you should try to please
them, shouldn't you?"
"What! Do you count me as one of your friends?"
"And why not?"
"This is why!" and the Breton shook his great fist in the old lady's face.
"Oh, I'm a bad one I am! I could kill all three of you in a jiffy! Why, I just
finished a month in the jail for 'regulating' a fellow-worker at the factory, and
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