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diff --git a/4285.txt b/4285.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c8f7e1e --- /dev/null +++ b/4285.txt @@ -0,0 +1,23978 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Master-Christian, by Marie Corelli + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Master-Christian + +Author: Marie Corelli + +Posting Date: June 11, 2013 [EBook #4285] +Release Date: July, 2003 +First Posted: December 30, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASTER-CHRISTIAN *** + + + + +Produced by Karol Pietrzak, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +THE MASTER-CHRISTIAN + +By MARIE CORELLI + +AUTHOR OF + +"Thelma," "Ardath," "Innocent," "The Treasure of Heaven," etc. + + + + +TO ALL THOSE CHURCHES WHO QUARREL IN THE NAME OF CHRIST + +The Master-Christian. + +I. + +All the bells were ringing the Angelus. The sun was sinking;--and from +the many quaint and beautiful grey towers which crown the ancient city +of Rouen, the sacred chime pealed forth melodiously, floating with +sweet and variable tone far up into the warm autumnal air. Market women +returning to their cottage homes after a long day's chaffering disposal +of their fruit, vegetable, and flower-wares in the town, paused in +their slow trudge along the dusty road and crossed themselves +devoutly,--a bargeman, lazily gliding down the river on his flat +unwieldly craft, took his pipe from his mouth, lifted his cap +mechanically, and muttered more from habit than reflection--"Sainte +Marie, Mere de Dieu, priez pour nous!"--and some children running out +of school, came to a sudden standstill, listening and glancing at each +other, as though silently questioning whether they should say the old +church-formula among themselves or no? Whether, for example, it might +not be more foolish than wise to repeat it? Yes;--even though there was +a rumour that the Cardinal-Archbishop of a certain small, +half-forgotten, but once historically-famed Cathedral town of France +had come to visit Rouen that day,--a Cardinal-Archbishop reputed to be +so pure of heart and simple in nature, that the people of his far-off +and limited diocese regarded him almost as a saint,--would it be right +or reasonable for them, as the secularly educated children of modern +Progress, to murmur an "Angelus Domini," while the bells rang? It was a +doubtful point;--for the school they attended was a Government one, and +prayers were neither taught nor encouraged there, France having for a +time put God out of her national institutions. Nevertheless, the glory +of that banished Creator shone in the deepening glow of the splendid +heavens,--and--from the silver windings of the Seine which, turning +crimson in the light, looped and garlanded the time-honoured old city +as with festal knots of rosy ribbon, up to the trembling tops of the +tall poplar trees fringing the river banks,--the warm radiance +palpitated with a thousand ethereal hues of soft and changeful colour, +transfusing all visible things into the misty semblance of some divine +dwelling of dreams. Ding-dong--ding dong! The last echo of the last +bell died away upon the air--the last words enunciated by devout +priests in their cloistered seclusion were said--"In hora mortis +nostrae! Amen!"--the market women went on their slow way homeward,--the +children scampered off in different directions, easily forgetful of the +Old-World petition they had thought of, yet left unuttered,--the +bargeman and his barge slipped quietly away together down the windings +of the river out of sight;--the silence following the clangour of the +chimes was deep and impressive--and the great Sun had all the heaven to +himself as he went down. Through the beautiful rose-window of the +Cathedral of Notre Dame, he flashed his parting rays, weaving bright +patterns of ruby, gold and amethyst on the worn pavement of the ancient +pile which enshrines the tomb of Richard the Lion-Hearted, as also that +of Henry the Second, husband to Catherine de Medicis and lover of the +brilliant Diane de Poitiers,--and one broad beam fell purpling aslant +into the curved and fretted choir-chapel especially dedicated to the +Virgin, there lighting up with a warm glow the famous alabaster tomb +known as "Le Mourant" or "The Dying One." A strange and awesome piece +of sculpture truly, is this same "Mourant"!--showing, as it does with +deft and almost appalling exactitude, the last convulsion of a strong +man's body gripped in the death-agony. No delicate delineator of shams +and conventions was the artist of olden days whose ruthless chisel +shaped these stretched sinews, starting veins, and swollen eyelids +half-closed over the tired eyes!--he must have been a sculptor of +truth,--truth downright and relentless,--truth divested of all graceful +coverings, and nude as the "Dying One" thus realistically portrayed. +Ugly truth too,--unpleasant to the sight of the worldly and +pleasure-loving tribe who do not care to be reminded of the common fact +that they all, and we all, must die. Yet the late sunshine flowed very +softly on and over the ghastly white, semi-transparent form, outlining +it with as much tender glory as the gracious figure of Mary Virgin +herself, bending with outstretched hands from a grey niche, fine as a +cobweb of old lace on which a few dim jewels are sewn. Very beautiful, +calm and restful at this hour was "Our Lady's Chapel," with its high, +dark intertwisting arches, mutilated statues, and ancient tattered +battle-banners hanging from the black roof and swaying gently with +every little breath of wind. The air, perfumed with incense-odours, +seemed weighted with the memory of prayers and devotional +silences,--and in the midst of it all, surrounded by the defaced and +crumbling emblems of life and death, and the equally decaying symbols +of immortality, with the splendours of the sinking sun shedding roseate +haloes about him, walked one for whom eternal truths outweighed all +temporal seemings,--Cardinal Felix Bonpre, known favourably, and +sometimes alluded to jestingly at the Vatican, as "Our good Saint +Felix." Tall and severely thin, with fine worn features of ascetic and +spiritual delicacy, he had the indefinably removed air of a scholar and +thinker, whose life was not, and never could be in accordance with the +latter-day customs of the world; the mild blue eyes, clear and +steadfast, most eloquently suggested "the peace of God that passeth all +understanding";--and the sensitive intellectual lines of the mouth and +chin, which indicated strength and determined will, at the same time +declared that both strength and will were constantly employed in the +doing of good and the avoidance of evil. No dark furrows of hesitation, +cowardice, cunning, meanness or weakness marred the expressive dignity +and openness of the Cardinal's countenance,--the very poise of his +straight spare figure and the manner in which he moved, silently +asserted that inward grace of spirit without which there is no true +grace of body,--and as he paused in his slow pacing to and fro to gaze +half-wistfully, half-mournfully upon the almost ghastly artistic +achievement of "Le Mourant" he sighed, and his lips moved as if in +prayer. For the brief, pitiful history of human life is told in that +antique and richly-wrought alabaster,--its beginning, its ambition, and +its end. At the summit of the shrine, an exquisite bas-relief shows +first of all the infant clinging to its mother's breast,--a stage lower +down is seen the boy in the eager flush of youth, speeding an arrow to +its mark from the bent bow,--then, on a still larger, bolder scale of +design is depicted the proud man in the zenith of his career, a noble +knight riding forth to battle and to victory, armed cap-a-pie, his +war-steed richly caparisoned, his lance in rest,--and finally, on the +sarcophagus itself is stretched his nude and helpless form, with hands +clenched in the last gasping struggle for breath, and every muscle +strained and fighting against the pangs of dissolution. + +"But," said the Cardinal half aloud, with the gentle dawning of a +tender smile brightening the fine firm curve of his lips,--"it is not +the end! The end here, no doubt;--but the beginning--THERE!" + +He raised his eyes devoutly, and instinctively touched the silver +crucifix hanging by its purple ribbon at his breast. The orange-red +glow of the sun encompassed him with fiery rings, as though it would +fain consume his thin, black-garmented form after the fashion in which +flames consumed the martyrs of old,--the worn figures of mediaeval +saints in their half-broken niches stared down upon him stonily, as +though they would have said,--"So we thought,--even we!--and for our +thoughts and for our creed we suffered willingly,--yet lo, we have come +upon an age of the world in which the people know us not,--or knowing, +laugh us all to scorn." + +But Cardinal Bonpre being only conscious of a perfect faith, discovered +no hints of injustice or despair in the mutilated shapes of the +Evangelists surrounding him,--they were the followers of Christ,--and +being such, they were bound to rejoice in the tortures which made their +glory. It was only the unhappy souls who suffered not for Christ at +all, whom he considered were truly to be compassionated. + +"And if," he murmured as he moved on--"this knight of former days, who +is now known to us chiefly, alas! as 'Le Mourant', was a faithful +servant of our Blessed Lord, why then it is as well with him as with +any of the holy martyrs. May his soul rest in peace!" + +Stopping an instant at the next sculptural wonder in his way--the +elaborately designed tomb of Cardinal Amboise, concerning the eternal +fate of which "brother in Christ" the good Felix had no scruples or +fears whatever, he stepped softly down from the choir-chapel where he +had been wandering to and fro for some time in solitary musings, and +went towards the great central nave. It was quite empty,--not even a +weary silk-weaver, escaped from one of the ever-working looms of the +city, had crept in to tell her beads. Broad, vacant, vast, and +suggestive of a sublime desolation, the grand length and width of the +Latin Cross which shapes the holy precincts, stretched into vague +distance, one or two lamps were burning dimly at little shrines set in +misty dark recesses,--a few votive candles, some lit, some smouldered +out, leaned against each other crookedly in their ricketty brass stand, +fronting a battered statue of the Virgin. The Angelus had ceased +ringing some ten minutes since,--and now one solemn bell, swinging high +up in the Cathedral towers, tolled forth the hour of six, slowly and +with a strong pulsating sound which seemed to shake the building down +to its very vaults and deep foundations. As the last stroke shivered +and thundered through the air, a strain of music, commencing softly, +then swelling into fuller melody, came floating from aloft, following +the great bell's vibration. Half way down the nave, just as he was +advancing slowly towards the door of egress, this music overtook the +Cardinal like an arresting angel, bringing him to a sudden pause. + +"The organist practises late," he said aloud, as though speaking to +some invisible companion, and then was silent, listening. Round him and +above him surged the flood of rich and dulcet harmony,--the sunset +light through the blue and red stained-glass windows grew paler and +paler--the towering arches which sprang, as it were, from slender +stem-like side-columns up to full-flowering boughs of Gothic +ornamentation, crossing and re-crossing above the great High Altar, +melted into a black dimness,--and then--all at once, without any +apparent cause, a strange, vague suggestion of something supernatural +and unseen began suddenly to oppress the mind of the venerable prelate +with a curious sense of mingled awe and fear. Trembling a little, he +knew not why, he softly drew a chair from one of the shadowy corners, +where all such seats were piled away out of sight so that they might +not disfigure the broad and open beauty of the nave, and, sitting down, +he covered his eyes with one hand and strove to rouse himself from the +odd, half-fainting sensation which possessed him. How glorious now was +the music that poured like a torrent from the hidden organ-loft! How +full of searching and potential proclamation!--the proclamation of an +eternal, unguessed mystery, for which no merely human speech might ever +find fit utterance! Some divine declaration of God's absolute +omnipresence,--or of Heaven's sure nearness,--touched the heart of +Felix Bonpre, as he sat like an enchanted dreamer among the tender +interweavings of solemn and soothing sound;--carried out of himself and +beyond his own existence, he could neither pray nor think, till, all at +once, upon the peaceful and devout silence of his soul, some very old, +very familiar words struck sharply as though they were quite new,--as +though they were invested suddenly with strange and startling +significance-- + +"When the son of Man cometh, think ye He shall find faith on earth?" + +Slowly he withdrew his hand from his eyes and gazed about him, +half-startled, half-appalled. Had anyone spoken these words?--or had +they risen of themselves as it were in letters of fire out of the sea +of music that was heaving and breaking tumultuously about him? + +"WHEN THE SON OF MAN COMETH, THINK YE HE SHALL FIND FAITH ON EARTH?" + +The question seemed to be whispered in his ears with a thrilling +intensity of meaning; and moved by a sudden introspective and +retrospective repentance, the gentle old man began mentally to grope +his way back over the past years of his life, and to ask himself +whether in very truth that life had been well or ill spent? Viewed by +his own inner contemplative vision, Cardinal Felix Bonpre saw in +himself nothing but wilful sin and total unworthiness;--but in the eyes +of those he had served and assisted, he was a blameless priest,--a man +beloved of God, and almost visibly encompassed by the guardianship of +angels. He had been singularly happy in his election to a diocese +which, though it had always had an Archbishop for its spiritual head, +boasted scarce as many inhabitants as a prosperous English +village,--and the result of this was that he had lived altogether away +from the modern world, passing most of his time in reading and +study,--while for relaxation, he permitted himself only the innocent +delight of growing the finest roses in his neighbourhood. But he had +pious scruples even about this rose-growing fancy of his,--he had a +lurking distrust of himself in it, as to whether it was not a purely +selfish pleasure,--and therefore, to somewhat smooth the circumstance, +he never kept any of the choice blooms for his own gratification, but +gave the best of them with a trust, as simple as it was beautiful, to +the altar of the Virgin, sending all the rest to the bedsides of the +sick and sorrowful, or to the coffins of the dead. It never once +occurred to him that the "Cardinal's roses," as they were called, were +looked upon by the poor people who received them as miraculous flowers +long after they had withered,--that special virtues were assigned to +them--and that dying lips kissed their fragrant petals with almost as +much devotion as the holy crucifix, because it was instinctively +believed that they contained a mystic blessing. He knew nothing of all +this;--he was too painfully conscious of his own shortcomings,--and of +late years, feeling himself growing old, and realising that every day +brought him nearer to that verge which all must cross in passing from +Time into Eternity, he had been sorely troubled in mind. He was wise +with the wisdom which comes of deep reading, lonely meditation, and +fervent study,--he had instructed himself in the modern schools of +thought as well as the ancient,--and though his own soul was +steadfastly set upon the faith he followed, he was compassionately +aware of a strange and growing confusion in the world,--a combination +of the elements of evil, which threatened, or seemed to threaten, some +terrible and imminent disaster. This sorrowful foreboding had for a +long time preyed upon him, physically as well as mentally; always thin, +he had grown thinner and more careworn, till at the beginning of the +year his health had threatened to break down altogether. Whereupon +those who loved him, growing alarmed, summoned a physician, who, (with +that sage experience of doctors to whom thought-trouble is an +inexplicable and incurable complication) at once pronounced change of +air to be absolutely necessary. Cardinal Bonpre must travel, he said, +and seek rest and minddistraction in the contemplation of new and +varying scenes. With smiling and resigned patience the Cardinal obeyed +not so much the command of his medical attendant, as the anxious desire +of his people,--and thereupon departed from his own Cathedral-town on a +tour of several months, during which time he inwardly resolved to try +and probe for himself the truth of how the world was going,--whether on +the downward road to destruction and death, or up the high ascents of +progress and life. He went alone and unattended,--he had arranged to +meet his niece in Paris and accompany her to her father's house in +Rome,--and he was on his way to Paris now. But he had purposely made a +long and round-about journey through France with the intention of +studying the religious condition of the people; and by the time he +reached Rouen, the old sickness at his heart had rather increased than +diminished. The confusion and the trouble of the world were not mere +hearsay,--they in very truth existed. And what seemed to the Cardinal +to be the chief cause of the general bewilderment of things, was the +growing lack of faith in God and a Hereafter. How came this lack of +faith into the Christian world? Sorrowfully he considered the +question,--and persistently the same answer always asserted +itself--that the blame rested principally with the Church itself, and +its teachers and preachers, and not only in one, but in all forms of +Creed. + +"We have erred in some vital manner," mused the Cardinal, with a +feeling of strange personal contrition, as though he were more to blame +than any of his compeers--"We have failed to follow the Master's +teaching in its true perfection. We have planted in ourselves a seed of +corruption, and we have permitted--nay, some of us have encouraged--its +poisonous growth, till it now threatens to contaminate the whole field +of labour." + +And he thought of the words of St. John the Divine to the Church of +Sardis-- + +"_I_ KNOW THY WORKS,--THAT THOU HAST A NAME THAT THOU LIVEST AND ART +DEAD. + +"BE WATCHFUL, AND STRENGTHEN THE THINGS THAT REMAIN, THAT ARE READY TO +DIE,--FOR _I_ HAVE NOT FOUND THY WORKS PERFECT BEFORE GOD. REMEMBER +THEREFORE HOW THOU HAST RECEIVED AND HEARD, AND HOLD FAST AND REPENT. + +"IF, THEREFORE, THOU SHALT NOT WATCH, _I_ WILL COME ON THEE AS A THIEF, +AND THOU SHALL NOT KNOW WHAT HOUR I WILL COME UPON THEE. + +"THOU HAST A FEW NAMES EVEN IN SARDIS, WHICH HAVE NOT DEFILED THEIR +GARMENTS, AND THEY SHALL WALK WITH ME IN WHITE, FOR THEY ARE WORTHY. + +"HE THAT OVERCOMETH, THE SAME SHALL BE CLOTHED IN WHITE RAIMENT; AND I +WILL NOT BLOT HIS NAME OUT OF THE BOOK OF LIFE, BUT I WILL CONFESS HIS +NAME BEFORE MY FATHER AND BEFORE HIS ANGELS." + +Dimmer and duskier grew the long shadows now gathering in the +Cathedral,--two of the twinkling candles near the Virgin's statue +suddenly sank in their sockets with a spluttering noise and guttered +out,--the solemn music of the organ continued, growing softer and +softer as it sounded, till it crept through the vastness of the +building like a light breeze wafted from the sea, bringing with it +suggestions of far flower-islands in the tropics, golden shores kissed +by languid foam, and sweet-throated birds singing, and still the +Cardinal sat thinking of griefs and cares and inexplicable human +perplexities, which were not his own, but which seemed to burden the +greater portion of the world. He drew no comparisons,--he never +considered that, as absolutely as day is day and night is night, his +own beautiful and placid life, lived in the faith of God and Christ, +was tortured by no such storm-tossed tribulation as that which affected +the lives of many others,--and that the old trite saying, almost +despised because so commonplace, namely that "goodness makes +happiness," is as eternally true as that the sun shines in heaven, and +that it is only evil which creates misery. To think of himself in the +matter never occurred to him; had he for a moment entertained the +merest glimmering of an idea that he was better, and therefore happier +than most men, he would, in his own opinion, have been guilty of +unpardonable arrogance and presumption. What he saw, and what sincerely +and unselfishly grieved him, was that the people of this present age +were unhappy--discontented--restless,--that something of the simple joy +of existence had gone out of the world,--that even the brilliant +discoveries of science and the so-called "progress" of men only served +apparently to increase their discontent,--that when they were overcome +by sorrow, sickness, or death, they had little philosophy and less +faith to support them,--and that except in the few cases where Christ +was still believed in, they gave way altogether and broke down like +frightened children in a storm. + +"Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis!" A few names! But how few! +Universal weariness of life seemed a disease of the time,--there was +nothing that seemed to satisfy--even the newest and most miraculous +results of scientific research and knowledge ceased to be interesting +after the first week of their triumphant public demonstration and +acceptance. + +"The world must be growing old," said the Cardinal sadly,--"It must be +losing its vigour,--it is too tired to lift itself to the light; too +weary and worn out to pray. Perhaps the end of all present things is at +hand,--perhaps it is the beginning of the promised 'new heavens and new +earth.'" + +Just then the organ-music ceased abruptly, and the Cardinal, waking +from his thoughts as from a trance, rose up slowly and stood for a +moment facing the great High Altar, which at that distance could only +just be discerned among its darkening surroundings by the little +flickering flame of the suspended lamp burning dimly before the holy +Tabernacle, wherein was locked with golden key behind snowy doors of +spotless marble, the sacred and mysterious Host. + +"WHEN THE SON OF MAN COMETH, THINK YE HE SHALL FIND FAITH ON EARTH?" + +Again that searching question repeated itself in his mind so distinctly +as to be echoed in his ears,--the deep silence around him seemed +waiting expectantly for some reply, and moved by a strange spirit of +exaltation within him, he answered half aloud-- + +"Yes! Surely He will find faith,--if only in the few! There are 'a few +names, even in Sardis!' In the sorrowful and meek,--in the poor and +patient and downtrodden martyrs of humanity, He will find faith;--in +the very people He died to save He will discover that most precious and +inspiring of all virtues! But in the so-called wise and brilliant +favourites of the world He will not find it,--in the teachers of the +people He will search for it in vain. By the writers of many books He +shall find Himself scorned and rejected,--in the cheap and spurious +philosophy of modern egotists He will see His doctrines mocked at and +denounced as futile. Few men there are in these days who would deny +themselves for His sake, or sacrifice a personal passion for the purer +honouring of His name. Inasmuch as the pride of great learning breeds +arrogance, so the more the wonder of God's work is displayed to us, the +more are we dazzled and confounded; and so in our blindness we turn +from the worship of the Creator to that of His creation, forgetting +that all the visible universe is but the outcome or expression of the +hidden Divine Intelligence behind it. What of the marvels of the +age!--the results of science!--the strange psychic prescience and +knowledge of things more miraculous yet to be!--these are but hints and +warnings of the approach of God himself--'coming in a cloud with power +and great glory'!" + +As he thus spoke, he raised his hand out of old habit acquired in +preaching, and a ray from the after-glow of the sunken sun lit up the +jewel in the apostolic ring he wore, warming its pale green lustre to a +dim violet spark as of living fire. His fine features were for a moment +warm with fervour and feeling,--then,--suddenly, he thought of the +great world outside all creeds,--of the millions and millions of human +beings who neither know nor accept Christ,--of the Oriental races with +their intricate and beautiful systems of philosophy,--of savage tribes, +conquered and unconquered,--of fierce yet brave Turkish warriors who +are, with all their faults, at any rate true to the faith they +profess--and lastly--more than all--of the thousands upon thousands of +Christians in Christian lands, who no more believe in Him whose holy +name they take in vain, than in any Mumbo-Jumbo fetish of untaught +barbarians. Were these to perish utterly? Had THEY no immortal souls to +save? Had the churches been at work for eighteen hundred years and +more, to bring about no better results than this,--namely that there +were only "A FEW NAMES IN SARDIS"? If so, were not the churches +criminally to blame? Yea, even holy Mother-Church, whose foundation +rested on the memory of the Lying Apostle? Rapidly, and as if suggested +by some tormenting devil, these thoughts possessed the Cardinal's +brain, burning into it and teasing and agonising the tender fibres of +his conscience and his soul. Could God, the great loving Creator of +countless universes, be so cruel as to wantonly destroy millions of +helpless creatures in one small planet, because through ignorance or +want of proper teaching they had failed to find Christ?--was it +possible that he could only extend his mercy and forgiveness to the +"few names in Sardis"? + +"Yet our world is but a pin's point in the eternal immensities," argued +the Cardinal almost wistfully--"Only a few can expect to be saved." + +Nevertheless, this reasoning did not satisfy him. Again, what of these +millions? Were they to be forever lost? Then why so much waste of life? +Waste of life! There is no such thing as waste of life--this much +modern science the venerable Felix knew. Nothing can be wasted,--not a +breath, not a scene, not a sound. All is treasured up in Nature's +store-house and can be eternally reproduced at Nature's will. Then what +was to become of the myriads of human beings and immortal souls whom +the Church had failed to rescue? THE CHURCH HAD FAILED! Why had it +failed? Whose the fault?--whose the weakness?--for fault and weakness +were existent somewhere. + +"WHEN THE SON OF MAN COMETH, THINK YE HE SHALL FIND FAITH ON EARTH?" + +"No!" whispered the Cardinal, suddenly forced, as it were in his own +despite, to contradict his former assertion--"No!" He paused, and +mechanically making his way towards the door of the Cathedral, he +dipped his fingers into the holy water that glistened dimly in its +marble basin near the black oak portal, and made the sign of the cross +on brow and breast;--"He will not find faith where faith should be +pre-eminent. It must be openly confessed--repentingly admitted,--He +will NOT find faith even in the Church He founded,--I say it to our +shame!" + +His head drooped, as though his own words had wounded him, and with an +air of deep dejection he slowly passed out. The huge iron-bound door +swung noiselessly to and fro behind him,--the grave-toned bell in the +tower struck seven. Outside, a tender twilight mellowed the atmosphere +and gave brightness to approaching evening; inside, the long shadows, +gathering heavily in the aisles and richly sculptured hollows of the +side-chapels, brought night before its time. The last votive candle at +the Virgin's shrine flickered down and disappeared like a firefly in +dense blackness,--the last echo of the bell died in a tremulous +vibration up among the high-springing roof-arches, and away into the +solemn corners where the nameless dead reposed,--the last impression of +life and feeling vanished with the retreating figure of the +Cardinal--and the great Cathedral, the Sanctuary and House of God, took +upon itself the semblance of a funeral vault,--a dark, Void, wherein +but one red star, the lamp before the Altar, burned. + + + + +II. + +Lovely to a poet or an artist's eye is the unevenly-built and +picturesque square of Rouen in which the Cathedral stands,--lovely, and +suggestive of historical romance in all its remote corners, its +oddly-shaped houses, its by-ways and crooked little flights of steps +leading to nowhere, its gables and slanting roofs, and its utter +absence of all structural proportion. A shrine here, a broken statue +there,--a half-obliterated coat-of-arms over an old gateway,--a rusty +sconce fitted fast into the wall to support a lantern no longer needed +in these days of gas and electricity,--an ancient fountain overgrown +with weed, or a projecting vessel of stone for holy water, in which +small birds bathe and disport themselves after a shower of rain,--those +are but a few of the curious fragments of a past time which make the +old place interesting to the student, and more than fascinating to the +thinker and dreamer. The wonderful "Hotel Bourgtheroulde," dating from +the time of Francis the First, and bearing on its sculptured walls the +story of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, in company with the +strangely-contrasting "Allegories", from Petrarch's "Triumphs", is +enough in itself to keep the mind engrossed with fanciful musings for +an hour. How did Petrarch and the Field of the Cloth of Gold come +together in the brain of the sculptor who long ago worked at these +ancient bas-reliefs? One wonders, but the wonder is in vain,--there is +no explanation;--and the "Bourgtheroulde" remains a pleasing and +fantastic architectural mystery. Close by, through the quaint old +streets of the Epicerie and "Gross Horloge", walked no doubt in their +young days the brothers Corneille, before they evolved from their +meditative souls the sombre and heavy genius of French tragedy,--and +not very far away, up one of those little shadowy winding streets and +out at the corner, stands the restored house of Diane de Poitiers, so +sentient and alive in its very look that one almost expects to see at +the quaint windows the beautiful wicked face of the woman who swayed +the humours of a king by her smile or her frown. + +Cardinal Bonpre, walking past the stately fourteenth-century Gothic +pile of the Palais de Justice, thought half-vaguely of some of these +things,--but they affected him less than they might have done had his +mind not been full of the grand music he had just heard in the +Cathedral, and of the darkness that had slowly gathered there, as +though in solemn commingling with the darkness which had at the same +time settled over his soul. A great oppression weighed upon +him;--almost he judged himself guilty of mortal sin, for had he not +said aloud and boldly, while facing the High Altar of the Lord, that +even in the Church itself faith was lacking? Yes, he, a +Cardinal-Archbishop, had said this thing; he had as it were proclaimed +it on the silence of the sacred precincts,--and had he not in this, +acted unworthily of his calling? Had he not almost uttered blasphemy? +Grieved and puzzled, the good Felix went on his way, almost unseeingly, +towards the humble inn where he had elected to remain for the brief +period of his visit to Rouen,--an inn where no one stayed save the very +poorest of travellers, this fact being its chief recommendation in the +eyes of the Cardinal. For it must be conceded, that viewed by our +latter-day ideas of personal comfort and convenience, the worthy +prelate had some very old-world and fantastic notions. One of these +notions was a devout feeling that he should, so far as it was humanly +possible, endeavour to obey the Master whose doctrine he professed to +follow. This, it will be admitted, was a curious idea. Considering the +bold and blasphemous laxity of modern Christian customs, it was surely +quite a fanatical idea. Yet he had his own Church-warrant for such a +rule of conduct; and chief among the Evangelic Counsels writ down for +his example was Voluntary Poverty. Yes!--Voluntary +Poverty,--notwithstanding the countless treasures lying idle and wasted +in the Vatican, and the fat sinecures enjoyed by bishops and +archbishops; which things exist in direct contradiction and +disobedience to the command of Christ. Christ Himself lived on the +earth in poverty,--He visited only the poorest and simplest +habitations,--and never did He set His sacred foot within a palace, +save the palace of the High Priest where He was condemned to die. Much +symbolic meaning did Cardinal Felix discover in this incident,--and +often would he muse upon it gravely. + +"The Divine is condemned to die in all palaces," he would say,--"It is +only in the glorious world of Nature, under the sunlit or starlit +expanse of heaven, that the god in us can live; and it was not without +some subtle cause of intended instruction to mankind that the Saviour +always taught His followers in the open air." + +There was what might be called a palace hard by, to which Bonpre had +been invited, and where he would have been welcome to stay as long as +he chose,--the house of the Archbishop of Rouen--a veritable abode of +luxury as compared with the Hotel Poitiers, which was a dingy little +tumble-down building, very old, and wearing a conscious air of +feebleness and decrepitude which was almost apologetic. Its small +windows, set well back in deeply hollowed carved arches had a +lack-lustre gleam, as of very aged eyes under shelving brows,--its +narrow door, without either bolts or bars, hung half-aslant upon +creaking rusty hinges, and was never quite shut either by day or +night,--yet from the porch a trailing mass of "creeping jenny" fell in +a gold-dotted emerald fringe over the head of any way-worn traveller +passing in,--making a brightness in a darkness, and suggesting +something not altogether uncheery in the welcome provided. They were +very humble folk who kept the Hotel Poitiers,--the host, Jean Patoux, +was a small market-gardener who owned a plot of land outside Rouen, +which he chiefly devoted to the easy growing of potatoes and +celery--his wife had her hands full with the domestic business of the +hotel and the cares of her two children, Henri and Babette, the most +incorrigible imps of mischief that ever lived in Rouen or out of it. +Madame Patoux, large of body, unwieldy in movement, but clean as a new +pin, and with a fat smile of perpetual contentment on her round visage, +professed to be utterly worn to death by the antics of these children +of hers,--but nevertheless she managed to grow stouter every day with a +persistency and fortitude which denoted the reserved forces of her +nature,--and her cooking, always excellent, never went wrong because +Babette had managed to put her doll in one of the saucepans, or Henri +had essayed to swim a paper boat in the soup. Things went on somehow; +Patoux himself was perfectly satisfied with his small earnings and +position in life--Madame Patoux felt that "le bon Dieu" was specially +engaged in looking after her,--and as long as the wicked Babette and +the wickeder Henri threw themselves wildly into her arms and clung +round her fat neck imploring pardon after any and every misdeed, and +sat for a while "en penitence" in separate corners reading the "Hours +of Mary", they might be as naughty as they chose over and over again so +far as the good-natured mother was concerned. Just now, however, +unusual calm appeared to have settled on the Patoux household,--an +atmosphere of general placidity and peace prevailed, which had the +effect of imparting almost a stately air to the tumble-down house, and +a suggestion of luxury to the poorly-furnished rooms Madame Patoux +herself was conscious of a mysterious dignity in her surroundings, and +moved about on her various household duties with less bounce and fuss +than was her ordinary custom,--and Henri and Babette sat quiet without +being told to do so, moved apparently by a sudden and inexplicable +desire to study their lessons. All this had been brought about by the +advent of Cardinal Bonpre, who with his kind face, gentle voice and +beneficent manner, had sought and found lodging at the Hotel Poitiers, +notwithstanding Madame Patoux's profuse apologies for the narrowness +and inconvenience of her best rooms. + +"For look you, Monseigneur," she murmured, deferentially, "How should +we have ever expected such an honour as the visit of a holy +Cardinal-Archbishop to our poor little place! There are many new houses +on the Boulevards which could have accommodated Monseigneur with every +comfort,--and that he should condescend to bestow the blessing of his +presence upon us,--ah! it was a special dispensation of Our Lady which +was too amazing and wonderful to be at once comprehended!" + +Thus Madame Patoux, with breathless pauses between her sentences, and +many profound curtseyings; but the good Cardinal waived aside her +excuses and protestations, and calling her "My daughter", signed the +cross on her brow with paternal gentleness, assuring her that he would +give her as little trouble as any other casual visitor. + +"Trouble!--Ah, heaven!--could anything be a trouble for Monseigneur!" +and Madame Patoux, moved to tears by the quiet contentment with which +the Cardinal took possession of the two bare, common rooms which were +the best she could place at his disposal, hurried away, and hustling +Henri and Babette like two little roly-poly balls before her into the +kitchen, she told them with much emphasis that there was a saint in the +house,--a saint fit to be the holy companion of any of those who had +their niches up in the Cathedral near the great rose-window,--and that +if they were good children they would very likely see an angel coming +down from heaven to visit him. Babette put her finger in her mouth and +looked incredulous. She had a vague belief in angels,--but Henri, with +the cheap cynicism of the modern French lad was anything but sure about +them. + +"Mother," said he, "There's a boy in our school who says there is no +God at all, and that it's no use having priests or Cardinals or +Cathedrals,--it's all rubbish and humbug!" + +"Poor little miserable monster!" exclaimed Madame Patoux, as she peered +into the pot where the soup for the Cardinal's supper was +simmering--"He is arranging himself to become a thief or a murderer, be +sure of that, Henri!--and thou, who art trained in all thy holy duties +by the good Pere Laurent, who teaches thee everything which the school +is not wise enough to teach, ought never to listen to such wickedness. +If there were no God, we should not be alive at all, thou foolish +child!--for it is only our blessed Saviour and the saints that keep the +world going." + +Henri was silent,--Babette looked at him and made a little grimace of +scorn. + +"If the Cardinal is a saint," she said--"he should be able to perform a +miracle. The little Fabien Doucet has been lame for seven years; we +shall bring him to Monseigneur, and he will mend his leg and make him +well. Then we shall believe in saints afterwards." + +Madame Patoux turned her warm red face round from the fire over which +she was bending, and stared at her precocious offspring aghast. + +"What! You will dare to address yourself to the Cardinal!" she cried +vociferously--"You will dare to trouble him with such foolishness? Mon +Dieu!--is it possible to be so wicked! But listen to me well!--If you +presume to say one saucy word to Monseigneur, you shall be punished! +What have you to do with the little Fabien Doucet?--the poor child is +sickly and diseased by the will of God." + +"I don't see why it should be God's will to make a boy sickly and +diseased--" began the irrepressible Henri, when his mother cut him +short with a stamp of her foot and a cry of-- + +"Tais-toi! Silence! Wicked boy!--thou wilt kill me with thy naughty +speeches! All this evil comes of the school,--I would thy father had +never been compelled to send thee there!" + +As she said this with a vast amount of heat and energy, Henri, seized +by some occult and inexplicable emotion, burst without warning into +loud and fitful weeping, the sound whereof resembled the yelling of a +tortured savage,--and Babette, petrified at first by the appalling +noise, presently gave way likewise, and shrieked a wild accompaniment. + +"What ails my children?" said a gentle voice, distinct and clear in its +calm intonation even in the midst of the uproar, and Cardinal Bonpre, +tall and stately, suddenly appeared upon the threshold--"What little +sorrows are these?" + +Henri's roar ceased abruptly,--Babette's shrill wailing dropped into +awed silence. Both youngsters stared amazed at the venerable Felix, +whose face and figure expressed such composed dignity and sweetness; +and Madame Patoux, nastily and with frequent gasps for breath, related +the history of the skirmish. + +"And what will become of such little devils when they grow older, the +Blessed Virgin only knows!" she groaned--"For even now they are so +suspicious in nature, that they will not believe in their dinner till +they see it!" + +Something like a faint grin widened the mouths of Henri and Babette at +this statement made with so much distressed fervour by their angry +mother,--but the Cardinal did not smile. His face had grown very pale +and grave, almost stern. + +"The children are quite right, my daughter," he said gently,--"I am no +saint! I have performed no miracles. I am a poor sinner,--striving to +do well, but alas!--for ever striving in vain. The days of noble living +are past,--and we are all too much fallen in the ways of error to +deserve that our Lord should bless the too often half-hearted and +grudging labour of his so-called servants. Come here, ma mignonne!" he +continued, calling Babette, who approached him with a curious air of +half-timid boldness--"Thou art but a very little girl," he said, laying +his thin white hand softly on her tumbled brown curls--"Nevertheless, I +should be a very foolish old man if I despised thee, or thy thoughts, +or thy desire to know the truth for truth's sake. Therefore to-morrow +thou shalt bring me this afflicted friend of thine, and though I have +no divine gifts, I will do even as the Master commanded,--I will lay my +hands on him in blessing and pray that he may be healed. More than this +is not in my power, my child!--if a miracle is to be worked, it is our +dear Lord only who can work it." + +Gently he murmured his formal benediction,--then, turning away, he +entered his own room and shut the door. Babette, grown strangely +serious, turned to her brother and held out her hand, moved by one of +those erratic impulses which often take sudden possession of +self-willed children. + +"Come into the Cathedral!" she whispered imperatively--"Come and say an +Ave." + +Not a word did the usually glib Henri vouchsafe in answer,--but +clutching his sister's fingers in his own dirty, horny palm, he trotted +meekly beside her out of the house and across the Square into the +silence and darkness of Notre Dame. Their mother watched their little +plump figures disappear with a feeling of mingled amazement and +gratitude,--miracles were surely beginning, she thought, if a few words +from the Cardinal could impress Babette and Henri with an idea of the +necessity of prayer! + +They were not long gone, however;--they came walking back together, +still demurely hand in hand, and settled themselves quietly in a corner +to study their tasks for the next day. Babette's doll, once attired as +a fashionable Parisienne, and now degenerated into a one-eyed laundress +with a rather soiled cap and apron, stuck out its composite arms in +vain from the bench where it sat all askew, drooping its head forlornly +over a dustpan,--and Henri's drum, wherewith he was wont to wake +alarming echoes out of the dreamy and historical streets of Rouen, lay +on its side neglected and ingloriously silent. And, as before said, +peace reigned in the Patoux household,--even the entrance of Papa +Patoux himself, fresh from his celery beds, and smelling of the earth +earthy, created no particular diversion. He was a very little, very +cheery, round man, was Papa Patoux; he had no ideas at all in his +bullet head save that he judged everything to be very well managed in +the Universe, and that he, considered simply as Patoux, was lucky in +his life and labours,--also that it was an easy thing to grow celery, +provided God's blessing was on the soil. For the rest, he took small +care; he knew that the world wagged in different ways in different +climates,--he read his half-penny journal daily, and professed to be +interested in the political situation just for the fun of the thing, +but in reality he thought the French Senate a pack of fools, and +wondered what they meant by always talking so much about nothing. He +believed in "La Patrie" to a certain extent,--but he would have very +much objected if "La Patrie" had interfered with his celery. Roughly +sneaking, he understood that France was a nation, and that he was a +Frenchman; and that if any enemies should presume to come into the +country, it would be necessary to take up a musket and fight them out +again, and defend wife, children, and celery-beds till the last breath +was out of his body. Further than this simple and primitive idea of +patriotism he did not go. He never bothered himself about dissentient +shades of opinion, or quarrels among opposing parties. When he had to +send his children to the Government school, the first thing he asked +was whether they would be taught their religion there. He was told +no,--that the Government objected to religious teaching, as it merely +created discussion and was of no assistance whatever in the material +business of life. Patoux scratched his head over this for a +considerable time and ruminated deeply,--finally he smiled, a dull fat +smile. + +"Good!" said he--"I understand now why the Government makes such an ass +of itself now and then! You cannot expect mere men to do their duty +wisely without God on their side. But Pere Laurent will teach my +children their prayers and catechism,--and I dare say Heaven will +arrange the rest." + +And he forthwith dismissed the matter from his mind. His children +attended the Government school daily,--and every Wednesday, Saturday, +and Sunday afternoons Pere Laurent, a kindly, simple-hearted old +priest, took them, with several other little creatures "educated by the +State", and taught them all he knew about the great France-exiled +Creator of the Universe, and of His ceaseless love to sinful and +blasphemous mankind. + +So things went on;--and though Henri and Babette were being crammed by +the national system of instruction, with learning which was destined to +be of very slight use to them in their after careers, and which made +them little cynics before their time, they were still sustained within +bounds by the saving sense of something better than themselves,--that +Something Better which silently declares itself in the beauty of the +skies, the blossoming of the flowers, and the loveliness of all things +wherein man has no part,--and neither of them was yet transformed into +that most fearsome product of modern days, the child-Atheist, for whom +there is no greater God than Self. + +On this particular night when Papa Patoux returned to the bosom of his +family, he, though a dull-witted man generally, did not fail to note +the dove-like spirit of calm that reigned over his entire household. +His wife's fat face was agreeably placid,--the children were in an +orderly mood, and as he sat down to the neatly spread supper-table, he +felt more convinced than ever that things were exceedingly well managed +for him in this best of all possible worlds. Pausing in the act of +conveying a large spoonful of steaming soup to his mouth he enquired-- + +"And Monseigneur, the Cardinal Bonpre,--has he also been served?" + +Madame Patoux opened her round eyes wide at him. + +"But certainly! Dost thou think, my little cabbage, thou wouldst get +thy food before Monseigneur? That would be strange indeed!" + +Papa Patoux swallowed his ladleful of soup in abashed silence. + +"It was a beautiful day in the fields," he presently observed--"There +was a good smell in the earth, as if violets were growing,--and late in +the autumn though it is, there was a skylark yet singing. It was a very +blue heaven, too, as blue as the robe of the Virgin, with clouds as +white as little angels clinging to it." + +Madame nodded. Some people might have thought Papa Patoux inclined to +be poetical,--she did not. Henri and Babette listened. + +"The robe of Our Lady is always blue," said Babette. + +"And the angels' clothes are always white," added Henri. + +Madame Patoux said nothing, but passed a second helping of soup all +round. Papa Patoux smiled blandly on his offspring. + +"Just so," he averred--"Blue and white are the colours of the sky, my +little ones,--and Our Lady and the angels live in the sky!" + +"I wonder where?" muttered Henri with his mouth half full. "The sky is +nothing but miles and miles of air, and in the air there are millions +and millions of planets turning round and round, larger than our +world,--ever so much larger,--and nobody knows which is the largest of +them all!" + +"It is as thou sayest, my son," said Patoux confidently--"Nobody knows +which is the largest of them all, but whichever it may be, that largest +of them all belongs to Our Lady and the angels." + +Henri looked at Babette, but Babette was munching watercress busily, +and did not return his enquiring glances. Papa Patoux, quite satisfied +with his own reasoning, continued his supper in an amiable state of +mind. + +"What didst thou serve to Monseigneur, my little one?" he asked his +wife with a coaxing and caressing air, as though she were some delicate +and dainty sylph of the woodlands, instead of being the lady of massive +proportions which she undoubtedly was,--"Something of delicacy and fine +flavour, doubtless?" + +Madame Patoux shook her head despondingly. + +"He would have nothing of that kind," she replied--"Soup maigre, and +afterwards nothing but bread, dried figs, and apples to finish. Ah, +Heaven! What a supper for a Cardinal-Archbishop! It is enough to make +one weep!" + +Patoux considered the matter solemnly. + +"He is perhaps very poor?" he half queried. + +"Poor, he may be," responded Madame,--"But if he is, it is surely his +own fault,--whoever heard of a poor Cardinal-Archbishop! Such men can +all be rich if they choose." + +"Can they?" asked Henri with sudden vivacious eagerness. "How?" + +But his question was not answered, for just at that moment a loud knock +came at the door of the inn, and a tall broadly built personage in +close canonical attire appeared in the narrow little passage of entry, +attended by another smaller and very much more insignificant-looking +individual. + +Patoux hastily scrambled out of his chair. + +"The Archbishop!" he whispered to his wife--"He himself! Our own +Archbishop!" + +Madame Patoux jumped up, and seizing her children, held one in each +hand as she curtsied up and down. + +"Benedicite!" said the new-comer, lightly signing the cross in air with +a sociable smile--"Do not disturb yourselves, my children! You have +with you in this house the eminent Cardinal Bonpre?" + +"Ah, yes, Monseigneur!" replied Madame Patoux--"Only just now he has +finished his little supper. Shall I show Monseigneur to his room?" + +"If you please," returned the Archbishop, still smiling +benevolently--"And permit my secretary to wait with you here till I +return." + +With this, and an introductory wave of his hand in the direction of the +attenuated and sallow-faced personage who had accompanied him, he +graciously permitted Madame Patoux to humbly precede him by a few +steps, and then followed her with a soft, even tread, and a sound as of +rustling silk in his garments, from which a faint odour of some +delicate perfume seemed wafted as he moved. + +Left to entertain the Archbishop's secretary, Jean Patoux was for a +minute or two somewhat embarrassed. Henri and Babette stared at the +stranger with undisguised curiosity, and were apparently not favourably +impressed by his appearance. + +"He has white eyelashes!" whispered Henri. + +"And yellow teeth," responded Babette. + +Meanwhile Patoux, having scratched his bullet-head sufficiently over +the matter, offered his visitor a chair. + +"Sit down, sir," he said curtly. + +The secretary smiled pallidly and took the proffered accommodation. +Patoux again meditated. He was not skilled in the art of polite +conversation, and he found himself singularly at a loss. + +"It would be an objection no doubt, and an irreverance perhaps to smoke +a pipe before you, Monsieur--Monsieur--" + +"Cazeau," finished the secretary with another pallid smile--"Claude +Cazeau, a poor scribe,--at your service! And I beg of you, Monsieur +Jean Patoux, to smoke at your distinguished convenience!" + +There was a faint tone of satire in his voice which struck Papa Patoux +as exceedingly disagreeable, though he could not quite imagine why he +found it so. He slowly reached for his pipe from the projecting shelf +above the chimney, and as slowly proceeded to fill it with tobacco from +a tin cannister close by. + +"I do not think I have ever seen you in the town, Monsieur Cazeau," he +said--"Nor at Mass in the Cathedral either?" + +"No?" responded Cazeau easily, in a half-querying tone--"I do not much +frequent the streets; and I only attend the first early mass on +Sundays. My work for Monseigneur occupies my whole time." + +"Ah!" and Patoux, having stuffed his pipe sufficiently, lit it, and +proceeded to smoke peaceably--"There must be much to do. Many poor and +sick who need money, and clothes, and help in every way,--and to try +and do good, and give comfort to all the unhappy souls in Rouen is a +hard task, even for an Archbishop." + +Cazeau linked his thin hands together with an action of pious fervour +and assented. + +"There is a broken-hearted creature near us," pursued Patoux +leisurely--"We call her Marguerite La Folle;--I have often thought I +would ask Pere Laurent to speak to Monseigneur for her, that she might +be released from the devils that are tearing her. She was a good girl +till a year or two ago,--then some villain got the ruin of her, and she +lost her wits over it. Ah,'tis a sad sight to see her now--poor +Marguerite Valmond!" + +"Ha!" cried Henri suddenly, pointing a grimy finger at Cazeau--"Why did +you jump? Did something hurt you?" + +Cazeau had indeed "jumped," as Henri put it,--that is, he had sprung up +from his chair suddenly and as suddenly sat down again with an air of +impatience and discomfort. He rapidly overcame whatever emotion moved +him, however, and stretched his thin mouth in a would-be amiable grin +at the observant Henri. + +"You are a sharp boy!" he observed condescendingly--"and tall for your +age, no doubt. How old are you?" + +"Eleven," replied Henri--"But that has nothing to do with your jumping." + +"True," and the secretary wriggled in his chair, pretending to be much +amused--"But my jumping had nothing to do with you either, my small +friend! I had a thought,--a sudden thought,--of a duty forgotten." + +"Oh, it was a thought, was it?" and Henri looked incredulous. "Do +thoughts always make you jump?" + +"Tais-toi! Tais-toi!" murmured Patoux gently, between two whiffs of his +pipe--"Excuse him, Monsieur Cazeau,--he is but a child." + +Cazeau writhed amicably. + +"A delightful child," he murmured--"And the little girl--his sister--is +also charming--Ah, what fine dark eyes!--what hair! Will she not come +and speak to me?" + +He held out a hand invitingly towards Babette, but she merely made a +grimace at him and retired backwards. Patoux smiled benevolently. + +"She does not like strangers," he explained. + +"Good--very good! That is right! Little girls should always run away +from strangers, especially strangers of my sex," observed Cazeau with a +sniggering laugh--"And do these dear children go to school?" + +Patoux took his pipe out of his mouth altogether, and stared solemnly +at the ceiling. + +"Without doubt!--they are compelled to go to school," he answered +slowly; "but if I could have had my way, they should never have gone. +They learn mischief there in plenty, but no good that I can see. They +know much about geography, and the stars, and anatomy, and what they +call physical sciences;--but whether they have got it into their heads +that the good God wants them to live straight, clean, honest, wholesome +lives, is more than I am certain of. However, I trust Pere Laurent will +do what he can." + +"Pere Laurent?" echoed Cazeau, with a wide smile--"You have a high +opinion of Pere Laurent? Ah, yes, a good man!--but ignorant--alas! very +ignorant!" + +Papa Patoux brought his eyes down from the ceiling and fixed them +enquiringly on Cazeau. + +"Ignorant?" he began, when at this juncture Madame Patoux entered, and +taking possession of Henri and Babette, informed Monsieur Cazeau that +the Archbishop would be for some time engaged in conversation with +Cardinal Bonpre, and that therefore he, Monsieur Cazeau, need not +wait,--Monseigneur would return to his house alone. Whereupon the +secretary rose, evidently glad to be set at liberty, and took his leave +of the Patoux family. On the threshold, however, he paused, looking +back somewhat frowningly at Jean Patoux himself. + +"I should not, if I were you, trouble Monseigneur concerning the case +you told me of--that of--of Marguerite Valmond,"--he observed--"He has +a horror of evil women." + +With that he departed, walking across the Square towards the +Archbishop's house in a stealthy sort of fashion, as though he were a +burglar meditating some particularly daring robbery. + +"He is a rat--a rat!" exclaimed Henri, suddenly executing a sort of +reasonless war-dance round the kitchen--"One wants a cat to catch him!" + +"Rats are nice," declared Babette, for she remembered having once had a +tame white rat which sat on her knee and took food from her +hand,--"Monsieur Cazeau is a man; and men are not nice." + +Patoux burst into a loud laugh. + +"Men are not nice!" he echoed--"What dost thou know about it, thou +little droll one?" + +"What I see," responded Babette severely, with an elderly air, as of a +person who has suffered by bitter experience; and, undeterred by her +parents' continued laughter she went on-- + +"Men are ugly. They are dirty. They say 'Come here my little girl, and +I will give you something,'--then when I go to them they try and kiss +me. And I will not kiss them, because their mouths smell bad. They +stroke my hair and pull it all the wrong way. And it hurts. And when I +don't like my hair pulled the wrong way, they tell me I will be a great +coquette. A coquette is to be like Diane de Poitiers. Shall I be like +Diane de Poitiers?" + +"The saints forbid!" cried Madame Patoux,--"And talk no more nonsense, +child,--it's bed-time. Come,--say good-night to thy father, +Henri;--give them thy blessing, Jean--and let me get them into their +beds before the Archbishop leaves the house, or they will be asking him +as many questions as there are in the catechism." + +Thus enjoined, Papa Patoux kissed his children affectionately, signing +the cross on their brows as they came up to him in turn, after the +fashion of his own father, who had continued this custom up to his +dying day. What they thought of the benediction in itself might be +somewhat difficult to define, but it can be safely asserted that a +passion of tears on the part of Babette, and a fit of demoniacal +howling from Henri, would have been the inevitable result if Papa +Patoux had refused to bestow it on them. Whether there were virtue in +it or not, their father's mute blessing sent them to bed peaceably and +in good humour with each other, and they trotted off very contentedly +beside their mother, hushing their footsteps and lowering their voices +as they passed the door of the room occupied by Cardinal Bonpre. + +"The Archbishop is not an angel, is he?" asked Babette whisperingly. + +Her mother smiled broadly. + +"Not exactly, my little one. Why such a foolish question?" + +"You said that Cardinal Bonpre was a saint, and that perhaps we should +see an angel come down from heaven to visit him," replied Babette. + +"Well, you could not have thought the Archbishop came from heaven," +interpolated Henri, scornfully,--"He came from his own house over the +way with his own secretary behind him. Do angels keep secretaries?" + +Babette laughed aloud,--the idea was grotesque. The two children were +just then ascending the wooden stairs to their bedroom, the mother +carrying a lighted candle behind them, and at that moment the rich +sonorous voice of the Archbishop, raised to a high and somewhat +indignant tone, reached them with these words--"I consider that you +altogether mistake your calling and position." + +Then the voice died away into inaudible murmurings. + +"They are quarrelling! The Archbishop is angry!" said Henri with a grin. + +"Perhaps Archbishops do not like saints," suggested Babette. + +"Tais-toi! Cardinal Bonpre is an archbishop himself, little silly," +said Madame Patoux--"Therefore those great and distinguished +Monseigneurs are like brothers." + +"That is why they are quarrelling!" declared Henri glibly,--"A boy told +me in school that Cain and Abel were the first pair of brothers, and +they quarrelled,--and all brothers have quarrelled ever since. It's in +the blood, so that boy says,--and it is his excuse always for fighting +HIS little brother. His little brother is six, and he is twelve;--and +of course he always knocks his little brother down. He cannot help it, +he says. And he gets books on physiology and heredity, and he learns in +them that whatever is IN the blood has got to come out somehow. He says +that it's because Cain killed Abel that there are wars between +nations;--if Cain and Abel had never quarrelled, there would never have +been any fighting in the world,--and now that it's in the blood of +every body--" + +But further sapient discourse on the part of Henri was summarily put an +end to by his mother's ordering him to kneel down and say his prayers, +and afterwards bundling him into bed,--where, being sleepy, he speedily +forgot all that he had been trying to talk about. Babette took more +time in retiring to rest. She had very pretty, curly, brown hair, and +Madame Patoux took a pride in brushing and plaiting it neatly. + +"I may be like Diane de Poitiers after all," she remarked, peering at +herself in the small mirror when her thick locks were smoothed and tied +back for the night--"Why should I not be?" + +"Because Diane de Poitiers was a wicked woman," said Madame Patoux +energetically,--"and thou must learn to be a good girl." + +"But if Diane de Poitiers was bad, why do they talk so much about her +even now, and put her in all the histories, and show her house, and say +she was beautiful?" went on Babette. + +"Because people are foolish," said Madame, getting impatient--"Foolish +people run after bad women, and bad women run after foolish people. Now +say thy prayers." + +Obediently Babette knelt down, shut her eyes close, clasped her hands +hard, and murmured the usual evening formula, heaving a small sigh +after her "act of contrition," and looking almost saintly as she +commended herself to her "angel guardian." Then her mother kissed her, +saying-- + +"Good-night, little daughter! Think of Our Lady and the saints, and +then ask them to keep us safe from evil. Good-night!" + +"Good-night." responded Babette sleepily,--but all the same she did not +think of Our Lady and the saints half as much as of Diane de Poitiers. +There are few daughters of Eve to whom conquest does not seem a finer +thing than humility; and the sovereignty of Diane de Poitiers over a +king, seems to many a girl just conscious of her own charm, a more +emphatic testimony to the supremacy of her sex, than the Angel's +greeting of "Blessed art thou!" to the elected Virgin of the world. + + + + +III. + +Meanwhile a somewhat embarrassing interview had taken place between the +Archbishop of Rouen and Cardinal Bonpre. The archbishop, seen by the +light of the one small lamp which illumined the "best room" of the +Hotel Poitiers was certainly a handsome and imposing personage, +broad-chested and muscular, with a massive head, well set on strong +square shoulders, admirably adapted for the wearing of the dark violet +soutane which fitted them as gracefully as a royal vesture draping the +figure of a king. One disproportionate point, however, about his attire +was, that the heavy gold crucifix which depended by a chain from his +neck, did not, with him, look so much a sacred symbol as a trivial +ornament,--whereas the simple silver one that gleamed against the rusty +black scarlet-edged cassock of Cardinal Bonpre, presented itself as the +plain and significant sign of holiness without the aid of jewellers' +workmanship to emphasize its meaning. This was a trifle, no +doubt;--still it was one of those slight things which often betray +character. As the most brilliant diamond will look like common glass on +the rough red hand of a cook, while common glass will simulate the +richness of the real gem on the delicate white finger of a +daintily-bred woman, so the emblem of salvation seemed a mere bauble +and toy on the breast of the Archbishop, while it assumed its most +reverent and sacred aspect as worn by Felix Bonpre. Yet judged by mere +outward appearance, there could be no doubt as to which was the +finer-looking man of the two. The Cardinal, thin and pale, with shadows +of thought and pain in his eyes, and the many delicate wrinkles of +advancing age marking his features, would never possess so much +attractiveness for worldly and superficial persons as the handsome +Archbishop, who carried his fifty-five years as though they were but +thirty, and whose fresh, plump face, unmarred by any serious +consideration, bespoke a thorough enjoyment of life, and the things +which life,--if encouraged to demand them,--most strenuously seeks, +such as good food, soft beds, rich clothing, and other countless +luxuries which are not necessities by any means, but which make the +hours move smoothly and softly, undisturbed by the clash of outside +events among those who are busy with thoughts and actions, and +who,--being absorbed in the thick of a soul-contest,--care little +whether their bodies fare ill or well. The Archbishop certainly did not +belong to this latter class,--indeed he considered too much thought as +mischievous in itself, and when thought appeared likely to break forth +into action, he denounced it as pernicious and well-nigh criminal. + +"Thinkers," he said once to a young and ardent novice, studying for the +priesthood, "are generally socialists and revolutionists. They are an +offence to the Church and a danger to the community." + +"Surely," murmured the novice timidly,--"Our Lord Himself was a +thinker? And a Socialist likewise?" + +But at this the Archbishop rose up in wrath and flashed forth menace;-- + +"If you are a follower of Renan, sir, you had better admit it before +proceeding further in your studies," he said irately,--"The Church is +too much troubled in these days by the members of a useless and +degenerate apostasy!" Whereupon the young man had left his presence +abashed, puzzled, and humiliated; but scarcely penitent, inasmuch as +his New Testament taught him that he was right and that the Archbishop +was wrong. + +Truth to tell, the Archbishop was very often wrong. Wrapped up in +himself and his own fixed notions as to how life should be lived, he +seldom looked out upon the larger world, and obstinately refused to +take any thoughtful notice of the general tendency of public opinion in +all countries concerning religion and morality. All that he was unable +to explain, he flatly denied,--and his prejudices were as violent as +his hatred of contradiction was keen. The saintly life and noble deeds +of Felix Bonpre had reached him from time to time through various +rumours repeated by different priests and dignitaries of the Church, +who had travelled as far as the distant little Cathedral-town embowered +among towering pines and elm trees, where the Cardinal had his abiding +seat of duty;--and he had been anxious to meet the man who in these +days of fastidious feeding and luxurious living, had managed to gain +such a holy reputation as to be almost canonized in some folks' +estimation before he was dead. Hearing that Bonpre intended to stay a +couple of nights in Rouen, he cordially invited him to spend that time +at his house,--but the invitation had been gratefully yet firmly +refused, much to the Archbishop's amazement. This amazement increased +considerably when he learned that the dingy, comfortless, little Hotel +Poitiers had been selected by the Cardinal as his temporary +lodging,--and it was not without a pious murmur concerning "the pride +which apes humility" that he betook himself to that ancient and +despised hostelry, which had nothing whatever in the way of a modern +advantage to recommend it,--neither electric light, nor electric bell, +nor telephone. But he felt it incumbent upon him to pay a fraternal +visit to the Cardinal, who had become in a manner famous without being +at all aware of his fame,--and when finally in his presence, he was +conscious not only of a singular disappointment, but an equally +singular perplexity. Felix Bonpre was not at all the sort of personage +he had expected to see. He had imagined that a Churchman who was able +to obtain a character for saintliness in days like these, must needs be +worldly-wise and crafty, with a keen perception and comprehension of +the follies of mankind, and an ability to use these follies +advantageously to further his own ends. Something of the cunning and +foresight of an ancient Egyptian sorcerer was in the composition of the +Archbishop himself, for he judged mankind alone by its general +stupidity and credulity;--stupidity and credulity which formed +excellent ground for the working of miracles, whether such miracles +were wrought in the name of Osiris or Christ. Mokanna, the "Veiled +Prophet," while corrupt to the core with unnameable vices, had managed +in his time to delude the people into thinking him a holy man; +and,--without any adequate reason for his assumption,--the Archbishop +had certainly prepared himself to meet in Felix Bonpre, a shrewd, +calculating, clever priest, absorbed in acting the part of an excessive +holiness in order to secure such honour in his diocese as should +attract the particular notice of the Vatican. "Playing for Pope," in +fact, had been the idea with which the archbishop had invested the +Cardinal's reputed sanctity, and he was astonished and in a manner +irritated to find himself completely mistaken. He had opened the +conversation by the usual cordial trivialities of ordinary greeting, to +which Bonpre had responded with the suave courtesy and refined +gentleness which always dignified his manner,--and then the Archbishop +had ventured to offer a remonstrance on the unconventional--"Shall we +call it eccentric?" he suggested, smiling amicably,--conduct of the +Cardinal in choosing to abide in such a comfortless lodging as the +Hotel Poitiers. + +"It would have been a pleasure and an honour to me to welcome you at my +house"--he said--"Really, it is quite a violation of custom and usage +that you should be in this wretched place; the accommodation is not at +all fitted for a prince of the Church." + +Cardinal Felix raised one hand in gentle yet pained protest. + +"Pardon me!" he said, "I do not like that term, 'prince of the Church.' +There are no princes in the Church--or if there are, there should be +none." + +The archbishop opened his eyes widely. + +"That is a strange remark!" he ejaculated--"Princes of the Church there +have always been since Cardinals were created; and you, being a +Cardinal and an Archbishop as well, cannot be otherwise than one of +them." + +Felix Bonpre sighed. + +"Still, I maintain that the term is a wrong one," he answered, "and +used in the wrong place. The Church has nothing, or should have nothing +to do with differing titles or places. The ordinary priest who toils +among his congregation day and night, scarcely resting himself, working +and praying for the spiritual welfare of others, should to my thinking +be as greatly held in honour as the bishop who commands him and who +often--so it chances--is able to do less for our Lord than he. In +things temporal, owing to the constant injustice of man practised +against his brother-man, we can seldom attain to strict impartiality of +judgment,--but in things spiritual, there surely should be perfect +equality." + +"Seriously speaking, are those your views?" enquired the Archbishop, +his features expressing more and more astonishment. + +"Assuredly!" responded the Cardinal gently,--"Are they not yours? Did +not the Master Himself say 'Whosoever will be chief among you, let him +be your servant'? And 'Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased'? +These statements are plain and true,--there is no mistaking them." + +The Archbishop was silent for a minute or so. + +"Unfortunately we cannot apply our Lord's words literally to every-day +exigencies," he murmured suavely--"If we could do so--" + +"We SHOULD do so," said the Cardinal with emphasis--"The outside world +may be disinclined to do so,--but we--we who are the representatives of +a God-given faith, are solemnly bound to do so. And I fear--I very much +fear--that it is because in many cases we have not shown the example +expected of us, that heresy and atheism are so common among the people +of the present day." + +"Are you a would-be reformer?" asked the Archbishop good-humouredly, +yet not without a touch of satire in his tone,--"If so, you are not +alone--there have already been many!" + +"Nay, I desire no reforms," responded the Cardinal, a faint flush +warming the habitual pallor of his cheeks--"I simply wish to +maintain--not alter--the doctrine of our Lord. No reform is necessary +in that,--it is clear, concise, and simple enough for a child to +understand. His command to His disciples was,--'Feed my sheep'--and I +have of late been troubled and perplexed, because it seems to me that +the sheep are not fed;--that despite churches and teachers and +preachers, whole flocks are starving." + +The Archbishop moved uneasily in his chair. His habitual violent spirit +of contradiction rose up rebelliously in him, and he longed to give a +sharp answer in confutation of the Cardinal's words, but there was a +touch of the sycophant in his nature despite his personal pride, and he +could not but reflect that Cardinals ranked above Archbishops, and that +Felix Bonpre was in very truth a "prince of the Church" however much he +himself elected to disclaim the title. And as in secular affairs lesser +men will always bow the knee to royalty, so the Archbishop felt the +necessity of temporising with one who was spiritually royal. Therefore +he considered a moment before replying. + +"I think," he said at last, in soft persuasive tones, "that your +conscience may perhaps be a little tender on this subject. But I cannot +agree with you in your supposition that whole flocks are starving;--for +Christianity dominates the better and more intellectual part of the +civilized world, and through its doctrines, men are gradually learning +to be more tolerant and less unjust. When we recollect the barbarous +condition of humanity before the coming of Christ--" + +"Barbarous?" interrupted the Cardinal with half a smile,--"You would +hardly apply that term to the luxury-loving peoples of Tyre and +Babylon?--or to the ancient splendours of Athens and Rome?" + +"They were heathens," said the Archbishop sententiously. + +"But they were men and women," replied Bonpre, "And they too had +immortal souls. They were all more or less struggling towards the +fundamental Idea of good. Of course then, as now that Idea was +overgrown by superstitious myths and observances--but the working +tendency of the whole universe being ever towards Good, not Evil, an +impulse to press on in the right direction was always in the brain of +man, no matter how dimly felt. Primitive notions of honour were strange +indeed; nevertheless honour existed in the minds of the early +barbarians in a vague sense, though distorted out of shape and noblest +meaning. No,--we dare not take upon ourselves to assert that men were +altogether barbarous before the coming of Christ. They were cruel and +unjust certainly,--and alas! they are cruel and unjust still! Eighteen +hundred years of Christian teaching have not eradicated these ingrained +sins from any one unit of the entire mass." + +"You are a severe judge!" said the Archbishop. + +Cardinal Bonpre lifted his mild blue eyes protestingly. + +"Severe? I? God forbid that I should be severe, or presume to sit in +judgment on any poor soul that sought my sympathy! I do not judge,--I +simply feel. And my feelings have for a long time, I confess, been +poignantly sorrowful." + +"Sorrowful! And why?" + +"Because the impression has steadily gained upon me that if our Church +were all it was originally intended to be by its Divine Founder, we +should at this time have neither heresies or apostasies, and all the +world would be gathered into the 'one fold under one Shepherd.' But if +we, who are its ministers, persist in occupying ourselves more with +'things temporal' than 'things spiritual,' we fail to perform our +mission, or to show the example required of us, and we do not attract, +so much as we repel. The very children of the present day are beginning +to doubt our calling and election." + +"Oh, of course there are, and always have been heretics and atheists," +said the Archbishop,--"And apparently there always will be." + +"And I venture to maintain that it is our fault that heretics and +atheists continue to exist," replied the Cardinal; "If our Divine faith +were lived divinely, there would be no room for heresy or atheism. The +Church itself supplies the loophole for apostasy." + +The Archbishop's handsome face crimsoned. + +"You amaze me by such an expression!" he said, raising his voice a +little in the indignation he could scarcely conceal--"you talk--pardon +me--as if you yourself were uncertain of the Church's ability to +withstand unbelief." + +"I speak but as I think," answered the Cardinal gently. "And I admit I +AM uncertain. In the leading points of reed I am very steadfastly +convinced;--namely, that Christ was divine, and that the following of +His Gospel is the saving of the immortal soul. But if you ask me +whether I think we do truly follow that Gospel, I must own that I have +doubts upon the matter." + +"An elected favourite son of the Church should surely have no doubts!" +said the Archbishop. + +"Ah, there you come back to the beginning from which we started, when I +ventured to object to your term 'prince of the Church.' According to +our Master, all men should be equal before Him; therefore we err in +marking differences of rank or favoritism in questions of religion. The +very idea of rank is anti-Christian." + +At this the Archbishop began to look seriously annoyed. + +"I am afraid you are indulging in very unorthodox ideas," he said with +impatience--"In fact I consider you altogether mistake your calling and +position." + +These were the words which had reached the attentive ears of the Patoux +children on their way up to bed, and had caused Henri to declare that +the Archbishop and the Cardinal were quarrelling. Felix Bonpre took the +somewhat violent remark, however, with perfect equanimity. + +"Possibly I may do so," he responded peaceably. "We are all subject to +error. My calling, as I take it, is that of a servant of Christ, whose +instructions for work are plainly set down in His own words. It is for +me to follow these instructions as literally and exactly as I can. With +regard to my position, I am placed as the spiritual head of a very +small diocese, where the people for the most part lead very innocent +and harmless lives. But I should be selfish and narrow in spirit if I +allowed myself to limit my views to my own circle of influence. My +flock are mere rustics in intellectual capacity, and have no conception +of the manner in which the larger tide of human events is flowing. Now +and then one or two of the people grow weary of their quiet pastures +and woodlands,--and being young, hopeful, and ardent, start forth into +the great world, there to seek fairer fortunes. Sometimes they come +back to their old homes. Far more frequently they never return. But +those who do come back are changed utterly. I recognise no more the +young men and maidens whom I confirmed in their faith, and laid my +hands on in blessing ere they fared forth to other lives and scenes. +The men are grown callous and worldly; without a heart,--without a +thought,--save for the gain or loss of gold. The women are--ruined!" + +He paused a moment. The Archbishop said nothing. + +"I love my people," went on the Cardinal pathetically--"No child is +baptised in our old Cathedral without my praying for its future +good,--without my hope that it may grow into that exquisite mingling of +the Divine and Human which our Lord taught us was the perfection of +life, and His desire to see fulfilled in those He called His own. +Yes,--I love my people!--and when any of them go away from me, and then +return to the scenes of their childhood broken-hearted, I cannot meet +them with reproach. My own heart is half broken to see them thus cast +down. And their sorrows have compelled me naturally to meditate on the +sorrows of others,--to consider what it is in the world which thus +corrodes the pure gold of innocence and robs life of its greatest +charm. For if Christ's spirit ruled us all, then innocence should be +held more sacred. Life should engender happiness. I have studied, read, +and thought long, upon these matters, so that I not only feel, but know +the truth of what I say. Brother!--" and the Cardinal, strongly moved, +rose suddenly and confronted the Archbishop with a passionate +gesture--"My great grief is that the spirit of Christ does NOT rule the +world! Christ is being re-crucified by this generation! And the Church +is looking on, and silently permitting His second murder!" + +Startled by the force of this expression, the Archbishop sprang up in +his turn, his lips parted as if to speak--then--his angry glance met +the clear, calm, steadfast look of Felix Bonpre, and he faltered. His +eyes drooped--and his massive figure seemed for a moment to shrink with +a sort of abasement. Like an inspired apostle the Cardinal stood, one +hand outstretched,--his whole frame sentient with the strong emotion +which possessed him. + +"You know that what I say is true," he continued in quieter but no less +intensely passionate accents--"You know that every day sees our Master +crowned with new thorns and exposed to fresh torture! You know that we +do nothing!--We stand beside Him in His second agony as dumb as though +we were unconscious of it! You know that we MIGHT speak and will not! +You know that we fear the ephemera of temporary governments, policies, +and social conventionalities, more than the great, real, and terrible +judgment of the world to come!" + +"But all these things have been said before," began the Archbishop, +recovering a little from the confusion that had momentarily seized +him,--"And as I just now observed, you should remember that there have +always been heretics from the very beginning." + +"Oh, I remember!" and the Cardinal sighed, "How is it possible that any +of us should forget! Heretics, whom we have tortured with unheard-of +agonies and burned in the flames, as a proof of our love and sympathy +with the tenderness of Christ Jesus!" + +"You are going too far back in time!" said the Archbishop quickly. "We +erred in the beginning through excess of zeal, but now--now--" + +"Now we do exactly the same thing," returned Bonpre--"Only we do not +burn physically our heretics, but morally. We condemn all who oppose +us. Good men and brave thinkers, whom in our arrogance we consign to +eternal damnation, instead of endeavouring to draw out the heart of +their mystery, and gather up the gems of their learning as fresh proofs +of the active presence of God's working in, and through all things! +Think of the Church's invincible and overpowering obstinacy in the case +of Galileo! He declared the existence of God to us by the utterance of +a Truth,--inasmuch as every truth is a new message from God. Had he +pronounced his theories before our divine Master, that Master would +have confirmed, not denied them! Have we one single example of Christ +putting to the torture any poor soul that did not believe in Him? +Nay--He Himself submitted to be tortured; but for those who wronged +Him, His prayer was only--'Father, forgive them, for they know not what +they do.' THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO! The ministers of truth should +rather suffer themselves than let others suffer. The horrors of the +Inquisition are a blot on religious history; our Master never meant us +to burn and torture men into faith. He desired us to love and lead them +into the way of life as the shepherd leads a flock into the fold. I +repeat again, there would have been no room for atheism if we--we--the +servants of Christ, had been strictly true to our vocation." + +By this time the Archbishop had recovered his equanimity. He sat down +and surveyed the up-standing figure of the Cardinal with curiosity and +a touch of pity. + +"You think too much of these things," he said soothingly--"You are +evidently overwrought with study and excessive zeal. Much that you say +may be true; nevertheless the Church--OUR Church--stands firm among +overwhelming contradictions,--and we, its ministers, do what we can. I +myself am disposed to think that the multitude of the saved is greater +than the multitude of the lost." + +"I envy you the consolation such a thought must give," responded the +Cardinal, as he resumed his seat opposite his visitor--"I, on the +contrary, have the pained and bitter sense that we are to blame for all +this 'multitude of the lost,' or at any rate that we could have done +more in the way of rescue than we have done." He paused a moment, +passing one hand across his forehead wearily. "In truth this is what +has for a long time weighed upon my mind, and depressed my spirits even +to the detriment of bodily health. I am nearing the grave, and must +soon give an account of my stewardship;--and the knowledge of the +increasing growth of evil in the world is almost more than I can bear." + +"But you are not to blame," said the Archbishop wonderingly,--"In your +own diocese you have fulfilled your duty; more than this is not +expected of you. You have done your best for the people you serve,--and +reports of your charities and good works are not lacking--" + +"Do not credit such reports," interrupted the Cardinal, almost +sternly,--"I have done nothing--absolutely nothing! My life has been +too peaceful,--too many undeserved blessings have been bestowed upon +me. I much fear that the calm and quiet of my days have rendered me +selfish. I think I should long ago have sought some means of engaging +in more active duties. I feel as if I should have gone into the thick +of the religious contest, and spoken and fought, and helped the sick +and wounded of the mental battle,--but now--now it is too late!" + +"Nothing is too late for one in your position," said the +Archbishop--"You may yet sit in St. Peter's chair!" + +"God forbid!" ejaculated Bonpre fervently--"I would rather die! I have +never wished to rule,--I have only sought to help and to comfort. But +sixty-eight years of life weigh heavily on the faculties,--I cannot +wear the sword and buckler of energetic manhood. I am old--old!--and to +a certain extent, incapacitated for useful labour. Hence I almost +grudge my halcyon time spent among simple folk,--time made sweet by all +the surroundings of Nature's pastoral loveliness;--the sorrow of the +wider world knocks at my heart and makes it ache! I feel that I am one +of those who stand by, idly watching the Master's second death without +one word of protest!" + +The archbishop listened in silence. There was a curious shamed look +upon his face, as if some secret sin within himself had suddenly been +laid bare in all its vileness to the light of day. The golden crucifix +he wore moved restlessly with a certain agitated quickness in his +breathing, and he did not raise his eyes, when, after a little pause, +he said-- + +"I tell you, as I told you before, that you think too much; you are +altogether too sensitive. I admit that at the present day the world is +full of terrible heresies and open blasphemy, but this is part of what +we are always bound to expect,--we are told that we must 'suffer for +righteousness' sake--'" + +"We!" said the Cardinal--"Yes, WE! that is, OURSELVES;--the Church--WE +think, when we hear of heresies and blasphemies that it is we who are +'suffering for righteousness' sake,' but in our egotism we forget that +WE are not suffering at all if we are able to retain our faith! It is +the very heretics and blasphemers whom we condemn that are +suffering--suffering absolute tortures--perchance 'for righteousness' +sake'!" + +"Dare we call a heretic 'righteous'?" enquired the Archbishop--"Is he +not, in his very heresy, accursed?" + +"According to our Lord, no one is accursed save traitors,--that is to +say those who are not true. If a man doubts, it is better he should +admit his doubt than make a pretence of belief. The persons whom we +call heretics may have their conception of the truth,--they may say +that they cannot accept a creed which is so ignorant of its own tenets +as to condemn all those who do not follow it,--inasmuch as the very +Founder of it distinctly says--'If any man hear my words and believe +not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save +the world.' Now we, His followers, judge, but do not save. The atheist +is judged by us, but not rescued from his unbelief; the thinker is +condemned,--the scientist who reveals the beauty and wisdom of God as +made manifest in the composition of the lightning, or the germinating +of a flower, is accused of destroying religion. And we continue to pass +our opinion, and thunder our vetoes and bans of excommunication against +our fellowmen, in the full front of the plain command 'Judge not, that +ye be not judged'!" + +"I see it is no use arguing with you," said the Archbishop, forcing a +smile, with a vexation the smile could not altogether conceal,--"You +are determined to take these sayings absolutely,--and to fret your +spirit over the non-performance of imaginary duties which do not exist. +This Church is a system,--founded on our Lord's teaching, but applied +to the needs of modern civilization. It is not humanly possible to +literally obey all Christ's commands." + +"For the outside world I grant it may be difficult,--but for the +ministers of religion, however difficult it may be, it should be done," +replied the Cardinal firmly. "I said this before, and I deliberately +maintain it. The Church IS a system,--but whether it is as much founded +on the teaching of our Lord, who was divine, as on the teaching of St. +Paul, who was NOT divine, is a question to me of much perplexity." + +"St. Paul was directly inspired by our Lord," said the Archbishop--"I +am amazed that you should even hint a doubt of his apostleship!" + +"I do not decry St. Paul," answered Bonpre quietly--"He was a gifted +and clever man, but he was a Man--he was not God-in-Man. Christ's +doctrine leaves no place for differing sects; St. Paul's method of +applying that doctrine serves as authority for the establishment of any +and every quarrelsome sect ever known!" + +"I cannot agree with you," said the Archbishop coldly. + +"I do not expect to be agreed with"--and Bonpre smiled a little--"An +opinion which excites no opposition at all is not worth having! I am +quite honest in my scruples, such as they are;--I do not think we fit, +as you say, the Church system to the needs of modern civilization. On +the contrary, we must fail in many ways to do this, else there would +not be such a crying out for help and comfort as there is at present +among all Christian peoples. We no longer speak with a grand certainty +as we ought to do. We only offer vague hopes and dubious promises to +those who thirst for the living waters of salvation and +immortality,--it is as if we did not feel sure enough of God ourselves +to make others sure. All this is wrong--wrong! It forebodes heavy +punishment and disaster. If I were younger, I could express perhaps my +meaning more clearly,--but as it is, my soul is weighted with +unutterable thoughts,--I would almost call them warnings,--of some +threatening evil; . . . and today--only this afternoon--when I sat for +an hour in the Cathedral yonder and listened to the music of the great +organ--" + +The Archbishop started. + +"What did you say?" + +The Cardinal repeated his words gently,-- + +"I said that I sat in the Cathedral and listened to the music of the +great organ--" + +"The great organ!" interrupted the Archbishop,--"You must have been +dreaming! You could not possibly have heard the great organ,--it is old +and all out of gear;--it is never used. The only one we have for +service just now is a much smaller instrument in the left-hand +choir-chapel,--but no person could have played even on that without the +key. And the key was unobtainable, as the organist is absent from the +town to-day." + +The Cardinal looked completely bewildered. + +"Are you quite sure of this?" he asked falteringly. + +"Sure--absolutely sure!" declared the Archbishop with a smile--"No +doubt you thought you heard music; overwrought nerves often play these +tricks upon us. And it is owing to this same cause that you are weary +and dispirited, and that you take such a gloomy view of the social and +religious outlook. You are evidently out of health and unstrung;--but +after you have had sufficient rest and change, you will see things in +quite a different aspect. I will not for a moment believe that you +could possibly be as unorthodox as your conversation would imply,--it +would be a total misconception of your true character," and the +Archbishop laughed softly. "A total misconception," he repeated,--"Why, +yes, of course it would be! No Cardinal-Archbishop of Holy Mother +Church could bring such accusations against its ministry as you would +have suggested, unless he were afflicted by nervous depression, which, +as we all know, has the uncomfortable effect of creating darkness even +where all is light. Do you stay long in Rouen?" + +"No," replied the Cardinal abstractedly, answering the question +mechanically though his thoughts were far away--"I leave for Paris +to-morrow." + +"For Paris? And then?" + +"I go to Rome with my niece, Angela Sovrani,--she is in Paris awaiting +my arrival now." + +"Ah! You must be very proud of your niece!" murmured the Archbishop +softly--"She is famous everywhere,--a great artist!--a wonderful +genius!" + +"Angela paints well--yes," said the Cardinal quietly,--"But she has +still a great deal to learn. And she is unfortunately much more alone +now than she used to be,--her mother's death last year was a terrible +blow to her." + +"Her mother was your sister?" + +"My only sister," answered the Cardinal--"A good, sweet woman!--may her +soul rest in peace! Her character was never spoilt by the social life +she was compelled to lead. My brother-in-law, Prince Sovrani, kept open +house,--and all the gay world of Rome was accustomed to flock thither; +but now--since he has lost his wife, things have changed very +much,--sadness has taken the place of mirth,--and Angela is very +solitary." + +"Is she not affianced to the celebrated Florian Varillo?" + +A fleeting shadow of pain darkened the Cardinal's clear eyes. + +"Yes. But she sees very little of him,--you know the strictness of +Roman etiquette in such matters. She sees little--and sometimes--so I +think--knows less. However, I hope all will be well. But my niece is +over sensitive, brilliantly endowed, and ambitious,--at times I have +fears for her future." + +"Depression again!" declared the Archbishop, rising and preparing to +take his leave--"Believe me, the world is full of excellence when we +look upon it with clear eyes;--things are never as bad as they seem. To +my thinking, you are the last man alive who should indulge in +melancholy forebodings. You have led a peaceful and happy life, graced +with the reputation of many good deeds, and you are generally beloved +by the people of whom you have charge. Then, though celibacy is your +appointed lot, heaven has given you a niece as dear to you as any child +of your own could be, who has won a pre-eminent place among the world's +great artists, and is moreover endowed with beauty and distinction. +What more can you desire?" + +He smiled expansively as he spoke; the Cardinal looked at him +steadfastly. + +"I desire nothing!" he answered--"I never have desired anything! I told +you before that I consider I have received many more blessings than I +deserve. It is not any personal grief which at present troubles me,--it +is something beyond myself. It is a sense of wrong,--an appeal for +truth,--a cry from those who are lost in the world,--the lost whom the +Church might have saved!" + +"Merely fancy!" said the Archbishop cheerily--"Like the music in the +Cathedral! Do not permit your imagination to get the better of you in +such matters! When you return from Rome, I shall be glad to see you if +you happen to come through Normandy on your way back to your own +people. I trust you will so far honour me?" + +"I know nothing of my future movements," answered the Cardinal +gently,--"But if I should again visit Rouen, I will certainly let you +know, and will, if you desire it, accept your friendly hospitality." + +With this, the two dignitaries shook hands and the Archbishop took his +leave. As he picked his way carefully down the rough stairs and along +the dingy little passage of the Hotel Poitiers, he was met by Jean +Patoux holding a lighted candle above his head to show him the way. + +"It is dark, Monseigneur," said Patoux apologetically. + +"It is very dark," agreed Monseigneur, stumbling as he spoke, and +feeling rather inclined to indulge in very uncanonical language. "It is +altogether a miserable hole, mon Patoux!" + +"It is for poor people only," returned Jean calmly--"And poverty is not +a crime, Monseigneur." + +"No, it is not a crime," said the stately Churchman as he reached the +door at last, and paused for a moment on the threshold,--a broad smile +wrinkling up his fat cheeks and making comfortable creases round his +small eyes--"But it is an inconvenience!" + +"Cardinal Bonpre does not say so," observed Patoux. + +"Cardinal Bonpre is one of two things--a saint or a fool! Remember +that, mon Patoux! Bon soir! Benedicite!" + +And the Archbishop, still smiling to himself, walked leisurely across +the square in the direction of his own house, where his supper awaited +him. The moon had risen, and was clambering slowly up between the two +tall towers of Notre Dame, her pure silver radiance streaming mockingly +against the candle Jean Patoux still held in the doorway of his inn, +and almost extinguishing its flame. + +"One of two things--a saint or a fool," murmured Jean with a +chuckle--"Well!--it is very certain that the Archbishop is neither!" + +He turned in, and shut his door as far as it would allow him to do so, +and went comfortably to bed, where Madame had gone before him. And +throughout the Hotel Poitiers deep peace and silence reigned. Every one +in the house slept, save Cardinal Bonpre, who with the Testament before +him, sat reading and meditating deeply for an hour before retiring to +rest. A fresh cause of anxiety had come upon him in the idea that +perhaps his slight indisposition was more serious than he had deemed. +If, as the Archbishop had said, there could have been no music possible +in the Cathedral that afternoon, how came it that he had heard such +solemn and entrancing harmonies? Was his mind affected? Was he in truth +imagining what did not exist? Were the griefs of the world his own +distorted view of things? Did the Church faithfully follow the +beautiful and perfect teachings of Christ after all? He tried to reason +the question out from a different and more hopeful standpoint, but +vainly;--the conviction that Christianity was by no means the supreme +regenerating force, or the vivifying Principle of Human Life which it +was originally meant to be, was borne in upon him with increasing +certainty, and the more he read the Gospels, the more he became aware +that the Church--system as it existed was utterly opposed to Christ's +own command, and moreover was drifting further and further away from +Him with every passing year. + +"The music in the Cathedral may have been my fancy," he said,--"But the +discord in the world sounds clear and is NOT imagination. A casuist in +religion may say 'It was to be';--that heresies and dissensions were +prophesied by Christ, when He said 'Because iniquity shall abound, the +love of many shall grow cold';--but this does not excuse the Church +from the sin of neglect, if any neglects exists. One thing we have +never seemed to thoroughly understand, and this is that Christ's +teaching is God's teaching, and that it has not stopped with the +enunciation of the Gospel. It is going on even now--in every fresh +discovery of science,--in every new national experience,--in everything +we can do, or think, or plan, the Divine instruction steadily continues +through the Divine influence imparted to us when the Godhead became +man, to show men how they might in turn become gods. This is what we +forget and what we are always forgetting; so that instead of accepting +every truth, we quarrel with it and reject it, even as Judaea rejected +Christ Himself. It is very strange and cruel;--and the world's +religious perplexities are neither to be wondered at nor blamed,--there +is just and grave cause for their continuance and increase." + +He closed the Testament, and being thoroughly fatigued in body as well +as mind, he at last retired. Lying down contentedly upon the hard and +narrow bed which was the best the inn provided, he murmured his usual +prayer,--"If this should be the sleep of death, Jesus receive my +soul!"--and remained for a little while with his eyes open, looking at +the white glory of the moonlight as it poured through his lattice +window and formed delicate traceries of silver luminance on the bare +wooden floor. He could just see the dark towers of Notre Dame from +where he lay,--a black mass in the moonbeams--a monument of +half-forgotten history--a dream of centuries, hallowed or blasphemed by +the prayers and aspirations of dead and gone multitudes who had +appealed to the incarnate God-in-Man before its altars. God-in-Man had +been made manifest!--how long would, the world have to wait before +Man-in-God was equally created and declared? For that was evidently +intended to be the final triumph of the Christian creed. + +"We should have gained such a victory long ago," mused Cardinal +Bonpre--"only that we ourselves have set up stumbling-blocks, and +rejected God at every step of the way." + +Closing his eyes he soon slept; the rays of the moon fell upon his pale +face and silvery hair like a visible radiant benediction,--and the +bells of the city chimed the hours loudly and softly, clanging in every +direction, without waking him from his rest. But slumbering as he was, +he had no peace,--for in his sleep he was troubled by a strange vision. + + + + +IV. + +As the terrors of imagined suffering are always worse than actual pain, +so dreams are frequently more vivid than the reality of life,--that is +we are sure that life is indeed reality, and not itself a dream within +a dream. Cardinal Bonpre's sleep was not often disturbed by affrighting +visions,--his methods of daily living were too healthy and simple, and +his conscience too clear;--but on this particular night he was visited +by an impression rather than a dream,--the impression of a lonely, and +terrifying dreariness, as though the whole world were suddenly emptied +of life and left like a hollow shell on the shores of time. Gradually +this first sense of utter and unspeakable loss changed into a startled +consciousness of fear;--some awful transformation of things familiar +was about to be consummated;--and he felt the distinct approach of some +unnameable Horror which was about to convulse and overwhelm all +mankind. Then in his dream, a great mist rose up before his eyes,--a +mingling as of sea-fog and sun-flame,--and as this in turn slowly +cleared,--dispersing itself in serpentine coils of golden-grey +vapour,--he found himself standing on the edge of a vast sea, +glittering in a light that was neither of earth nor of heaven, but that +seemed to be the inward reflection of millions of flashing sword +blades. And as he stood gazing across the width of the waters, the sky +above him grew black, and a huge ring of fire rose out of the east, +instead of the beloved and familiar sun,--fire that spread itself in +belching torrents of flame upward and downward, and began to absorb in +its devouring heat the very sea. Then came a sound of many thunders, +mingled with the roar of rising waters and the turbulence of a great +whirlwind,--and out of the whirlwind came a Voice saying--"Now is the +end of all things on the earth,--and the whole world shall be burnt up +as a dead leaf in a sudden flame! And we will create from out its ashes +new heavens and a new earth, and we will call forth new beings +wherewith to people the fairness of our fresh creation,--for the +present generation of mankind hath rejected God,--and God henceforth +rejecteth His faithless and unworthy creatures! Wherefore let now this +one dim light amid the thousand million brighter lights be +quenched,--let the planet known to all angels as the Sorrowful Star +fall from its sphere forever,--let the Sun that hath given it warmth +and nourishment be now its chief Destroyer, and let everything that +hath life within it, perish utterly and revive no more!" + +And Cardinal Felix heard these words of doom. Powerless to move or +speak, he stood watching the terrible circle of fire, extend and +expand, till all the visible universe seemed melting in one red furnace +of flame;--and in himself he felt no hope,--no chance of rescue;--in +himself he knew that the appalling work of destruction was being +accomplished with a deadly swiftness that left no time for +lamentation,--that the nations of the world were as flying straws swept +into the burning, without space or moment for a parting prayer or +groan. Tortured by an excruciating agony too great for tears, he +suddenly found voice, and lifting his face towards the lurid sky he +cried aloud-- + +"God of Eternity, stay Thy hand! For one remaining Cause be merciful! +Doom not Thy creature Man to utter destruction!--but still remember +that Thou wast born even as he! As helpless, as wronged, as tempted, as +betrayed, as suffering, as prone to pain and death! Thou hast lived his +life and endured his sorrows, though in the perfect glory of Thy +Godhead Thou hast not sinned! Have patience yet, oh Thou great +Splendour of all worlds! Have patience yet, Thou outraged and +blasphemed Creator! Break once again Thy silence as of old and speak to +us!--pity us once again ere Thou slay us utterly,--come to us even as +Thou earnest in Judaea, and surely we will receive Thee and obey Thee, +and reject Thy love no more!" + +As he thus prayed he was seized with a paralysing fear,--for suddenly +the red and glowing chaos of fire above him changed into soft skies +tinged with the exquisite pearl-grey hues of twilight, and he became +conscious of the approach of a great invisible Presence, whose awful +unseen beauty overwhelmed him with its sublimity and majesty, causing +him to forget altogether that he himself existed. And Someone +spoke,--in grave sweet accents, so soft and close to him that the words +seemed almost whispered in his ears,-- + +"Thy prayer is heard,--and once again the silence shall be broken. +Nevertheless remember that 'the light shineth in darkness and the +darkness comprehendeth it not'." + +Deep silence followed. The mysterious Presence melted as it were into +space,--and the Cardinal awoke, trembling violently and bathed in a +cold perspiration. He gazed bewilderedly around him, his mind still +confused and dazzled by the strong visionary impression of the burning +heavens and sea,--and he could not for a moment realize where he was. +Then, after a while, he recognised the humble furniture of the room he +occupied, and through the diamond-shaped panes of the little lattice +window, perceived the towers of Notre Dame, now gleaming with a kind of +rusty silver in the broader radiance of the fully uplifted moon. + +"It was a dream," he murmured,--"A dream of the end of the world!" He +shuddered a little as he thought of the doom pronounced upon the +earth,--the planet "known to all angels as the Sorrowful Star"--"Let +the Sun that hath given it warmth and nourishment be now its chief +Destroyer." + +According to modern scientists, such was indeed the precise way in +which the world was destined to come to an end. And could anything be +more terrifying than the thought that the glorious Orb, the maker of +day and generator of all beauty, should be destined to hurl from its +shining centre death and destruction upon the planet it had from +creation vivified and warmed! The Vision had shown the devastating ring +of fire rising from that very quarter of the heavens where the sun +should have been radiantly beaming,--and as Felix Bonpre dwelt upon the +picture in his mind, and remembered his own wild prayer to the Eternal, +a great uneasiness and dread overwhelmed him. + +"God's laws can never be altered;" he said aloud--"Every evil deed +brings its own punishment; and if the world's wickedness becomes too +great an offence in the eyes of the Almighty, it follows that the world +must be destroyed. What am I that I should pray against Divine Justice! +For truly we have had our chance of rescue and salvation;--the +Way,--the Truth,--and the Life have been given to us through Christ our +Redeemer; and if we reject Him, we reject all, and we have but +ourselves to blame." + +At that moment a plaintive wailing, as of some human creature in +distress broke on his ears through the deep silence of the night. He +listened attentively, and the sorrowful sound was repeated,--a desolate +yet gentle cry as of some sick and suffering child. Moved by a sudden +impulse the Cardinal rose, and going to the window looked anxiously +out, and down into the street below. Not a living creature was to be +seen. The moonlight spread itself in a vast silver glory over the whole +width of the square, and the delicate sculpture of the great +rose-window of the Cathedral, centrally suspended between the two tall +towers, looked in the fine pale radiance like a giant spider's web +sparkling with fairy dew. Again--again!--that weary sobbing cry! It +went to the Cardinal's heart, and stirred him to singular pain and pity. + +"Surely it is some lost or starving creature," he said--"Some poor soul +seeking comfort in a comfortless world." Hastily throwing on his +garments he left his room, treading cautiously in order not to disturb +the sleeping household,--and feeling his way down the short, dark +staircase, he easily reached the door and passed noiselessly out into +the square. Walking a few steps hurriedly he paused, once more +listening. The night was intensely calm;--not a cloud crossed the +star-spangled violet dome of air wherein the moon soared serenely, +bathing all visible things in a crystalline brilliancy so pure and +penetrative, that the finest cuttings on the gigantic grey facade of +Notre Dame could be discerned and outlined as distinctly as though +every little portion were seen through a magnifying glass. The +Cardinal's tall attenuated figure, standing alone and almost in the +centre of the square, cast a long thin black shadow on the glistening +grey stones,--and his dream-impression of an empty world came back +forcibly upon him,--a world as empty as a hollow shell! Houses there +were around him, and streets, and a noble edifice consecrated to the +worship of God,--nevertheless there was a sense of absolute desertion +in and through all. Was not the Cathedral itself the mere husk of a +religion? The seed had dropped out and sunk into the soil,--"among +thorns" and "stony places" indeed,--and some "by the wayside" to be +devoured by birds of prey. Darker and heavier grew the cloud of +depression on the Cardinal's soul,--and more and more passionate became +the protest which had for a long time been clamouring in him for +utterance,--the protest of a Churchman against the Church he served! It +was terrible,--and to a "prince of the Roman Church" hideous and +unnatural; nevertheless the protest existed, and it had in some +unaccountable way grown to be more a part of him than he himself +realized. + +"The world is empty because God is leaving it," he said, sorrowfully +raising his eyes to the tranquil heavens,--"and the joy of existence is +departing because the Divine and Holy Spirit of things is being +withdrawn!" + +He moved on a few paces,--and once more through the deep stillness the +little sobbing cry of sorrow was wafted tremulously to his ears. It +came or seemed to come from the Cathedral, and quickening his steps he +went thither. The deeply hollowed portal, full of black shadows, at +first showed nothing but its own massively sculptured +outlines--then--all at once the Cardinal perceived standing within the +embrasured darkness, the slight shrinking figure of a child. A boy's +desolate little figure,--with uplifted hands clasped appealingly and +laid against the shut Cathedral door, and face hidden and pressed hard +upon those hands, as though in mute and inconsolable despair. As the +Cardinal softly drew nearer, a long shuddering sigh from the solitary +little creature moved his heart anew to pity, and speaking in accents +of the utmost gentleness he said-- + +"My poor child, what troubles you? Why are you here all alone, and +weeping at this late hour? Have you no home?--no parents?" + +Slowly the boy turned round, still resting his small delicate hands +against the oaken door of the Cathedral, and with the tears yet wet +upon his cheeks, smiled. What a sad face he had!--worn and weary, yet +beautiful!--what eyes, heavy with the dews of sorrow, yet tender even +in pain! Startled by the mingled purity and grief of so young a +countenance, the Cardinal retreated for a moment in amaze,--then +approaching more closely he repeated his former question with increased +interest and tenderness-- + +"Why are you weeping here alone?" + +"Because I am left alone to weep," said the boy, answering in a soft +voice of vibrating and musical melancholy--"For me, the world is empty." + +An empty world! His dream-impression of universal desolation and +desertion came suddenly back upon the prelate's mind, and a sudden +trembling seized him, though he could discover in himself no cause for +fear. Anxiously he surveyed the strange and solitary little wayfarer on +the threshold of the Cathedral, and while he thus looked, the boy said +wistfully-- + +"I should have rested here within, but it is closed against me." + +"The doors are always locked at night, my child," returned the +Cardinal, recovering from his momentary stupor and bewilderment, "But I +can give you shelter. Will you come with me?" + +With a half-questioning, half-smiling look of grateful wonder, the boy +withdrew his hands from their uplifted, supplicating and almost +protesting attitude against the locked Cathedral-door, and moving out +of the porch shadows into the wide glory of the moonlight, he +confronted his interlocutor-- + +"Will I come with you?" he said--"Nay, but I see you are a Cardinal of +the Church, and it is I should ask 'will you receive me?' You do not +know who I am--nor where I came from, and I, alas! may not tell you! I +am alone; all--all alone,--for no one knows me in the world,--I am +quite poor and friendless, and have nothing where--with to pay you for +your kindly shelter--I can only bless you!" + +Very simply, very gravely the young boy spoke these words, his delicate +head uplifted, his face shining in the moon-rays, and his slight, +childish form erect with a grace which was not born of pride so much as +of endurance, and again the Cardinal trembled, though he knew not why. +Yet in his very agitation, the desire he had to persuade the tired +child to go with him grew stronger and overmastered every other feeling. + +"Come then," he said, smiling and extending his hand, "Come, and you +shall sleep in my room for the remainder of the night, and to-morrow we +will talk of the future. At present you need repose." + +The boy smiled gratefully but said nothing, and the Cardinal, satisfied +with the mere look of assent walked with his foundling across the +square and into the Hotel Poitiers. Arrived at his own bed-room, he +smoothed his couch and settled the pillows carefully with active zeal +and tenderness. The boy stood silently, looking on. + +"Sleep now, my child," said the Cardinal,--"and forget all your +troubles. Lie down here; no one will disturb you till the morning." + +"But you, my lord Cardinal," said the boy--"Are you depriving yourself +of comfort in order to give it to me? This is not the way of the world!" + +"It is MY way," said the Cardinal cheerfully,--"And if the world has +been unkind to you, my boy, still take courage,--it will not always be +unjust! Do not trouble yourself concerning me; I shall sleep well on +the sofa in the next room--indeed, I shall sleep all the better for +knowing that your tears have ceased, and that for the present at least +you are safely sheltered." + +With a sudden quick movement the boy advanced and caught the Cardinal's +hands caressingly in his own. + +"Oh, are you sure you understand?" he said, his voice growing +singularly sweet and almost tender as he spoke--"Are you sure that it +is well for you to shelter me?--I--a stranger,--poor, and with no one +to speak for me? How do you know what I may be? Shall I not perhaps +prove ungrateful and wrong your kindness?" + +His worn little face upturned, shone in the dingy little room with a +sudden brightness such as one might imagine would illumine the features +of an angel, and Felix Bonpre looked down upon him half fascinated, in +mingled pity and wonder. + +"Such results are with God, my child," he said gently--"I do not seek +your gratitude. It is certainly well for me that I should shelter +you,--it would be ill indeed if I permitted any living creature to +suffer for lack of what I could give. Rest here in peace, and remember +it is for my own pleasure as well as for your good that I desire you to +sleep well." + +"And you do not even ask my name?" said the boy, half smiling and still +raising his sorrowful deep blue eyes to the Cardinal's face. + +"You will tell me that when you please," said Felix, laying one hand +upon the soft curls that clustered over his foundling's forehead--"I am +in no wise curious. It is enough for me to know that you are a child +and alone in the world,--such sorrow makes me your servant." + +Gently the boy loosened his clasp of the Cardinal's hands. + +"Then I have found a friend!" he said,--"That is very strange!" He +paused, and the smile that had once before brightened his countenance +shone again like a veritable flash of sunlight--"You have the right to +know my name, and if you choose, to call me by it,--it is Manuel." + +"Manuel!" echoed the Cardinal--"No more than that?" + +"No more than that," replied the boy gravely--"I am one of the world's +waifs and strays,--one name suffices me." + +There followed a brief pause, in which the old man and the child looked +at each other full and steadfastly, and once again an inexplicable +nervous trembling seized the Cardinal. Overcoming this with an effort, +he said softly,-- + +"Then--Manuel!--good night! Sleep--and Our Lady's blessing be upon you!" + +Signing the cross in air he retired, carefully shutting the door and +leaving his new-found charge to rest. When he was once by himself in +the next room, however, he made no attempt to sleep,--he merely drew a +chair to the window and sat down, full of thoughts which utterly +absorbed him. There was nothing unusual, surely, in his finding a small +lost boy and giving him a night's lodging?--then why was he so affected +by it? He could not tell. He fully realized that the plaintive beauty +of the child had its share in the powerful attraction he felt,--but +there was something else in the nature of his emotion which he found it +impossible to define. It was as though some great blankness in his life +had been suddenly filled;--as if the boy whom he had found solitary and +weeping within the porch of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, belonged to +him in some mysterious way and was linked to his life so closely and +completely as to make parting impossible. But what a fantastic notion! +Viewed by the light of calm reason, there was nothing in the occurrence +to give rise to any such sentiment. Here was a poor little wayfarer, +evidently without parents, home, or friends,--and the Cardinal had +given him a night's lodging, and to-morrow--yes, to-morrow, he would +give him food and warm clothing and money,--and perhaps a +recommendation to the Archbishop in order that he might get a chance of +free education and employment in Rouen, while proper enquiries were +being made about him. That was the soberly prosaic and commonplace view +to take of the matter. The personality of the little fellow was +intensely winning,--but after all, that had nothing to do with the +facts of the case. He was a waif and stray, as he himself had said; his +name, so far as he seemed to know it, was Manuel,--an ordinary name +enough in France,--and his age might be about twelve,--not more. +Something could be done for him,--something SHOULD be done for him +before the Cardinal parted with him. But this idea of "parting" was +just what seemed so difficult to contemplate! Puzzled beyond measure at +the strange state of mind in which he found himself, Felix Bonpre went +over and over again all the events of the day in order,--his arrival in +Rouen,--his visit to the Cathedral, and the grand music he had heard or +fancied he heard there,--his experience with the sceptical little +Patoux children and their mother,--his conversation with the +Archbishop, in which he had felt much more excitement than he was +willing to admit,--his dream wherein he had been so painfully impressed +with a sense of the desertion, emptiness, and end of the world, and +finally his discovery of the little lonely and apparently forsaken boy, +thrown despairingly as it were against the closed Cathedral, like a +frail human wreck cast up from the gulf of the devouring sea. Each +incident, trivial in itself, yet seemed of particular importance, +though he could not explain or analyse why it should be so. +Meditatively he sat and watched the moon sink like a silver bubble +falling downward in the dark,--the stars vanished one by one,--and a +faint brown-gold line of suggestive light in the east began the slow +creation of a yet invisible dawn. Presently, yielding to a vague +impulse of inexplicable tenderness, he rose softly and went to the +threshold of the room where his foundling slept. Holding his breath, he +listened--but there was no sound. Very cautiously and noiselessly he +opened the door, and looked in,--a delicate half-light came through the +latticed window and seemed to concentrate itself on the bed where the +tired wanderer lay. His fine youthful profile was distinctly +outlined,--the soft bright hair clustered like a halo round his broad +brows,--and the two small hands were crossed upon his breast, while in +his sleep he smiled. Always touched by the beauty, innocence and +helplessness of childhood, something in the aspect of this little lad +moved the venerable prelate's heart to an unwonted emotion,--and +looking upon him, he prayed for guidance as to what he should best do +to rescue so gentle and young a creature from the cruelties of the +world. + + + + +V. + +"He has trusted me," said the Cardinal,--"I have found him, and I +cannot--dare not--forsake him. For the Master says 'Whosoever shall +receive one such little child in My name receiveth Me'." + +The next morning broke fair and calm, and as soon as the Patoux +household were astir, Cardinal Bonpre sought Madame Patoux in her +kitchen, and related to her the story of his night's adventure. She +listened deferentially, but could not refrain from occasional +exclamations of surprise, mingled with suggestions of warning. + +"It is like your good heart, Monseigneur," she said, "to give your own +bed to a stray child out of the street,--one, too, of whom you know +nothing,--but alas! how often such goodness is repaid by ingratitude! +The more charity you show the less thanks you receive,--yes, indeed, it +is often so!--and it seems as if the Evil One were in it! For look you, +I myself have never done a kindness yet without getting a cruelty in +exchange for it." + +"That is a sad experience, my daughter," returned the Cardinal +smiling,--"Nevertheless, it is our duty to go on doing kindnesses, no +matter what the results to ourselves may be. It is understood--is it +not? that we are to be misjudged in this world. If we had nothing to +suffer, what would be the use of exercising such virtues as patience +and endurance?" + +"Ah, Monseigneur, for you it is different," said Madame Patoux shaking +her head and sighing--"You are like the blessed saints--safe in a niche +of Holy Church, with Our Lady for ever looking after you. But for poor +people such as we are--we see the rough side of life, Monseigneur--and +we know that there is very little goodness about in the world,--and as +for patience and endurance!--why, no one in these days has the patience +to endure even the least contradiction! Two men,--aye even +brothers,--will fight for a word like mongrels quarrelling over a +bone;--and two women will scream themselves hoarse if one should have a +lover more than the other--asking your pardon, Monseigneur, for such +wicked talk! Still, wicked as it may be, it is true--and not all the +powers of Heaven seem to care about making things better. And for this +boy,--believe me,--you had better leave him to his own way--for there +will be no chance of getting such a poor little waif into the school +unless his father and mother are known, or unless someone will adopt +him, which is not likely . . . for Rouen is full of misery, and there +are enough mouths to feed in most families--and . . . mon Dieu!--is +that the child?" + +Thus abruptly she broke off her speech, utterly taken aback as she +suddenly perceived the little Manuel standing before her. Poorly clad +in the roughest garments as he was, his grace and plaintive beauty +moved her heart to quick compassion for his loneliness as he came +towards the Cardinal, who, extending one hand, drew him gently to his +side and asked if he had slept well? + +"Thanks to your goodness, my lord Cardinal," the boy replied, "I slept +so well that I thought I was in Heaven! I heard the angels singing in +my dreams;--yes!--I heard all the music of a happy world, in which +there never had been known a sin or sorrow!" + +He rested his fair head lightly against the Cardinal's arm and smiled. +Madame Patoux gazed at him in fascinated silence,--gazed and +gazed,--till she found her eyes suddenly full of tears. Then she turned +away to hide them,--but not before Cardinal Bonpre had observed her +emotion. + +"Well, good MOTHER" he said with gentle emphasis on the word--"Would +you have me forsake this child that I have found?" + +"No, Monseigneur,--no," said Madame Patoux very softly and +tremulously--"It is almost as if he were a little lost Angel sent to +comfort you." + +A curious thrill went through the Cardinal. An angel to comfort him! He +looked down at Manuel who still clung caressingly to his arm, and who +met his earnest scrutiny with a sweet candid smile. + +"Where did you come from, Manuel?" asked Bonpre suddenly. + +"I cannot tell you," the boy answered, straightly, yet simply. + +The Cardinal paused a moment, his keen penetrating eyes dwelling kindly +on the noble young face beside him. + +"You do not wish to tell me,--is that so?" he pursued. + +"Yes," said Manuel quietly--"I do not wish to tell you. And if, because +of this, you regret your kindness to me, my lord Cardinal, I will go +away at once and trouble you no more." + +But at these words the Cardinal felt such a sharp consciousness of pain +and loss that his nerves ached with positive fear. + +"Nay, nay, my child," he said anxiously--"I cannot let you go. It shall +be as you please,--I will not think that you could do yourself or me a +wrong by concealing what would be right for you to tell. It is true +that you are alone in the world?" + +"Quite, quite alone!" answered Manuel, a faint shadow darkening the +serenity of his eyes--"No one was ever more alone than I!" + +Madame Patoux drew nearer and listened. + +"And there is no person living who has the right to claim you?" + +"None!" + +"And is it not strange, Monseigneur," murmured Madame Patoux at this +juncture--"The little lad does not speak as if he were ignorant! It is +as though he had been well taught and carefully nurtured." + +Manuel's deep eyes dwelt upon her with a meditative sweetness. + +"I have taught myself;" he said simply--"Not out of books, perhaps, but +out of nature. The trees and rivers, the flowers and birds have talked +to me and explained many things;--I have learned all I know from what +God has told me." + +His voice was so gentle and tender that Madame Patoux was infinitely +touched by its soft plaintiveness. + +"Poor child!" she murmured,--"He has no doubt been wandering through +the country, without a soul to help him. Alas, that troubles should +begin for one so young! Perhaps he does not even know a prayer!" + +"Oh yes!" said Manuel quickly--"Prayer is like thought,--God is so good +that it is only natural to thank and praise Him. Is it not so?" + +"It should be natural, my boy," answered the Cardinal slowly and with a +slight accent of melancholy,--"But for many of us in these days I fear +it is more natural still to forget than to remember. Too often we take +gifts and ignore the giver. But come now and breakfast in my room;--for +the present you shall remain with me, and I will see what can best be +done for your future welfare." + +And turning to Madame Patoux he added smilingly--"You, my daughter, +with children of your own to care for, will no longer blame me for my +interest in this child, who is without protection in a somewhat rough +world. We of the Church dare not 'offend one of these little ones'." + +"Ah, Monseigneur!" murmured Madame,--"If all in the Church were like +you, some poor folks would believe in God more willingly. But when +people are starving and miserable, it is easy to understand that often +they will curse the priests and even religion itself, for making such a +mock of them as to keep on telling them about the joys of heaven, when +they are tormented to the very day of their death on earth, and are +left without hope or rescue of any kind--" + +But the Cardinal had disappeared with his young charge and Madame's +speech was lost upon him. She had therefore to content herself with +relating the story of "Monseigneur's foundling" to her husband, who +just then came into the kitchen to take his breakfast before starting +off to work in his market-garden. He listened with interest and +attention. + +"A boy is always a trouble," he said sententiously--"And it is likely +that so Monseigneur will find it. How old would the child be?" + +"About twelve, I should say," answered Madame--"But beautiful as a +little angel, Jean!" + +"That's a pity!" and Patoux shook his head ominously--"Tis bad enough +when a girl is beautiful,--but a boy!--Well, well! Monseigneur is a +wise man, and a saint they say,--he knows best,--but I fear he has +taken a burden upon himself which he will very soon regret! What dost +thou think of it, petite?" + +Madame hesitated a moment before replying. + +"Truly, I do not know what to think," she answered--"For myself, I have +not spoken to the child. I have seen him,--yes!--and at the sight of +him a something in my throat rose up and choked me as it were,--and +stopped me from saying a rough word. Such a lonely gentle lad!--one +could not be harsh with him, and yet--" + +"Yet! Oh, yes, I know!" said Patoux, finishing his coffee at a gulp and +smiling,--"Women will always be women,--and a handsome face in girl or +boy is enough to make fools of them all. Where are the children? Are +they gone to school?" + +"Yes--they went before the Cardinal was up. 'Tis a Saturday, and they +will be back early,--they are going to bring little Fabien Doucet to +Monseigneur." + +"What for?" enquired Patoux, his round eyes opening widely in amazement. + +"Oh, for a strange fancy! That he may bless the child and pray Our Lady +to cure him of his lameness. It was Babette's whim. I told her the +Cardinal was a saint,--and she said,--well! she said she would never +believe it unless he worked a miracle! The wicked mischief that girl +is!--as bad as Henri, who puts a doubt on everything!" + +"'Tis the school," said Jean gloomily--"I must speak to Pere Laurent." + +"Truly that would be well," said Madame--"He may explain what we +cannot. All the same, you may be sure the children WILL bring Fabien +Doucet to Monseigneur;--they have made up their minds about it,--and if +the little miserable's lameness gets no better, we shall have work +enough in future to make the saints respected!" + +Patoux muttered something inaudible, and went his way. Life was in his +opinion, a very excellent thing,--nevertheless there were a few details +about it which occasionally troubled him, and one of these details was +decidedly the "national education" question. It struck him as +altogether remarkable that the State should force him to send his +children to school whether he liked it or no; and moreover that the +system of instruction at the said school should be totally opposed to +his own ideas. He would have certainly wished his son to learn to read +and write, and then to have been trained as a thorough florist and +gardener;--while for his daughter he also desired reading and writing +as a matter of course, and then a complete education in cooking and +domestic economy, so that she might be a useful and efficient wife and +mother when the proper time for such duties came. Astronomy he felt +they could both do without, and most of the "physical sciences." +Religion he considered an absolute necessity, and this was the very +thing that was totally omitted from the national course of education. +He was well aware that there are countless numbers of unhappy people +nowadays who despise religion and mock at the very idea of a God. Every +day he saw certain works exposed for sale on the out-of-door bookstalls +which in their very titles proclaimed the hideous tone of blasphemy +which in France is gradually becoming universal,--but this did not +affect his own sense of what was right and just. He was a very plain +common man, but he held holy things in reverence, and instinctively +felt that, if the world were in truth a bad place, it was likely to +become much worse if all faith in God were taken out of it. And when he +reached his plot of ground that morning, and set to work as usual, he +was, for a non-reflective man, very much absorbed in thought. His heavy +tramping feet over the soil startled some little brown birds from their +hidden nests, and sent them flying to and fro through the clear air +uttering sharp chirrups of terror,--and, leaning on his spade, he +paused and looked at them meditatively. + +"Everything is afraid," he said,--"Birds, beasts, and men,--all are +afraid of something and cannot tell what it is that frightens them. It +seems hard sometimes that there should be so much trouble and struggle +just to live--however, the good God knows best,--and if we could not +think and hope and believe He knew best, we might just as well light up +a charcoal fire, shut all the doors and windows, and say 'Bon jour! Bon +jour, Monsieur le bon Dieu!--for if YOU do not know YOUR business, it +is evident we do not know ours, and therefore 'tis best for both our +sakes to make an end of sheer Stupidity!'" + +He chuckled at his own reasoning, and moistening his hands vigorously, +seized his spade and began to bank up a ridge of celery, singing "Bon +jour, Monsieur le bon Dieu!" under his breath without the slightest +idea of irreverence. And looking up at the bright sky occasionally, he +wished he had seen the stray boy rescued from the streets by Cardinal +Bonpre. + +"That he will be a trouble, there is no doubt," he said as he turned +and patted the rich dark earth--"Never was there a boy born yet into +the world that was not a trouble except our Lord, and even in His case +His own people did not know what to make of Him!" + +Meantime, while Jean Patoux dug in his garden, and sang and +soliloquized, his two children, Henri and Babette, their school hours +being ended, had run off to the market, and were talking vivaciously +with a big brown sturdy woman, who was selling poultry at a stall, +under a very large patched red umbrella. She was Martine Doucet, +reported to have the worst temper and most vixenish tongue in all the +town, though there were some who said her sourness of humour only arose +from the hardships of her life, and the many troubles she had been +fated to endure. Her husband, a fine handsome man, earning good weekly +wages as a stone-mason, had been killed by a fall from a ladder, while +engaged in helping to build one of the new houses on the Boulevards, +and her only child Fabien, a boy of ten had, when a baby, tumbled from +the cart in which his mother was taking her poultry to market, and +though no injury was apparent at the time, had, from the effects of the +fall, grown into a poor little twisted mite of humanity with a bent +spine, and one useless leg which hung limply from his body, while he +could scarcely hobble about on the other, even with the aid of a +crutch. He had a soft, pretty, plaintive face of his own, the little +Fabien, and very gentle ways,--but he was sensitively conscious of his +misfortune, and in his own small secret soul he was always praying that +he might die while he was yet a child, and not grow up to be a burden +to his mother. Martine, however, adored him; and it was through her +intense love for this child of hers that she had, in a strange vengeful +sort of mood abandoned God, and flung an open and atheistical defiance +in the face of her confessor, who, missing her at mass, had ventured to +call upon her and seriously reproach her for neglecting the duties of +her religion. Martine had whirled round upon him,--a veritable storm in +petticoats. + +"Religion!" she cried--"Oh--he! What good has it done for ME, if you +please! When I said my prayers night and morning, went to mass and +confession, and told my rosary every Mary-Feast, what happened? Was not +my man killed and my child crippled? And then,--(not to lose faith--) +did I not give the saints every chance of behaving themselves? For my +child's sake did I not earn good money and pay it to the Church in +special masses that he might be cured of his lameness? And Novenas in +plenty, and candles in plenty to the Virgin, and fastings of my own and +penitences? And is the child not as lame as ever? Look at him!--the +dear angel!--with never an evil thought or a wicked way,--and will you +try to make me believe there is a good God, when He will not help a +poor little creature like that, to be happy, though He is prayed to +night and morning for it! No--no! Churches are kept up for priests to +make a fat living out of,--but there is never a God in them that I can +see;--and as for the Christ, who had only to be asked in order to heal +the sick, there is not so much as a ghost of Him anywhere! If what you +priests tell us were true, poor souls such as I am, would get comfort +and help in our sorrows, but it is all a lie!--the whole thing!--and +when we are in trouble, we have got to bear it as best we can, without +so much as a kind word from our neighbours, let alone any pity from the +saints. Go to mass again? Not I!--nor to confession either!--and no +more of my earnings will click into your great brass collection plate, +mon reverend! Ah no!--I have been a foolish woman indeed, to trust so +long in a God who for all my tears and prayers never gives me a sign or +a hope of an answer,--and though I suppose this wretched world of ours +was made by somebody, whoever it is that has done it is a cruel +creature at best, so _I_ say,--without as much good feeling as there is +in the heart of an ordinary man, and without the sense of the man +either! For who that thinks twice about it would make a world where +everything is only born to die?--and for no other use at all! Bah! It +is sheer folly and wickedness to talk to me of a God!--a God, if there +were one, would surely be far above torturing the creatures He has +made, all for nothing!" + +And the priest who heard this blasphemous and savage tirade on the part +of Martine Doucet, retreated from her in amazement and horror, and +presently gave out that she was possessed of a devil, and was unfit to +be admitted to the Holy Sacrament. Whereat, when she heard of it, +Martine laughed loudly and ferociously. + +"Look you!--what a charitable creature a priest is!" she cried--"If you +don't do the things he considers exactly right and fitting, he tells +your neighbours that the devil has got you!--and so little does he care +to pick you out of the clutches of this same devil, that he refuses you +the Sacrament, though THAT is said to drive away Satan by the mere +touch of it! But wait till I ASK to have the Sacrament given to me!--it +will be time enough then to refuse it! Many a fat chicken of my stock +has the reverend father had as a free gift to boil in his soup maigre!" +and again she laughed angrily--"But no more of them does he get to +comfort his stomach while doing penance for his soul!--the hypocrite! +He must find another silly woman to cheat with his stories of a good +God who never does anything but kill and curse us every one!--he has +had all that he will ever get out of Martine Doucet!" + +It was to this redoubtable virago that Henri and Babette had betaken +themselves in the market place directly school was over. She always +held the same stall in the same position on market days,--and she sat +under her red umbrella on a rough wooden bench, knitting rapidly, now +keeping an eye on her little lame son, coiled up in a piece of matting +beside her, and anon surveying her stock-in-trade of ducks and geese +and fowls, which were heaped on her counter, their wrung necks drooping +limply from the board, and their yellow feet tied helplessly together +and shining like bits of dull gold in the warm light of the September +sun. She listened with an impassive countenance while Babette poured +out her story of the great Cardinal,--the Cardinal Felix Bonpre, whom +people said was a saint,--how he had come unexpectedly to stay two +nights at the Hotel Poitiers,--how "petite maman" had declared he was +so good that even angels might visit him,--how kind and gentle and +grand he seemed,--"Yes," said Babette somewhat eagerly, "there was no +doubt that he LOOKED good,--and we have told him all about Fabien and +he has promised to bless him and ask Our Lord to cure his lameness." + +"Well, and of what use is that, mignonne?" demanded Martine, clicking +her knitting-needles violently and stooping over her work to wink away +the sudden tears that had risen in her bold brown eyes at Babette's +enthusiastic desire to benefit her afflicted child.--"Asking our Lord +is poor business,--you may ask and ask, but you never get answered!" + +Babette hung her curly brown head despondingly, and looked appealingly +at her brother. Now Henri was a decided cynic;--but his sister +exercised a weird fascination over him,--a sort of power to command +which he always felt more or less constrained to obey. He stared +solemnly at Martine, and then at the little Fabien, who, half rising +from his mat, had listened with a visibly painful interest to Babette's +story. + +"I think you might let us take Fabien and see if a Cardinal CAN do +anything," he said with a kind of judicial air, as of one who, though +considering the case hopeless, had no objection to try a last desperate +remedy. "This one is a very old man, and he must know a good deal. He +could not do any harm. And I am sure Babette would like to find out if +there is any use at all in a Cardinal. I should like it too. You see we +went into Notre Dame last night,--Babette and I,--and everything was +dark,--all the candles were out at Our Lady's statue--and we had only +ten centimes between us. And the candles are ten centimes each. So we +could only light one. But we lit that one, and said an Ave for Fabien. +And the candle was all by itself in the Cathedral. And now I think we +ought to take him to the Cardinal." + +Martine shook her head, pursed up her lips, and knitted more violently +than ever. + +"It is all no use--no use!" she muttered--"There is no God,--or if +there is, He must be deaf as well as blind!" + +But here suddenly the weak plaintive voice of Fabien himself piped out-- + +"Oh, mother, let me go!" + +Martine looked down at him. + +"Let thee go? To see the Cardinal? Why he is nought but an old man, +child, as helpless as any of us. What dost thou think he can do for +thee?" + +"Nothing!" and the boy clambered up on his crutch, and stood +appealingly before his mother, his fair curls blowing back in the +breeze,--"But I SHOULD like to see him. Oh, do let me go!" + +Babette caught him by the hand. + +"Yes, oh yes, Martine!" she exclaimed--"Let him come with us!" + +Martine hesitated a moment longer, but she could never altogether +resist an imploring look in her boy's eyes, or refuse any request he +made of her,--and gradually the hard lines of her mouth relaxed into a +half smile. Babette at once perceived this, and eagerly accepted it as +a sign that she had gained her point. + +"Come, Fabien!" she exclaimed delightedly--"Thy mother says yes! We +will not be long gone, Martine! And perhaps we will bring him home +quite well!" + +Martine shook her head sorrowfully, and paused for a while in her +knitting to watch the three children crossing the market-place +together, Henri supporting her little son on one side, Babette on the +other, both carefully aiding his slow and halting movements over the +rough cobbles of the uneven pavement. Then as they all turned a corner +and disappeared, she sighed, and a couple of bright tears splashed down +on her knitting. But the next moment her eyes were as bold and keen and +defiant as ever while she stood up to attend to two or three customers +who just then approached her stall, and her voice was as shrill and +sharp as any woman's voice could be in the noisy business of driving a +bargain. Having disposed of three or four fat geese and fowls at a good +profit, she chinked and counted the money in her apron pockets, hummed +a tune, and looked up at the genial sky with an expression of disfavour. + +"Oh, yes, 'tis a fine day!" she muttered,--"And the heavens look as if +the saints lived in them;--but by and by the clouds will come, and the +cold!--the sleet, the snow, the frost and the bitterness of +winter!--and honest folk will starve while thieves make a good +living!--that is the way the wise God arranges things in this world." + +She gave a short laugh of scorn, and resumed the clicking of her +needles, not raising her eyes from her work even when her neighbour, +the old woman who sold vegetables at the next stall, ventured to +address her. + +"Where is thy unfortunate boy gone to, Martine?" she enquired,--"Is it +wise to let him be with the Patoux children? They are strong and quick +and full of mischief,--they might do him fresh injury in play without +meaning it." + +"I will trust them," answered Martine curtly,--"They have taken him to +see a Cardinal." + +"A Cardinal!" and the old woman craned her withered neck forward in +amazement and began to laugh feebly,--"Nom de Jesus! That is strange! +What does the Cardinal want with him?" + +"Nothing," said Martine gruffly--"It seems that he is an old man who is +kind to children, and the girl Babette has a fancy to get his blessing +for my Fabien,--that is all." + +"And that is little enough," responded the old vegetable-vendor, still +laughing, or rather chuckling hoarsely--"A blessing is not worth much +nowadays, is it Martine? It never puts an extra ounce of meat in the +pot-au-feu,--and yet it is all one gets out of the priests for all the +prayers and the praise. Last time I went to confession I accused myself +of the sin of envy. I said 'Look here, my father, I am a widow and very +old; and I have rheumatism in all my bones, and I have only a bit of +matting to sleep on at home, and if I have a bad day with the market I +can buy no food. And there is a woman living near me who has a warm +house, with a stove in it,--and blankets to cover her, and a bit of +money put by, and I envy her her blankets and her stove and her house +and her money. Is that a sin?' And he said it was a sin; but that he +would absolve me from it if I said ten Paters and ten Aves before Our +Lady of Bon-Secours. And then he gave me his blessing,--but no blankets +and no stove and no money. And I have not said ten Paters and Aves yet, +because my bones have ached too much all the week for me to walk up the +hill to Bon-Secours. And the blessing has been no use to me at all." + +"Nor is it likely to be!" scoffed Martine--"I thought you had given up +all that Church-nonsense long ago." + +"Nay--nay--not altogether,"--murmured the old woman timidly--"I am very +old,--and one never knows--there may be truth in some of it. It is the +burning and the roasting in hell that I think of,--you know that is +very likely to happen, Martine!--because you see, in this life we have +nothing but trouble,--so whoever made us must like to see us +suffering;--it must be a pleasure to God, and so it is sure to go on +and on always. And I am afraid!--and if a candle now and then to St. +Joseph would help matters, I am not the one to grudge it,--it is better +to burn a candle than burn one's self!" + +Martine laughed loudly, but made no answer. She could not waste her +time arguing against the ridiculous superstitions of an old creature +who was so steeped in ignorance as to think that a votive candle could +rescue her soul from a possible hell. She went on knitting in silence +till a sudden shadow came between her and the sunlight, and a girl's +voice, harsh, yet with a certain broken sweetness in it, said-- + +"A fine morning's killing, aye! All their necks wrung,--all dead birds! +Once they could fly--fly and swim! Fly and swim! All dead now--and sold +cheap in the open market!" + +A shrill laugh finished this outburst, but Martine knew who it was that +spoke, and maintained her equanimity. + +"Is that you again, Marguerite?" she said, not unkindly--"You will tire +yourself to death wandering about the streets all day." + +Marguerite Valmond, "la folle" as she was called by the townsfolk, +shook her head and smiled cunningly. She was a tall girl, with black +hair disordered and falling loosely about her pale face,--her eyes were +dark and lustrous, but wild, and with a hunted expression in them,--and +her dress was composed of the strangest remnants of oddly assorted +materials and colours pinned about her without any order or symmetry, +the very idea of decent clothing being hardly considered, as her bosom +was half exposed and her legs were bare. She wore no head-covering, and +her whole aspect was that of one who had suddenly awakened from a +hideous dream and was striving to forget its horrors. + +"I shall never be tired!" she said--"If I could be tired I should +sleep,--but I never sleep! I am looking for HIM, you know!--it was at +the fair I lost him--you remember the great fair? And when I find him I +shall kill him! It is quite easy to kill--you take a sharp glittering +thing, so!" and she snatched up a knife that lay on Martine's +counter--"And you plunge it--so!" and she struck it down with singular +fury through the breast of one of the "dead birds" which were Martine's +stock-in-trade. Then she threw the knife on the ground--rubbed her +hands together, tossed her head, and laughed again--"That is how I +shall do it when I meet him!" + +Martine said nothing. She simply removed the one stabbed bird from +among the others, and setting it aside, picked up the knife from the +ground and went on knitting as calmly as ever. + +"I am going to see the Archbishop," proceeded Marguerite, tossing back +her dishevelled locks and making one or two fantastic dance-steps as +she spoke--"The great Archbishop of this wonderful city of Rouen! I +want to ask him how it happened that God made men. It was a mistake +which He must be sorry for! The Archbishop knows everything;--he will +tell me about it. Ah!--what a beautiful mistake is the Archbishop +himself!--and how soon women find it out! Bon jour, Martine!" + +"Bon jour, Marguerite!" responded Martine quietly. + +Singing to herself, the crazed girl sauntered off. Several of the +market women looked after her. + +"She killed her child, they say," muttered the old +vegetable-seller--"But no one knows--" + +"Sh--sh--sh!" hissed Martine angrily--"What one does not know one +should not say. Mayhap there never was a child at all. Whatever the +wrong was, she has suffered for it;--and if the man who led her astray +ever comes nigh her, his life is not worth a centime." + +"Rough justice!" said one of the market porters, who had just paused +close by to light his pipe. + +"Aye, rough justice!" echoed Martine--"When justice is not given to the +people, the people take it for themselves! And if a man deals ill by a +woman, he has murdered her as surely as if he had put a knife through +her;--and 'tis but even payment when he gets the knife into himself. +Things in this life are too easy for men and too hard for women; men +make the laws for their own convenience, and never a thought of us at +all in the making. They are a selfish lot!" + +The porter laughed carelessly, and having lit his pipe to his +satisfaction went his way. + +A great many more customers now came to Martine's stall, and for +upwards of an hour there was shrill argument and driving of bargains +till she had pretty well cleared her counter of all its stock. Then she +sat down again and looked to right and left of the market-place for any +sign of the Patoux children returning with her little son, but there +was not a glimpse of them anywhere. + +"I wonder what they are doing!" she thought--"And I wonder what sort of +a Cardinal it is they have taken the child to see! These great princes +of the Church care nothing for the poor,--the very Pope allows half +Italy to starve while he shuts himself up with his treasures in the +Vatican;--what should a great Cardinal care for my poor little Fabien! +If the stories of the Christ were true, and one could only take the +child to Him, then indeed there might be a chance of cure!--but it is +all a lie,--and the worst of the lie is that it would give us all so +much comfort and happiness if it were only true! It is like holding out +a rope to a drowning man and snatching it away again. And when the rope +goes, the sooner one sinks under the waves the better!" + + + + +VI. + +The Cardinal was still in his room alone with the boy Manuel, when +Madame Patoux, standing at her door under the waving tendrils of the +"creeping jenny" and shading her eyes from the radiance of the sun, saw +her children approaching with Fabien Doucet between them. + +"Little wretches that they are!" she murmured--"Once let them get an +idea into their heads and nothing will knock it out! Now I shall have +to tell Monseigneur that they are here,--what an impertinence it +seems!--and yet he is so gentle, and has such a good heart that perhaps +he will not mind . . ." + +Here she broke off her soliloquy as the children came up, Babette +eagerly demanding to know where the Cardinal was. Madame Patoux set her +arms akimbo and surveyed the little group of three half-pityingly, half +derisively. + +"The Cardinal has not left his room since breakfast," she answered--"He +is playing Providence already to a poor lad lost in the streets, and +for that matter lost in the world, without father or mother to look +after him,--he was found in Notre Dame last night,--" + +"Why, mother," interrupted Henri--"how could a boy get into Notre Dame +last night? When Babette and I went there, nobody was in the church at +all,--and we left one candle burning all alone in the darkness,--and +when we came out the Suisse swore at us for having gone in, and then +locked the door." + +"Well, if one must be so exact, the boy was not found actually in Notre +Dame, obstinate child," returned his mother impatiently--"It happened +at midnight,--the good Cardinal heard someone crying and went to see +who it was. And he found a poor boy outside the Cathedral weeping as if +his heart were breaking, and leaning his head against the hard door for +a pillow. And he brought him back and gave him his own bed to sleep +in;--and the lad is with him now." + +Little Fabien Doucet, leaning on his crutch, looked up with interest. + +"Is he lame like me?" he asked. + +"No, child," replied Madame compassionately--"He is straight and +strong. In truth a very pretty boy." + +Fabien sighed. Babette made a dash forward. + +"I will go and see him!" she said--"And I will call Monseigneur." + +"Babette! How dare you! Babette!" + +But Babette had scurried defiantly past her mother, and breathless with +a sense of excitement and disobedience intermingled, had burst into the +Cardinal's room without knocking. There on the threshold she +paused,--somewhat afraid at her own boldness,--and startled too at the +sight of Manuel, who was seated near the window opposite the Cardinal, +and who turned his deep blue eyes upon her with a look of enquiry. The +Cardinal himself rose and turned to greet her, and as the wilful little +maid met his encouraging glance and noted the benign sweetness of his +expression she trembled,--and losing nerve, began to cry. + +"Monseigneur . . . Monseigneur . . ." she stammered. + +"Yes, my child,--what is it?" said the Cardinal kindly--"Do not be +afraid,--I am at your service. You have brought the little friend you +spoke to me of yesterday?" + +Babette peeped shyly at him through her tears, and drooping her head, +answered with a somewhat smothered "Yes." + +"That is well,--I will go to him at once,"--and the Cardinal paused a +moment looking at Manuel, who as if responding to his unuttered wish, +rose and approached him--"And you, Manuel--you will also come. You see, +my child," went on the good prelate addressing Babette, the while he +laid a gently caressing hand on her hair--"Another little friend has +come to me who is also very sad,--and though he is not crippled or ill, +he is all alone in the world, which is, for one so young, a great +hardship. You must be sorry for him too, as well as for your own poor +playmate." + +But Babette was seized with an extraordinary timidity, and had much ado +to keep back the tears that rose in her throat and threatened to break +out in a burst of convulsive sobbing. She did not know in the least +what was the matter with her,--she was only conscious of an immense +confusion and shyness which were quite new to her ordinarily bold and +careless nature. Manuel's face frightened yet fascinated her; he +looked, she thought, like the beautiful angel of the famous stained +glass "Annunciation" window in the crumbling old church of St. Maclou. +She dared not speak to him,--she could only steal furtive glances at +him from under the curling length of her dark tear-wet lashes,--and +when the Cardinal took her by the hand and descended the staircase with +her to the passage where the crippled Fabien waited, she could not +forbear glancing back every now and then over her shoulder at the +slight, supple, almost aerial figure of the boy, who, noiselessly, and +with a light gliding step, followed. And now Madame Patoux came +forward;--a bulky, anxious figure of gesticulation and apology. + +"Alas, Monseigneur!" she began plaintively--"It is too shameful that +your quiet should be disturbed in this way, but if you could only know +the obstinacy of these children! Ah yes!--if you knew all, you would +pity their parents!--you would indeed! And this is the unhappy little +creature they have brought to you, Monseigneur,--a sad sight +truly!--and afflicted sorely by the will of God,--though one could +hardly say that God was anywhere about when he fell, poor baby, from +his mother's cart and twisted his body awry,--one would rather think +the devil was in the business, asking your pardon, Monseigneur; for +surely the turning of a human creature into a useless lump has little +of good, or divine kindness in it! Now make thy best bow to the +Cardinal," went on Madame with a gasp for breath in her voluble speech, +addressing the little cripple--"And it is a pity them hast no time to +confess thy sins and take the Sacrament before so holy a man lay hands +on thee!" + +But at these words Cardinal Bonpre turned to her with a reproving +gesture. + +"I pray you do not call me holy, my daughter," he said earnestly, the +old shadows of pain and prote gathering in his eyes, "Nothing can make +me more sorrowful than to hear such an epithet applied to one who is so +full of errors and sins as myself. Try to look upon me just as I +am,--merely an old man, nearing the grave, with nothing of merit in me +beyond the desire to serve our Lord and obey His commands,--a desire +which is far stronger than the practical force to obey it. Much that I +would do I cannot; and in much that I attempt I fail. Come to me, my +child." + +Here, interrupting himself, he bent down, and putting his arms tenderly +round Fabien, lifted him bodily, crutch and all, and carried him into +the next room, and as he did so, the young Manuel glided in before him, +and stood beside his chair, his blue eyes shining with a soft and eager +light of interest, and a little smile lifting the delicate upper curve +of his lips as he looked on. Fabien meanwhile, perched on the +Cardinal's knee, and held close in the Cardinal's arms, was not at all +frightened,--he simply sat, contented, gazing up confidingly at the +pale venerable face above him. Henri and Babette, having as they +considered, got their way, stayed at the door half afraid to enter, and +their mother peered over their heads at the little scene in mingled awe +and curiosity. + +"My poor child," then said the Cardinal gently--"I want you to +understand quite clearly how sorry I am for you, and how willingly I +would do anything in the world to make you a strong, well, and happy +boy. But you must not fancy that I can cure you. I told your little +friends yesterday that I was not a saint, such as you read about in +story-books,--and that I could not work miracles, because I am not +worthy to be so filled with the Divine Spirit as to heal with a touch +like the better servants of our Blessed Lord. Nevertheless I firmly +believe that if God saw that it was good for you to be strong and well, +He would find ways to make you so. Sometimes sickness and sorrow are +sent to us for our advantage,--sometimes even death comes to us for our +larger benefit, though we may not understand how it is so till +afterwards. But in Heaven everything will be made clear; and even our +griefs will be turned into joys,--do you understand?" + +"Yes," murmured Fabien gravely, but two large tears welled up in his +plaintive eyes as the faint glimmer of hope he had encouraged as to the +possibility of his being miraculously cured by the touch of a saintly +Cardinal, expired in the lonely darkness of his little afflicted soul. + +"That is well," continued the Cardinal kindly--"And now, since it is so +difficult for you to kneel, you shall stay where you are in my +arms,--so!"--and he set him on his knee in a position of even greater +comfort than before, "You shall simply shut your eyes, and clasp your +little hands together as I put them here,"--and as he spoke he crossed +the child's hands on his silver crucifix-"And I will ask our Lord to +come and make you well,--for of myself I can do nothing." + +At these words Henri and Babette glanced at each other questioningly, +and then as if simultaneously moved by some inexplicable emotion, +dropped on their knees,--their mother, too stout and unwieldy to do +this with either noiselessness or satisfaction to herself, was +contented to bend her head as low as she could get it. Manuel remained +standing. Leaning against the Cardinal's chair, his eyes fixed on the +crippled Fabien, he had the aspect of a young Angel of compassion, +whose sole immortal desire was to lift the burden of sorrow and pain +from the lives of suffering humanity. And after a minute or two passed +in silent meditation, the Cardinal laid his hands tenderly on Fabien's +fair curly head and prayed aloud. + +"Oh merciful Christ! Most pitying and gentle Redeemer!--to Whom in the +days of Thy sacred life on earth, the sick and suffering and lame and +blind were brought, and never sent away unhealed or uncomforted; +consider, we beseech Thee, the sufferings of this Thy little child, +deprived of all the joys which Thou hast made so sweet for those who +are strong and straight in their youth, and who have no ailment to +depress their courage or to quench the ardour of their aspiring souls. +Look compassionately upon him, oh gentle King and Master of all such +children!--and even as Thou wert a child Thyself, be pleased to heal +him of his sad infirmity. For, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make this bent +body straight and these withered muscles strong,--from death itself +Thou canst ordain life, and nothing is impossible to Thee! But above +all things, gracious Saviour, we do pray Thee so to lift and strengthen +this child's soul, that if it is destined he should still be called +upon to bear his present pain and trouble, grant to him such perfection +in his inward spirit that he may prove worthy to be counted among Thy +angels in the bright Hereafter. To Thy care, and to Thy comfort, and to +Thy healing, great Master, we commend him, trusting him entirely to Thy +mercy, with perfect resignation to Thy Divine Will. For the sake and +memory of Thy most holy childhood mercifully help and bless this child! +Amen!" + +A deep silence ensued. Only the slow ticking of the big old-fashioned +clock in Madame Patoux's kitchen, which was next door to the room they +were all in, could be distinctly heard. Henri and Babette were the +first to stir. They got up from their knees, brushed the dust of the +floor from their clothes, and stared curiously at Fabien. Was a miracle +going to happen? Fabien, however--still resting against the Cardinal's +breast, with his meagre little hands clasped tight on the Cardinal's +crucifix, kept his eyes solemnly shut and gave no sign, till the +Cardinal himself gently moved him and set him down. Then he glanced +around him bewilderingly, tottered, and would have fallen had he not +been given his little crutch for support. Very pathetic was the smile +which then quivered on his pale lips,--very doleful was the shake of +his head as he prepared to hobble away. + +"Thank you very much, Monseigneur," he murmured gently--"I felt almost +cured while you were praying,--but I am afraid it is no use! You see +there are so many miserable people in the world,--many cripples, +too,--I am not the only one. Our Lord must have enough to do if He is +asked to heal them all! But I am sure you have done everything you can +for me, and I am grateful to you, Monseigneur. Good-bye!" + +"Good-bye, my child!" and the Cardinal, strongly moved by the sight of +the little helpless twisted figure, and painfully impressed too by the +sense of his own entire powerlessness to remove the cause of the +trouble, bent down and kissed him--"Believe me, if the giving of my own +life could make you strong, you should have that life willingly. May +God bless and heal you!" + +At that moment Manuel moved from the place he had kept near the +Cardinal's chair. With a light, eager step forward, he went up to the +little cripple, and putting his arms round him kissed him on the +forehead. + +"Good-bye, dear little brother!" he said smiling--"Do not be sad! Have +patience! In all the universe, among all the millions and millions of +worlds, there is never a pure and unselfish prayer that the great good +God does not answer! Be sure of that! Take courage, dear little +brother! You will soon be well!" + +Fabien stared, half amazed, at the gentle young face that shone upon +him with such an expression of hope and tenderness. + +"You are very kind," he said--"And you are just a boy yourself,--so you +can perhaps guess how it must feel not to be like other boys who can +run and leap and walk for miles and miles through the fields and the +green shady forests where the birds sing,--and where there is so much +to see and think about,--when one is lame one cannot go far you +know--and then there is my mother--she is very sad about me,--and it +will be hard for her if I live to be a man and still can do nothing to +help her . . ." + +His weak voice broke, and two large tears filled his eyes and brimmed +over, trickling slowly down his pale cheeks. Manuel took his hand and +pressed it encouragingly. + +"Do not cry!" he said gently--"Believe in what I say--that you will +soon be quite well. The Cardinal has prayed for you as only good men +CAN pray,--without one selfish thought, in faith and deep +humility,--such prayers draw angels down! Be patient--be brave! Believe +in the best and the best will come!" + +His words rang out with a sweet convincing clearness, and even Cardinal +Bonpre felt a sense of comfort as he listened. The little cripple +smiled through his tears. + +"Oh, yes," he murmured--"I WILL hope and I WILL believe! I am always +sure God is near us, though my mother thinks He must be very far away. +Yes,--I will be as brave as I can. You are very good to me,--I know you +understand just how I feel, and I thank you very much. I hope you will +be happy yourself some day. Good-bye!" Then, turning to Henri and +Babette he asked, "Shall we go now?" + +Henri's brows were drawn together in a dark frown. + +"I suppose so," he replied--"I suppose there's nothing more to be +done?" This, with a somewhat sarcastic air of inquiry directed at the +Cardinal, who met his bold bright glance, mildly and half +compassionately. + +"Nothing more my child"--he answered--"Did you expect a miracle? I told +you from the first that I was no saint,--I can do no good unless our +Lord wills it." + +"The Pope believes in miracles"--said Henri, flushing as he spoke with +the heat of a sudden angry emotion--"But only those that are performed +on his own behalf! HE thinks that God's chief business is to look after +HIM!" + +A silence ensued,--whether of horror or embarrassment could hardly be +determined. The Cardinal said nothing,--Babette trembled a +little,--what a dreadful boy Henri really was, she thought!--Madame +Patoux shut up her eyes in horror, crossed herself devoutly as against +some evil spirit, and was about to speak, when Henri, nothing daunted, +threw himself into the breach again, and turned with a fiery vehemence +of appeal towards the young and thoughtful-looking Manuel. + +"It's just as I say!" he declared hotly--"The Pope is taken as much +care of as if he were a peach wrapped in wadding! Was Christ taken care +of? No,--He suffered all sorts of hardships and at last was crucified! +The Pope shuts himself up in the Vatican with millions and millions of +money's worth, while thousands of people around him in Italy alone, are +starving and miserable. Christ would not allow such a thing. Christ +said 'Sell half that thou hast and give to the poor'--now the Pope +doesn't sell half, nor a quarter, nor a bit of a quarter! He takes all +he can get and keeps it! And yet God is supposed to work miracles for +an old man like that!--Oh I know all about it! Boys read the newspapers +as well as grown men!" + +"Henri!" gasped Madame Patoux, extending her fat arm and hand with a +solemn gesture of reproach--"Henri, thou art mad . . . wicked . . ." + +But Henri went on unheedingly, still addressing Manuel. + +"Now you are a boy, and I daresay you can read and think,--you are +about my age I suppose. And you are left all alone in the world, with +nobody to care for you,--well, do you think that is well-arranged?--And +do you think there is any sense in believing in a God who does such a +lot of cruel things? And when He won't help us ever so little? How can +people be good if they keep on praying and praying, and hoping and +hoping, and working and working--and yet nothing comes of it all but +trouble and pain and loss . . ." He stopped for sheer lack of breath to +go on. + +Manuel looked at him quietly, full in the eyes. + +"Yes, it is hard!" he said--"Very hard! But it is not God who does any +cruel thing. God is Love,--and the Spirit of Love cannot be cruel. It +is the people of the world themselves,--the people who injure each +other in thought, word and deed,--and who have no spirit of love in +them,--these invite sorrow and pain, and rush upon misfortune. Then +they blame God for it! Ah, it is easy to blame God!--so much easier +than to blame one's self! And if you ask me if it is well for those who +suffer cruel things to still believe in God, I say yes, I do think it +well,--for it is the only chance they have of finding the right way of +life after much wandering in the wrong." + +His sweet voice fell on the silence like a soft chime, and Henri, for +no particular reason that he could give, felt suddenly abashed. +Cardinal Bonpre listened to the words of this strange foundling with a +singular emotion,--an emotion too deep to find any outlet in speech. +Babette raised her brown trustful eyes, and timidly ventured to put in +her opinion. + +"Yes"--she said--"I am sure that is true. You see Henri"--with a wise +glance at her brother--"you see it is always the same,--when anyone +suffers something unfortunate, there is certain to be some cause for +it. Now everybody says that if poor Martine had not put Fabien in the +cart to save herself the trouble of holding him on her knee, he would +not have tumbled out and been hurt. That was the beginning of it. And +that was not God's fault. Come Fabien!--we'll take you back now." + +At this, Madame Patoux started from her stricken condition of horrified +dumbness into speech and action. + +"Ah yes, it is indeed time!" she exclaimed--"Enough trouble has been +given, I am sure, to Monseigneur, and if such a prayer as his does not +reach Heaven, why then there is no Heaven at all, and it is no good +bothering ourselves about it. And what things have been said by my +son!--MY son!--against the Holy Father! Ah, mon Dieu! The wickedness of +it!--The horror! And if thou learnest such blasphemy from newspapers, +Henri, thou shalt not read them--" + +"Who is to prevent me?" demanded Henri, his eyes sparkling defiantly. + +"Hush--hush my child!" interposed the Cardinal quietly "Nothing indeed +can prevent thee,--no one can hinder thee from walking the world +according to thine own will and direction. Thou must take good and evil +as they come, and strive thy best to discern between them--and if the +love of God cannot help thee--well!--perchance the love of thy mother +may!" + +There was a pause. Henri's head drooped, and quick tears filled his +eyes. He said nothing further, but turned to assist Babette in guiding +the little Fabien's hesitating steps as he hobbled from the room. The +emotional Madame Patoux choked back a rising sob. + +"God bless you Monseigneur!" she murmured--"Henri will not forget those +words--the lad has a hasty temper, but a good heart--yes, believe me--a +good heart--" + +"That I am sure of"--responded the Cardinal--"He is quick and +intelligent--and seeks to know the truth. If he could feel an asserted +'truth' to be really true, I am confident he would frame his life upon +it, and be a good, brave man. Yes--he is a clever lad,--and our modern +system of education pushes the brain to a precocity exceeding bodily +years,--his impatience and anger only come from puzzling over what he +finds it difficult to understand. It is all a puzzle to him--all a +puzzle!--as it is to most of us!" He sighed--then added in a lighter +tone--"I shall want nothing more at your kindly hands, my daughter. I +have decided to leave Rouen for Paris to-day and will take an early +afternoon train. Manuel"--and he hesitated a moment--"Manuel will go +with me." + +Madame was scarcely surprised at this announcement. She had indeed +expected it. She glanced at Manuel himself to see how he accepted this +sudden change in his fortunes, but he was entirely absorbed in watching +Henri and Babette lead their little crippled friend away. After all, +there was nothing to be said. The Cardinal was a free agent,--he had a +perfect right to befriend a homeless boy and give him sustenance and +protection if he chose. He would make, thought Madame, a perfect +acolyte, and would look like a young angel in his little white +surplice. And so the good woman, deciding in her own mind that such was +the simple destiny for which the Cardinal intended him, smiled, +murmured something deferential and approving, and hastened from the +room, to prepare for Monseigneur, whether he asked for it or not, a +dish of her most excellent soup, to strengthen and support him before +starting on his journey. And ere four o'clock had chimed from all the +towers of the city, the Hotel Poitiers was deprived of its honoured +guest,--the Cardinal, accompanied by his foundling, had departed, and +the black, smoky, snake-like train had rushed with them through the +smiling peace of the Normandy pasture-lands on towards the brilliant +"city enthroned in wickedness," which sparkles like a jewel on the +borders of the Seine as gloriously as ever Babylon sparkled on the +shores of Euphrates. As godless, as hollow to the very core of +rottenness, as her sister of ancient days, wanton "Lutetia" +shines,--with the ghastly and unnatural lustre of phosphorescent +luminance arising from old graves--and as divinely determined as the +destruction of the old-time city splendid, is the approaching downfall +of the modern capital. To the inhabitants of Rouen, the very name of +Paris carries with it a kind of awe,--it excites various emotions of +wonder, admiration, longing, curiosity and even fear,--for Paris is a +witches' cauldron in which Republicanism, Imperialism, Royalism, +Communism and Socialism, are all thrown by the Fates to seethe together +in a hellish broth of conflicting elements--and the smoke of it ascends +in reeking blasphemy to Heaven. Not from its church-altars does the cry +of "How long, O Lord, how long!" ascend nowadays,--for its priests are +more skilled in the use of the witty bon-mot or the polished sneer than +in the power of the prophet's appeal,--it is from the Courts of Science +that the warning note of terror sounds,--the cold vast courts where +reasoning thinkers wander, and learn, and deeply meditate, knowing that +all their researches but go to prove the fact that apart from all creed +and all forms of creed, Crime carries Punishment as surely as the seed +is born with the flower,--thinkers who are fully aware that not all the +forces of all mankind, working with herculean insistence to support a +Lie, can drive back the storm-cloud of the wrath of that "Unknown +Quantity" called God, whose thunders do most terribly declare the truth +"with power and great glory." "How long O Lord, how long!" Not long, we +think, O friends!--not long now shall we wait for the Divine +Pronouncement of the End. Hints of it are in the air,--signs and +portents of it are about us in our almost terrific discoveries of the +invisible forces of Light and Sound,--we are not given such tremendous +powers to play with in our puny fashion for the convenience of making +our brief lives easier to live and more interesting,--no, there is some +deeper reason,--one, which in our heedless way of dancing over our own +Earth-grave, we never dream of. And we go on making our little plans, +building our ships and making loud brags of our armies, and our skill, +and our prowess both by land and sea, and our amazing importance to +ourselves and to others,--which importance has reached such a height at +the present day as to make of us a veritable spectacle for Olympian +laughter,--and we draw out our little sums of life from the Eternal +exchequer, and add them up and try to obtain the highest interest for +them, always forgetting to calculate that in making up the sum total, +that mysterious "Unknown Quantity" will have to come in, and (un less +it has been taken into due counting from the first) will be a figure +likely to swamp the whole banking business. And in this particular +phase of speculation and exchange, Paris has long been playing a losing +game. So steadily has she lost, in honour, in prestige, in faith, in +morals, in justice, in honesty and in cleanly living, that it does not +seem possible she can ever retrieve herself. Her men are +dissolute,--her women shameless--her youth of both sexes depraved,--her +laws are corrupt--her arts de cadent--her religion dead. What next can +be expected of her?--or rather to what extent will Destiny permit her +to go before the bolt of destruction falls? "Thus far, and no farther" +has ever been the Principle of Nature--and Paris has almost touched the +"Thus far." + +Sitting quietly in her tidy kitchen near the open window, after the +Cardinal's departure, Madame Patoux knitted busily, her thoughts flying +faster than her glittering needles. A certain vague impression of +solemnity had been left on her mind by the events of the morning,--she +could not quite reason out the why or the wherefore of it--and yet--it +was a fact that after Monseigneur had gone, she had, when entering the +rooms he had vacated, felt a singular sense of awe. + +"Almost as if one were in the Cathedral at the ringing of the +'Sanctus'" she murmured under her breath, glancing about timidly at the +plain furniture and bare walls. And after putting everything in order, +she closed and locked the doors jealously, with a determination that +she would not let those rooms to the first chance-comer for a long +time,--no, though she might have to lose money by her refusal. And now, +as she sat actively employed in knitting socks for Henri, whom she +could see sitting with his sister outside on the bench under the house +porch, reading or pretending to read, she began to wonder what opinion +those two young miscreants had formed in their minds respecting the +Cardinal, and also what they thought of the boy who had been taken so +suddenly under his protection. She was almost tempted to call Henri and +ask him a few questions on the subject,--but she had learnt to value +peace and quietness when she could secure those rare blessings at the +hands of her children, and when they were employed with a book and +visibly out of mischief she thought it wisest to leave them alone. And +so she left them in the present instance, pushing her window open as +she sat and knitted, for the air was warm and balmy, and the long rays +of sunshine streaming across the square were of the hue of a ripe +nectarine just gathered, and the delicate mouldings and traceries and +statues on the porch of the Cathedral appeared like so many twinings of +grey gossamer web glistening in a haze of gold. Now and then neighbours +passed, and nodded or called a greeting which Madame Patoux answered +cheerily, still knitting vivaciously; and the long shafts of sunshine +grew longer, casting deeper shadows as the quarters chimed. All at once +there was a cry,--a woman's figure came rushing precipitately across +the square,--Madame Patoux sprang up, and her children ran out of the +porch as they recognised Martine Doucet. + +"Martine! Martine! What is it!" they all cried simultaneously. + +Martine, breathless, dishevelled, laughing and sobbing alternately, +tried to speak, but could only gesticulate and throw up her hands in a +kind of ecstasy, but whether of despair or joy could not be guessed. +Madame Patoux shook her by the arm. + +"Martine!--speak--what is it!" + +Martine made a violent effort. + +"Fabien!--Fabien--" she gasped, flinging herself to and fro and still +sobbing and laughing. + +"Mon Dieu!" cried Madame in horror. "Is the child dead?" + +"No, no!--" and Martine again tossed her arms aloft in a kind of +frenzy. "No--but look you!--there IS a God! Yes!--we thought He was an +invention of the priests--but no--He is a real God after all!--Oh mes +enfants!" and she tried to grasp the amazed Henri and Babette in her +arms, "You are two of His angels!--you took my boy to the Cardinal--" + +The children glanced at each other. + +"Yes--yes!" they murmured breathlessly. + +"Well! and see what has happened!--See!--Here comes Fabien--!" + +And as she spoke exultantly with an excitement that seemed to inspire +every nerve of her body, a little figure came running lightly towards +them,--the light strong figure of a boy with fair curls flying in the +wind, and a face in which the large, grey, astonished eyes flashed with +an almost divine joy. + +"Mother!--Mother!" he cried. + +Madame Patoux felt as though the heavens had suddenly opened to let the +angels down. Was this Fabien? Fabien, who had hobbled painfully upon +crutches all his life, and had left her house in his usual condition an +hour or so ago?--This straight-limbed child, running with the graceful +and easy movement of a creature who had never known a day's pain? + +"Fabien, is it thou?" almost screamed Henri, "Speak, is it thou?" + +"It is I" said Fabien, and he stopped, panting for breath,--then threw +his arms round his mother's neck and faced them,--"It is I--strong and +well!--thanks to God and the prayers of the Cardinal!" + +For a moment there was a dead silence,--a silence of stupefied +amazement unbroken save by the joyful weeping of Martine. Then suddenly +a deep-toned bell rang from the topmost tower of Notre Dame--and in the +flame-red of the falling sun the doves that make their homes among the +pinnacles of the great Cathedral, rose floating in cloudy circles +towards the sky. One bell--and then another--yet another!-- + +"The Angelus!" cried Babette dropping on her knees and folding her +hands, "The Angelus!--Mother--Martine--Henri!--Fabien!--the Angelus!"-- + +Down they all knelt, a devotional group, in the porch through which the +good Cardinal had so lately passed, and the bells chimed sweetly and +melodiously as Fabien reverently repeated the Angelic Salutation amid +responses made with tears and thanksgiving, and neighbours and townfolk +hearing of the miracle came hastening to the Hotel Poitiers to enquire +into its truth, and pausing as they saw the cluster of kneeling figures +in the porch instinctively and without question knelt also,--then as +the news spread, group after group came running and gathering together, +and dropping on their knees amazed and awe-struck, till the broad +Square showed but one black mass of a worshipping congregation under +the roseate sky, their voices joining in unison with the clear accents +of one little happy child; while behind them rose the towers of Notre +Dame, and over their heads the white doves flew and the bells of the +Angelus rang. And the sun dropped slowly into the west, crimson and +glorious like the shining rim of a Sacramental Cup held out and then +drawn slowly back again by angel hands within the Veil of Heaven. + + + + +VII. + +Meanwhile, unconscious of the miracle his prayer had wrought, Cardinal +Bonpre and his young charge Manuel, arrived in Paris, and drove from +the station direct to a house situated near the Bois du Boulogne, where +the Cardinal's niece, Angela Sovrani, only daughter of Prince Sovrani, +and herself famous throughout Europe as a painter of the highest +promise, had a suite of rooms and studio, reserved for her occasional +visits to the French capital. Angela Sovrani was a rare type of her +sex,--unlike any other woman in the world, so those who knew her best +were wont to declare. Without being actually beautiful, according to +the accepted lines and canons of physical perfection, she created +around her an effect of beauty, which was dazzling and exciting to a +singular degree,--people who came once within the charmed circle of her +influence could never forget her, and always spoke of her afterwards as +a creature apart;--a "woman of genius,--yes!"--they said, "But +something more even than that." And this "something more," was just the +inexplicable part of her which governed her whole being, and rendered +her so indescribably attractive. And she was not without beauty--or +perhaps it should be termed loveliness rather,--of an exquisitely +suggestive kind, which provoked the beholder into questioning where and +how the glamour of it fell. In her eyes, perhaps, the secret lay,--they +were violet-grey in hue, and drowsy-lidded, with long lashes that swept +the delicate pale cheeks in a dark golden fringe of shadow, through +which the sparkle of vision gleamed,--now warningly, now tenderly,--and +anon, these same half-shut and deep fringed lids would open wide, +letting the full brilliance of the soul behind the eyes pour forth its +luminance, in flashes of such lightning-like clearness and compelling +force, that it was impossible not to recognise something higher than +mere woman in the dazzle of that spiritual glory. In figure she was +wonderfully slight,--so slight indeed that she suggested a delicate +willow-withe such as can be bent and curved with one hand--yet this +slightness stood her in good stead, for being united with extreme +suppleness, it gave her a grace of movement resembling that of some +skimming mountain bird or sea-swallow, which flies with amazing +swiftness yet seeming slowness. Angela never moved quickly,--no one had +ever seen her in what is termed a "rush," or a vulgar hurry. She did +everything she had to do without haste, without noise, without +announcement or assertion of any kind;--and all that she did was done +as perfectly as her ability could warrant. And that ability was very +great indeed, and displayed itself in small details as well as large +attempts. Whether she merely twisted her golden-brown hair into a knot, +or tied a few flowers together and fastened them on her dress with a +pearl pin, either thing was perfectly done--without a false line or a +discordant hue. Her face, form, voice and colouring were like a chord +of music, harmonious,--and hence the impression of satisfaction and +composure her presence always gave. In herself she was a creature of +remarkable temperament and character;--true womanly in every delicate +sentiment, fancy and feeling, but with something of the man-hero in her +scorn of petty aims, her delight in noble deeds, her courage, her +ambition, her devotion to duty and her unflinching sense of honour. +Full of rare perceptions and instinctive knowledge of persons and +motives, she could only be deceived and blinded where her deepest +affections were concerned, and there she could certainly be fooled and +duped as completely as the wisest of us all. Looking at her now as she +stood awaiting her uncle's arrival in the drawing-room of her "suite," +the windows of which faced the Bois, she expressed to the air and +surroundings the personality of a thoughtful, charming young woman,--no +more. Her black silk gown, cut simply in the prevailing mode of +definitely outlining the figure from throat to hips, and then springing +out in pliant folds of trailing drapery, had nothing remarkable about +it save its Parisian perfection of fit,--the pale "Gloire de France" +rose that rested lightly amongst the old lace at her neck, pinned, yet +looking as though it had dropped there merely out of a languid desire +to escape from further growing, was her only ornament. Her hair, full +of curious lights and shades running from brown to gold and gold to +brown again, in a rippling uncertain fashion, clustered thickly over +her brow and was caught back at the sides in a loose twist after the +style of the Greek vestals,--and her fine, small white hands and taper +fingers, so skilled in the use of the artist's brush, looked too tiny +and delicate to be of any service save to receive the kisses of a +lover's lips,--or to be raised, folded pure and calm, in a child-like +appeal to Heaven. Certainly in her fragile appearance she expressed +nothing save indefinable charm--no one, studying her physiognomy, would +have accredited her with genius, power, and the large conceptions of a +Murillo or a Raphael;--yet within the small head lay a marvellous +brain--and the delicate body was possessed by a spirit of amazing +potency to conjure with. While she watched for the first glimpse of the +carriage which was to bring her uncle the Cardinal, whom she loved with +a rare and tender devotion, her thoughts were occupied with a letter +she had received that morning from Rome,--a letter "writ in choice +Italian," which though brief, contained for her some drops of the +essence of all the world's sweetness, and was worded thus-- + +"MY OWN LOVE!--A century seems to have passed away since you left Rome. +The hours move slowly without you--they are days,--even years!--but I +feel your spirit is always with me! Absence for those who love, is not +absence after all! To the soul, time is nothing,--space is +nothing,--and my true and passionate love for you makes an invisible +bridge, over which my thoughts run and fly to your sweet presence, +carrying their delicious burden of a thousand kisses!--a thousand +embraces and blessings to the Angela and angel of my life! From her +devoted lover, + +"Florian." + +Her devoted lover, Florian! Yes; Florian Varillo--her comrade in art, +was her lover,--a genius himself, who had recognised HER genius and who +bowed before it, conquered and subdued! Florian, the creator of +exquisitely delicate landscapes and seascapes, with nymphs and cupids +and nereids and sirens all daintily portrayed therein,--pictures so +ethereal and warm and bright in colour that they were called by some of +the best Italian critics, the "amoretti" of painting,--he, this +wonderful man, had caught her soul and heart by storm, in a few sudden, +quickly-whispered words one night when the moon was at the full, +hanging high over the gardens of the Pincio,--and, proud of her +security in the love she had won, Angela had risen by leaps and bounds +to a magnificence of creative effort and attainment so far beyond him, +that old and wise persons, skilled in the wicked ways of the world, +would sometimes discourse among themselves in dubious fashion thus: "Is +it possible that he is not jealous? He must surely see that her work is +superior to his own!" And others would answer, "Oh no! No man was ever +known to admit, even in thought, that a woman can do better things in +art than himself! If a masculine creature draws a picture on a +paving-stone he will assure himself in his own Ego, that it is really +much more meritorious simply as 'man's work' than the last triumph of a +Rosa Bonheur. Besides, you have to remember that in this case the man +is the woman's lover--he could soon kill her genius if he chose. He has +simply to desert her,--such an easy thing!--so often done!--and she +will paint no more. Women are all alike,--they rest on love,--when that +fails, then everything fails, and they drop into old age without a +groan." And then perhaps a stray cynic would say, "But Angela Sovrani +need not depend on one lover surely?--" and he would get for answer, +"No, she need not--but it so happens that she does,"--which to +everybody seemed extraordinary, more particularly in Italy, where +morals are so lax, that a woman has only to be seen walking alone in +the public gardens or streets with one of the opposite sex, and her +reputation is gone for ever. It is no use to explain that the man in +question is her father, her brother or her uncle,--he simply could not +be. He is THE man, the one inevitable. Few Italians (in Italy) believe +in the chastity of English women,--their reasons for doubt being simply +because they see the fair and free ones going to parties, theatres and +other places of amusement with their friends of the other sex in +perfect ease and confidence. And in the case of Angela Sovrani, though +she was affianced to Florian Varillo with her father's consent, +(reluctantly obtained,) and the knowledge of all the Roman world of +society, she saw very little of him,--and that little, never alone. +Thus it was very sweet to receive such consoling words as those she had +had from him that day--"Time is nothing,--space is nothing,--and my +true and passionate love for you makes an invisible bridge over which +my thoughts run and fly to your sweet presence!" The letter lay warm in +her bosom just under the "Gloire de France" rose; she pressed it +tenderly with her little hand now simply for the childish pleasure of +hearing the paper rustle, and she smiled dreamily. + +"Florian," she murmured half aloud!--"MY Florian!" And she recalled +certain lines of verse he had written to her,--for most Italians write +verse as easily as they eat maccaroni;--and there are countless rhymes +to "amor" in the dulcet Dante-tongue, whereas our rough English can +only supply for the word "love" some three or four similar +sounds,--which is perhaps a fortunate thing. Angela spoke English and +French as easily and fluently as her native Tuscan, and had read the +most notable books in all three languages, so she was well aware that +of all kinds of human speech in the world there is none so adapted for +making love and generally telling lies in, as the "lingua Toscana in +bocca Romana." And this particular "lingua" Florian possessed in +fullest perfection of sweetness, so far as making love was +concerned;--of the telling of lies he was, according to Angela's +estimate of him, most nobly ignorant. She had not many idle moments, +however, for meditation on her love matters, or for dreamy study of the +delicate beginnings of the autumnal tints on the trees of the Bois, for +the carriage she had been awaiting soon made its appearance, and +bowling rapidly down the road drew up sharply at the door. She had just +time to perceive that her uncle had not arrived alone, when he +entered,--and with a pretty grace and reverence for his holy calling, +she dropped on one knee before him to receive his benediction, which he +gave by laying a hand on her soft hair and signing the cross on her +brow. After which he raised her and looked at her fondly. + +"My dear child!"--he said, tenderly,--and again "My dear child!" + +Then he turned towards Manuel, who had followed him and was now +standing quietly on the threshold of the apartment. + +"Angela, this is one of our Lord's 'little ones,'" he said,--"He is +alone in the world, and I have made myself his guardian and protector +for the present. You will be kind to him--yes--as kind as if you were +his sister, will you not?--for we are all one family in the sight of +Heaven, and sorrow and loneliness and want can but strengthen the love +which should knit us all together." + +Raising her candid eyes, and fixing them on Manuel, Angela smiled. The +thoughtful face and pathetic expression of the boy greatly attracted +her, and in her heart she secretly wondered where her uncle had found +so intelligent and inspired-looking a creature. But one of her +UNfeminine attributes was a certain lack of curiosity concerning other +people's affairs, and an almost fastidious dislike of asking questions +on matters which did not closely concern her. So she contented herself +with giving him that smile of hers which in itself expressed all +sweetness, and saying gently,-- + +"You are very welcome! You must try to feel that wherever my uncle +is,--that is 'home'." + +"I have felt that from the first,"--replied Manuel in his soft musical +voice, "I was all alone when my lord the Cardinal found me,--but with +him the world seems full of friends." + +Angela looked at him still more attentively; and the fascination of his +presence became intensified. She would have liked to continue the +conversation, but her uncle was fatigued by his journey, and expressed +the desire for an hour's rest. She therefore summoned a servant to show +him to the rooms prepared for his reception, whither he went, Manuel +attending him,--and when, after a little while, Angela followed to see +that all was arranged suitably for his comfort, she found that he had +retired to his bed-chamber, and that just outside his door in a little +ante-room adjoining, his "waif and stray" was seated, reading. There +was something indescribable about the boy even in this reposeful +attitude of study,--and Angela observed him for a minute or two, +herself unseen. His face reminded her of one of Fra Angelico's +seraphs,--the same broad brow, deep eyes and sensitive lips, which +seemed to suggest the utterance of wondrous speech or melodious +song,--the same golden hair swept back in rich clusters,--the same +eager, inspired, yet controlled expression. A curious fluttering of her +heart disturbed the girl as she looked--an indefinable dread--a kind of +wonder, that almost touched on superstitious awe. Manuel himself, +apparently unconscious of her observation, went on reading,--his whole +attitude expressing that he was guarding the door to deter anyone from +breaking in upon the Cardinal's rest, and Angela at last turned away +reluctantly, questioning herself as to the cause of the strange +uneasiness which thrilled her mind. + +"It is foolish, of course,"--she murmured, "but I feel just as if there +were a supernatural presence in the house, . . . however,--I always do +have that impression with Uncle Felix, for he is so good and +noble-minded,--almost a saint, as everyone says--but to-day there is +something else--something quite unusual--" + +She re-entered the drawing-room, moving slowly with an abstracted air, +and did not at once perceive a visitor in the room,--a portly person in +clerical dress, with a somewhat large head and strongly marked +features,--a notable character of the time in Paris, known as the Abbe +Vergniaud. He had seated himself in a low fauteuil, and was turning +over the pages of the month's "Revue de Deux Mondes", humming a little +tune under his breath as he did so,--but he rose when he saw Angela, +and advanced smilingly to greet her as she stopped short, with a little +startled exclamation of surprise at the sight of him. + +"Forgive me" he said, with an expressively apologetic gesture,--"Have I +come at an inopportune moment? I saw your uncle arrive, and I was +extremely anxious to see him on a little confidential matter--I +ventured to persuade your servant to let me enter--" + +"No apologies are necessary, Monsieur l'Abbe" said Angela, quickly, "My +uncle Felix is indeed here, but he is tired with his journey and is +resting--" + +"Yes, I understand!" And Monsieur l'Abbe, showing no intention to take +his leave on account of the Cardinal's non-presence, bowed low over the +extended hand of "the Sovrani" as she was sometimes called in the world +of art, where her name was a bone for envious dogs-in-the-manger to +fight over--"But if I might wait a little while--" + +"Your business with my uncle is important?" questioned Angela with +slightly knitted brows. + +"My dear child, all business is important,"--declared the Abbe, with a +smile which spread the light of a certain satirical benevolence all +over his plump clean-shaven face, "or so we think--we who consider that +we have any business,--which is of course a foolish idea,--but one that +is universal to human nature. We all imagine we are busy--which is so +curious of us! Will you sit here?--Permit me!" And he dexterously +arranged a couple of cushions in an arm-chair and placed it near the +window. Angela half-reluctantly seated herself, watching the Abbe under +the shadow of her long lashes as he sat down opposite to her. +"Yes,--the emmets, the flies, the worms and the men, are all of one +equality in the absurd belief that they can do things--things that will +last. Their persistent self-credulity is astonishing,--considering the +advance the world has made in science, and the overwhelming proofs we +are always getting of the fact that we are only One of an eternal +procession of many mighty civilizations, all of which have been swept +away with everything they have ever learnt, into silence,--so that +really all we do, or try to do, amounts to doing nothing in the end!" + +"That is your creed, I know," said Angela Sovrani with a faint sigh, +"But it is a depressing and a wretched one." + +"I do not find it so," responded the Abbe, complacently looking at a +fine diamond ring that glittered on the little finger of his plump +white hand, "It is a creed which impresses upon us the virtue of being +happy during the present moment, no matter what the next may bring. Let +each man enjoy himself according to his temperament and capabilities. +Do not impose bounds upon him--give him his liberty. Let him alone. Do +not try to bamboozle him with the idea that there is a God looking +after him. So will he be spared much disappointment and useless +blasphemy. If he makes his own affairs unpleasant in this world', he +will not be able to lift up his hands to the innocent skies, which are +only composed of pure ether, and blame an impossible Large Person +sitting up there who can have no part in circumstances which are +entirely unknown outside the earth's ridiculously small orbit." + +He smiled kindly as he spoke, and looked paternally at "the Sovrani," +who flushed with a sudden warmth that sent a wave of pale rose over her +face, and made her cheeks the colour of the flower she wore. + +"How cruel you are!" she said,--"How cold--how didactic! You would give +each man his freedom according to habit and temperament,--no matter +whether such habit and temperament led to crime or otherwise,--you +would impose upon him no creed,--no belief in anything higher than +himself,--and yet--you remain in the Church!" + +The Abbe laughed softly. + +"Chere Sovrani! You are angry--deliciously angry! Impulsively, +enthusiastically, beautifully vexed with me! I like to see you so,--you +are a woman of remarkable genius, and yet you are quite a little child +in heart,--a positive child, with beliefs and hopes! I should not +wonder if you even believed that love itself is eternal!--that most +passing of phantoms!--yes--and you exclaim against me because I venture +to think for myself? It is appalling that I should think for myself and +yet remain in the Church? My dear lady, you might just as well, after +unravelling the dirty entanglement of the Dreyfus case, have turned +upon our late friend Faure and exclaimed 'And yet you remained +President!'" + +Angela's violet eyes glowed. + +"He was not allowed to remain President," she said. + +"No, he was not. He died. Certainly! And I know you think he would not +have died if he had done his best to clear the character of an innocent +man. To women of your type, it always seems as if God--the Large Person +up above--stepped in exactly at the right moment. It would really +appear as if it were so at times. But such things are mere +coincidences." + +"I do not believe in coincidences," said Angela decisively, "I do not +believe in 'chance' or 'luck', or what you call 'fortuitous' haphazard +arrangements of any sort. I think everything is planned by law from the +beginning; even to the particular direction in which a grain of dust +floats through space. It is all mathematical and exact. And the moving +Spirit--the Divine Centre of things, whom I call God,--cannot dislodge +or alter one particle of the majestic system without involving the +whole in complete catastrophe. It is our mistake to 'chance' things--at +least, so I think. And if I exclaim against you and say,--"Why do you +remain in the Church?' it is because I cannot understand a man of +conscience and intellect outwardly professing one thing while inwardly +he means another. Because God will take him in the end at his own +interior valuation, not at his outward seeming." + +"Uncomfortable, if true," said the Abbe, still smiling. "When one has +been at infinite pains all one's life to present a charmingly virtuous +and noble aspect to the world, it would be indeed distressing if at the +last moment one were obliged to lift the mask . . ." + +"Sometimes one is not given the chance to lift it," interposed Angela, +"It is torn off ruthlessly by a force greater than one's own. 'Call no +man happy till his death,' you know." + +"Yes, I know," and the Abbe settled himself in his chair more +comfortably;--he loved an argument with "the Sovrani", and was wont to +declare that she was the only woman in the world who had ever made him +wish to be a good man,--"But that maxim can be taken in two ways. It +may mean that no man is happy till his death,--which I most potently +believe,--or it may mean that a man is only JUDGED after his death, in +which case it cannot be said to affect his happiness, as he is past +caring whether people think ill or well of him. Besides, after death it +must needs be all right, as every man is so particularly fortunate in +his epitaph!" + +Angela smiled a little. + +"That is witty of you," she said, "but the fact of every man having a +kindly-worded epitaph only proves goodness of heart and feeling in his +relatives and friends--" + +"Or gratitude for a fortune left to them in his will," declared the +Abbe gaily, "or a sense of relief that the dear creature has gone and +will never come back. Either motive, would, I know, inspire me to write +most pathetic verses! Now you bend your charming brows at me,--mea +culpa! I have said something outrageous?" + +"Not from the point of view at which YOU take life," said Angela +quietly, "but I was just then thinking of a cousin of mine,--a very +beautiful woman; her husband treated her with every possible sort of +what I should term civil cruelty,--polite torture--refined agony. If he +had struck her or shot her dead it would have been far kinder. But his +conduct was worse than murder. He finally deserted her, and left her +penniless to fight her own way through the world. Then he died +suddenly, and she forgot all his faults, spoke of him as though he had +been a model of goodness, and lives now for his memory, ever mourning +his loss. In her case the feeling of regret had nothing to do with +money, for he spent all her fortune and left her nothing even of her +own. She has to work hard for her living now,--but she loves him and is +as true to him as if he were still alive. What do you say to that?" + +"I say that the lady in question must be a charming person!" replied +the Abbe, "Perfectly charming! But of course she is deceiving herself; +and she takes pleasure in the self-deception. She knows that the man +had deserted her and was quite unworthy of her devotion;--but she +pretends to herself that she does NOT know. And it is charming, of +course! But women will do that kind of thing. It is extraordinary,--but +they will. They all deceive themselves in matters of love. Even you +deceive yourself." + +Angela started. + +"I?" she exclaimed. + +"Yes--you--why not?" And the Abbe treated her to one of his +particularly paternal smiles. "You are betrothed to Florian +Varillo,--but no man ever had or ever could have all the virtues with +which you endow this excellent Florian. He is a delightful creature,--a +good artist--unique in his own particular line,--but you think him +something much greater than even artist or man--a sort of god, (though +the gods themselves were not impeccable) only fit to be idealised. Now, +I am not a believer in the gods,--but of course it is delightful to me +to meet those who are." + +"Signor Varillo needs neither praise nor defence," said Angela with a +slight touch of hauteur, "All the world knows what he is." + +"Yes, precisely! That is just it,--all the world knows what he is,--" +and the Abbe rubbed his forehead with an air of irritation, "And I am +vexing you by my talk, I can see! Well, well!--You must forgive my +garrulity;--I admit my faults--I am old--I am a cynic--I talk too +much--I have a bad opinion of man, and an equally bad opinion of the +Forces that evolved him. By the way, I met that terrible reformer and +socialist Aubrey Leigh at the Embassy the other day--the man who is +making such a sensation in England with his 'Addresses to the People.' +He is quite an optimist, do you know? He believes in everything and +everybody,--even in me!" + +Angela laughed, and her laughter sweet and low, thrilled the air with a +sense of music. + +"That is wonderful!" she said gaily,--"Even in you! And how does he +manage to believe in you, Monsieur l'Abbe? Do tell me!" + +A little frown wrinkled the Abbe's brow. + +"Well! in a strange way," he responded. "You know he is a very strange +man and believes in very strange things. When I treat humanity as a +jest--which is really how it should be treated--he looks at me with a +grand air of tolerance, 'Oh, you will progress;' he says, 'You are +passing through a phase.' 'My dear sir,' I assure him, 'I have lived in +this "phase", as you call it, for forty years. I used to pray to the +angels and saints and to all the different little Madonnas that live in +different places, till I was twenty. Then I dropped all the pretty +heaven-toys at once;--and since then I have believed in +nothing--myself, least of all. Now I am sixty--and yet you tell me I am +only passing through a phase.' 'Quite so,' he answered me with the +utmost coolness, 'Your forty years--or your sixty years, are a Moment +merely;--the Moment will pass--and you will find another Moment coming +which will explain the one which has just gone. Nothing is simpler.' +And when I ask him which will be the best Moment,--the one that goes, +or the one that comes--he says that I am making the coming Moment for +myself--'which is so satisfactory' he adds with that bright smile of +his, 'because of course you will make it pleasant!' 'Il faut que tout +homme trouve pour lui meme une possibilite particuliere de vie +superieure dans l'humble et inevitable realite quotidienne.' I do not +find the 'possibilite particuliere'--but this man assures me it is +because I do not trouble to look for it. What do you think about it?" +Angela's eyes were full of dreamy musing. + +"I think Mr. Leigh's ideas are beautiful," she said, slowly, "I have +often heard him talk on the subject of religion--and of art, and of +work,--and all he says seems to be the expression of a noble and +sincere mind. He is extraordinarily gifted." + +"Yes,--and he is becoming rather an alarming personage in England, so I +hear,--" returned the Abbe--"He writes books that are distinctly +dangerous, because true. He wants to upset shams like our Socialist +writer Gys Grandit. Gys Grandit, you know, will never be satisfied +till, like Rousseau, he has brought about another French Revolution. He +is only a peasant, they say, but he writes with the pen of a prophet. +And this Englishman is of the same calibre,--only his work is directed +against religious hypocrisies more than social ones. I daresay that is +why I always feel so uneasy in his presence!" And Vergniaud laughed +lightly. "For the rest, he is a brilliant creature enough, and +thoroughly manly. The other evening at the Club that little Vicomte de +Lorgne was chattering in his usual offensive manner about women, and +Leigh astonished everyone by the way in which he pulled him up. There +was almost a very pretty quarrel,--but a stray man happened to mention +casually,--that Leigh was considered one of the finest shots in +England. After that the dear Vicomte vanished, and did not return." + +Angela laughed. + +"Poor de Lorgne! Yes--I have heard that Mr. Leigh excels in everything +that is distinctly English--riding, shooting, and all that kind of +thing. He is not effeminate." + +"Few Englishmen are," said the Abbe,--"And yet to my mind there is +something not altogether English in this man. He has none of the heavy +British mental and physical stolidity. He is strong and muscular +certainly,--but also light and supple,--and with that keen, +intellectual delicate face of his, he is more of the antique Greek type +than like a son of Les Isles Sans-Soleil." + +"Sans-Soleil," echoed Angela, "But there is plenty of sunshine in +England!" + +"Is there? Well, I have been unfortunate,--I have never seen any,--" +and the Abbe gave a shrug of half regret, half indifference. "It is +very curious the effect that this so brave England has upon me! In +crossing to its shores I suffer of course from the mal de mer--then +when I arrive exhausted to the white cliffs, it is generally +raining--then I take train to London, where it is what is called black +fog; and I find all the persons that I meet either with a cold, or +going to have a cold, or just recovering from a cold! It is not +lively--the very funerals are dull. And you--this is not your +experience?" + +"No--frankly I cannot say it is," replied Angela, "I have seen rain and +fog in Rome that cannot be surpassed for wretchedness anywhere. Italy +is far more miserable in cold weather than England. I passed a summer +once in England, and it was to me like a glimpse of Paradise. I never +saw so many flowers--I never heard so many birds--(you know in Italy we +kill all the singing birds and eat them), and I never met so many kind +and gentle people." + +"Well!--perhaps the religious sects in England are responsible for the +general feeling of depression in the English atmosphere," said the Abbe +with a light laugh, "They are certainly foggy! The one round Sun of one +Creed is unknown to them. I assure you it is best to have one light of +faith, even though it be only a magic lantern,--a toy to amuse the +children of this brief life before their everlasting bedtime comes--" +He broke off abruptly as a slow step was heard approaching along the +passage, and in another moment Cardinal Bonpre entered the room. + +"Ah, le bien aime Felix!" cried Vergniaud, hastening to meet him and +clasp his outstretched hand, bowing slightly over it as he did so, "I +have taken the liberty to wait for you, cher Monseigneur, being anxious +to see you--and I understand your stay in Paris will not be long?" + +"A few days at most, my dear Abbe",--replied the Cardinal, gently +pressing the hand of Vergniaud and smiling kindly. "You are well? But +surely I need not ask--you seem to be in the best of health and +spirits." + +"Ah, my seeming is always excellent," returned the Abbe, "However, I do +not fare badly. I have thrown away all hard thinking!" + +"And you are happier so?" + +"Well, I am not quite sure! There is undoubtedly a pleasure in +analysing the perplexities of one's own mind. Still, on the whole, it +is perhaps better to enjoy the present hour without any thought at all." + +"Like the butterflies!" laughed Angela. + +"Yes,--if butterflies DO enjoy their hour,--which I am not at all +prepared to admit. In my opinion they are very dissatisfied +creatures,--no sooner on one flower than off they go to another. Very +like human beings after all! But I imagine they never worry themselves +with philosophical or religious questions." + +"And do you?" enquired Bonpre, smiling, as he sat down in the easy +chair his niece placed for him. + +"Not as a rule!--" answered Vergniaud frankly, with a light laugh--"But +I confess I have done a little in that way lately. Some of the new +sciences puzzle me,--I am surprised to find how closely they approach +to the fulfilment of old prophecies. One is almost inclined to believe +that there must be a next world and a future life." + +"I think such belief is now placed beyond mere inclination," said the +Cardinal--"There is surely no doubt of it." + +Vergniaud gave him a quick side-glance of earnest scrutiny. + +"With you, perhaps not--" he replied--"But with me,--well!--it is a +different matter. However, it is really no use worrying one's self with +the question of 'To be, or not to be.' It drove Hamlet mad, just as the +knotty point as to whether Hamlet himself was fat or lean nearly killed +our hysterical little boy, Catullus Mendes. It's best to leave eternal +subjects like God and Shakespeare alone." + +He laughed again, but the Cardinal did not smile. + +"I do not agree with you, Vergniaud," he said--"I fear it is because we +do not think sufficiently for ourselves on the One eternal subject that +so much mischief threatens us at the present time. To take gifts and +ignore the Giver is surely the blackest ingratitude, yet that is what +the greater part of humanity is guilty of in these days. Never was +there so much beholding and yet ignoring of the Divine as now. Science +is searching for God, and is getting closer to Him every day;--the +Church remains stationary and refuses to look out beyond her own pale +of thought and conventional discipline. I know,--" and the Cardinal +hesitated a moment, "I know I can speak quite plainly to you, for you +are what is called a freethinker--yet I doubt whether you are really as +free as you imagine!" + +The Abbe shrugged his shoulders. + +"I imagine nothing!" he declared airily, "Everything is imagined for me +nowadays,--and imagination itself is like a flying Geni which overtakes +and catches the hair of some elusive Reality and turns its face round, +full-shining on an amazed world!" + +"A pretty simile!" said Angela Sovrani, smiling. + +"Is it not? Almost worthy of Paul Verlaine who was too 'inspired' to +keep either his body or his soul clean. Why was I not a poet! +Helas!--Fact so much outweighs fancy that it is no longer any use +penning a sonnet to one's mistress's eyebrow. One needs to write with +thunderbolts in characters of lightning, to express the wonders and +discoveries of this age. When I find I can send a message from here to +London across space, without wires or any visible means of +communication,--and when I am told that probably one of these days I +shall be able at will to SEE the person to whom I send the message, +reflected in space while the message is being delivered,--I declare +myself so perfectly satisfied with the fairy prodigies revealed to me, +that I have really no time, and perhaps no inclination to think of any +other world than this one." + +"You are wrong, then," said the Cardinal, "Very wrong, Vergniaud. To me +these discoveries of science, this apparent yielding of invisible +forces into human hands, are signs and portents of terror. You remember +the line 'the powers of heaven shall be shaken'? Those powers are being +shaken now! We cannot hold them back;--they are here, with us;--but +they mean much more than mere common utility to our finite selves. They +are the material declarations of what is spiritual. They are the +scientific proofs that Christ's words to 'THIS generation,' namely, +this particular phase of creation,--are true. 'Blessed are they which +have not seen and yet believed,' He said;--and many there are who have +passed away from us in rapt faith and hope, believing not seeing, and +with whom we may rejoice in spirit, knowing that all must be well with +them. But now--now we are come upon an age of doubt in the world--doubt +which corrodes and kills the divine spirit in man, and therefore we are +being forced to SEE that we may believe,--but the seeing is terrible!" + +"Why?" + +"Because in the very beholding of things we remain blind!" answered the +Cardinal, "Our intense selfishness obscures the true light of every +fresh advance. We accept new marvels of knowledge, as so much practical +use to us, and to the little planet we live on,--but we do not see that +they are merely reflections of the Truth from which they emanate. The +toy called the biograph, which reflects pictures for us in a dazzling +and moving continuity, so that we can see scenes of human life in +action, is merely a hint to us that every scene of every life is +reflected in a ceaseless moving panorama SOMEWHERE in the Universe, for +the beholding of SOMEONE,--yes!--there must be Someone who so elects to +look upon everything, or such possibilities of reflected scenes would +not be,--inasmuch as nothing exists without a Cause for existence. The +wireless telegraphy is a stupendous warning of the truth that 'from God +no secrets are hid', and also of the prophecy of Christ 'there is +nothing covered that shall not be revealed'--and, 'whatsoever ye have +spoken in darkness shall be revealed in light.' The latter words are +almost appalling in their absolute accord with the latest triumphant +discoveries of science." + +Abbe Vergniaud looked at the Cardinal, and slightly raised his eyebrows +in a kind of wondering protest. + +"TRES-SAINT Felix!" he murmured, "Are you turning into a mystic? One of +those doubtful personages who are seeking to reconcile science with the +Church?--" + +"Stop!" interposed the Cardinal, raising his hand with an eloquent +gesture, "Science is, or should be, the Church!--science is Truth, and +Truth is God! God cannot be found anywhere in a lie; and the Church in +many ways would make our Divine Redeemer Himself a lie were it not that +His words are every day taking fresh meaning, and bringing new and +solemn conviction to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear!" + +He spoke as if carried beyond himself,--his pale cheeks glowed,--his +eyes flashed fire,--and the combined effect of his words and manner was +startling to the Abbe, and in a way stupefying to his niece Angela. She +had never heard him give utterance to such strong sentiments and she +shrank a little within herself, wondering whether as a Cardinal of the +Roman Church he had not been too free of speech. She glanced +apprehensively at Vergniaud, who however only smiled a little. + +"If you should be disposed to express yourself in such terms at the +Vatican,--" he began. + +The Cardinal relapsed into his usual calm, and met the Abbe's +questioning, half cynical glance composedly. "I have many things to +speak of at the Vatican," he answered,--"This matter will probably be +one of them." + +"Then--" But whatever Vergniaud was about to say was interrupted by the +entrance of the boy Manuel, who at that moment came into the room and +stood beside the Cardinal's chair. The Abbe gave him an upward glance +of surprise and admiration. + +"Whom have we here?" he exclaimed, "One of your acolytes, Monseigneur?" + +"No," replied the Cardinal, his eyes resting on the fair face of the +lad with a wistful affection, "A little stray disciple of our Lord,--to +whom I have ventured to offer protection. There is none to question my +right to do so, for he is quite alone in the world." + +And in a few words he related how he had discovered the boy on the +previous night, weeping outside the Cathedral in Rouen. Angela Sovrani +listened attentively, her violet eyes darkening and deepening as she +heard,--now and then she raised them to look at the youthful waif who +stood so quietly while the story of his troubles was told in the gentle +and sympathetic way which was the Cardinal's usual manner of speech, +and which endeared him so much to all. "And for the present," finished +Bonpre, smiling--"he stays with me, and already I have found him +skilled in the knowledge of many things,--he can read Scripture with a +most musical and clear emphasis,--and he is a quick scribe, so that he +will be valuable to me in more ways than one." + +"Ah!" and the Abbe turned himself round in his chair to survey the boy +more attentively, "You can read Scripture? But can you understand it? +If you can, you are wiser than I am!" + +Manuel regarded him straightly. + +"Was it not once said in Judaea that "IT IS THE SPIRIT THAT +QUICKENETH'?" he asked. + +"True!--And from that you would infer . . . ?" + +"That when one cannot understand Scripture, it is perhaps for the +reason that 'THE LETTER KILLETH, BECAUSE LACKING THE SPIRIT THAT GIVETH +LIFE." + +The boy spoke gently and with grace and modesty,--but something in the +tone of his voice had a strange effect on the cynical temperament of +Abbe Vergniaud. + +"Here," he mused, "is a lad in whom the principle of faith is strong +and pure,--shall I drop the poison of doubt into the open flower of his +mind, or leave it uncontaminated?" Aloud he said, kindly, + +"You speak well,--you have evidently thought for yourself. Who taught +you to recognise 'the Spirit that giveth life'?" + +Manuel smiled. + +"Does that need teaching?" he asked. + +Radiance shone in his eyes,--the look of purity and candour on his +young face was infinitely touching to the two men who beheld it,--the +one worn with age and physical languors, the other equally worn in +mind, if not in body. In the brief silence which followed,--a silence +of unexpressed feeling,--a soft strain of organ-music came floating +deliciously towards them,--a delicate thread of grave melody which wove +itself in and out the airspaces, murmuring suggestions of tenderness +and appeal. Angela smiled, and held up one finger, listening. + +"That is Mr. Leigh!" she said, "He is in my studio improvising." + +"Happy Mr. Leigh!" said the Abbe with a little malicious twinkle in his +eyes, "To be allowed to improvise at all in the studio of the Sovrani!" + +Angela flushed, and lifted her fair head with a touch of pride. + +"Mr. Leigh is a friend," she said, "He is welcome in the studio always. +His criticism of a picture is valuable,--besides--he is a celebrated +Englishman!" She laughed, and her eyes flashed. + +"Ah! To a celebrated Englishman all things are conceded!" said the Abbe +satirically, "Even the right to enter the sanctum of the most exclusive +lady in Europe! Is it not a curious thing that the good Britannia +appears to stick her helmet on the head, and put her sceptre in the +hand of every one of her sons who condescends to soil his boots by +walking on foreign soil? With the helmet he defies the gemdarme,--with +the sceptre he breaks open every door,--we prostrate ourselves before +his face and curse him behind his back,--c'est drole!--yet we are all +alike, French, Germans, Austrians, and Italians;--we hate the +Englishman, but we black his boots all the same,--which is contemptible +of us,--MAIS, QUE FAIRE! He is so overwhelming in sheer impudence! With +culture and politeness we might cross swords in courtly duel,--but in +the presence of absolute bluff, or what is called 'cheek', we fall flat +in sheer dismay! What delicious music! I see that it charms our young +friend,--he is fond of music." + +"Yes," said Manuel speaking for himself before any question could be +put to him, "I love it! It is like the fresh air,--full of breath and +life." + +"Come then with me," said Angela, "Come into the studio and we will +hear it more closely. Dearest uncle," and she knelt for a moment by the +Cardinal's chair, "Will you come there also when Monsieur l'Abbe has +finished talking with you?" + +Cardinal Bonpre's hand rested lovingly on her soft hair. + +"Yes, my child, I will come." And in a lower tone he added,--"Do not +speak much to Manuel,--he is a strange lad; more fond of silence and +prayer than other things,--and if such is his temperament I would +rather keep him so." + +Angela bowed her head in acquiescence to this bidding,--then rising, +left the room with a gentle gesture of invitation to the boy, who at +once followed her. As the two disappeared a chill and a darkness seemed +to fall upon the air, and the Cardinal sank back among the cushions of +his fauteuil with a deep sigh of utter exhaustion. Abbe Vergniaud +glanced at him inquisitively. + +"You are very tired, I fear?" he said. + +"Physically, no,--mentally, yes. Spiritually, I am certainly fatigued +to the death." + +The Abbe shrugged his shoulders. + +"Helas! There is truly much in spiritual matters to engender +weariness!" he said. + +With a sudden access of energy the Cardinal gripped both arms of his +chair and sat upright. + +"For God's sake, do not jest," he said earnestly, "Do not jest! We have +all been jesting too long, and the time is near when we shall find out +the bitter cost of it! Levity--carelessness--doubt and final heresy--I +do not mean heresy against the Church, for that is nothing--" + +"Nothing!" exclaimed the Abbe, "YOU say this?" + +"I say it!" And Bonpre's thin worn features grew transfigured with the +fervour of his thought. "I am a priest of the Church--but I am also a +man!--with reason, with brain, and with a love of truth;--and I can +faithfully say I have an almost jealous honour for my Master--but I +repeat, heresy against the Church is nothing,--it is heresy against +Christ which is the crime of the age,--and in that, the very Church is +heretic! Heresy against Christ!--Heresy against Christ! A whole system +of heresy! 'I never knew you,--depart from me, ye workers of iniquity,' +will be our Lord's words at the Last Judgment!" + +The Abbe's wonderment increased. He looked down a moment, then looked +up, and a quizzical, half-melancholy expression filled his eyes. + +"Well, I am very much concerned in all this," he said, "I wanted to +have a private talk with you on my own account, principally because I +know you to be a good man, while I am a bad one. I have a trouble +here,--" and he touched the region of his heart, "which the wise +doctors say may end my days at any moment; two years at the utmost is +the ultimatum of my life, so I want to know from you, whom I know to be +intelligent and honest, whether you believe I am going to another +existence,--and if so, what sort of a one you think is in prospect for +such a man as I am? Now don't pity me, my dear Bonpre,--don't pity +me!--" and he laughed a little huskily as the Cardinal took his hand +and pressed it with a silent sympathy more eloquent than words, "We +must all die,--and if I am to go somewhat sooner than I expected, that +is nothing to compassionate me for. But there is just a little +uncertainty in my mind,--I am not at all sure that death is the end--I +wish I could be quite positive of the fact. I was once--quite positive. +But science, instead of giving me this absolute comfort has in its +later progress upset all my former calculations, and I am afraid I must +own that there is indubitably Something Else,--which to my mind seems +distinctly disagreeable!" + +Though the Abbe spoke lightly, the troubled look remained in his eyes +and the Cardinal saw it. + +"My dear Vergniaud," he began gently, "I am grieved at what you tell +me--" + +"No, don't be grieved," interrupted Vergniaud, "because that is not it. +Talk to me! Tell me what you truly think. That this life is only a +schoolroom where we do our lessons more or less badly?--That death is +but the name for another life? Now do not FORCE your faith for me. Tell +me your own honest conviction. Do we end?--or do we begin again? Be +frank and fair and true; according to the very latest science, +remember!--not according to the latest hocus-pocus of twelfth-century +mandate issued from Rome. You see how frank I am, and how entirely I go +with you. But I am going further than you,--I am bound for the last +voyage--so you must not offer me the wrong pass-word to the shore!" + +"No, I will give you the right pass-word," said the cardinal, a fervid +glow of enthusiasm lighting up his features. "It is CHRIST in all, and +through all! Christ only;--Christ, the friend and brother of man;--the +only Divine Teacher this world has ever had, or ever will have!" + +"You believe in Him really,--truly,--then?" exclaimed the Abbe +wonderingly. + +"Really--truly, and with all my heart and soul!" responded the Cardinal +firmly,--"Surely, you too, believe?" + +"No," said the Abbe firmly, "I do not! I would as soon believe that the +lad you have just rescued from the streets of Rouen is divine, as that +there is any divinity in the Man of Nazareth!" + +He rose up as he spoke in a kind of petulance,--then started slightly +as he found himself face to face with Manuel. The boy had entered +noiselessly and stood for a moment glancing from one priest of the +Church to the other. A faint smile was on his face,--his blue eyes were +full of light. + +"Did you call me, my lord Cardinal?" he asked. + +The Cardinal looked up. + +"No, my child!" + +"I thought I heard you. If you should need me, I am close at hand." + +He went away as quietly as he had entered; and the same silence +followed his departure as before,--a silence which was only disturbed +by the occasional solemn and sweet vibrations of the distant music from +the studio. + + + + +VIII. + +"A strange lad!" said Abbe Vergniaud, abruptly. + +"Strange? In what way do you find him so?" asked the Cardinal with a +touch of anxiety. + +The Abbe knitted his brows perplexedly, and took a short turn up and +down the room. Then he laughed. + +"Upon my word, I cannot tell you!" he declared, with one of those +inimitable gestures common to Frenchmen, a gesture which may mean +anything or nothing,--"But he speaks too well, and, surely, thinks too +much for his years. Is there nothing further to tell of him save what +you have already said? Nothing that you know of him, beyond the plain +bare fact of having found him weeping alone outside the doors of the +Cathedral?" + +"Nothing indeed!" replied the Cardinal bewildered. "What else should +there be?" + +The Abbe hesitated a moment, and when he spoke again it was in a softer +and graver tone. "Forgive me! Of course there could be nothing else +with you. You are so different to all other Churchmen I have ever +known. Still, the story of your foundling is exceptional;--you will own +that it is somewhat out of the common course of things, for a Cardinal +to suddenly constitute himself the protector and guardian of a small +tramp--for this boy is nothing else. Now, if it were any other +Cardinal-Archbishop than yourself, I should at once say that His +Eminence knew exactly where to find the mother of his protege!" + +"Vergniaud!" exclaimed the Cardinal. + +"Forgive me! I said 'forgive me' as a prelude to my remarks," resumed +Vergniaud, "I am talking profanely, sceptically, and cynically,--I am +talking precisely as the world talks, and as it always will talk." + +"The world may talk itself out of existence, before it can hinder me +from doing what I conceive to be my duty," said Felix Bonpre, calmly, +"The lad is alone and absolutely friendless,--it is but fitting and +right that I should do what I can for him." + +Abbe Vergniaud sat down, and for a moment appeared absorbed in thought. + +"You are a curious man;" he at length observed, "And a more than +curious priest! Here you are, assuming the guardianship of a boy +concerning whom you know nothing,--when you might as well have handed +him over to one of the orphanages for the poor, or have paid for his +care and education with some of the monastic brethren established near +Rouen,--but no!--you being eccentric, feel as if you were personally +responsible to God for the child, simply because you found him lost and +alone, and therefore you have him with you. It is very good of you,--we +will call it great of you--but it is not usual. People will say you +have a private motive;--you must remember that the world never gives +you credit for doing a good action simply for the pure sake of doing +it,--'There must be something behind it all,' they say. When the worst +cocotte of the age begins to lose her beauty, the prospect is so +alarming that she thinks there may be a possible hell, after all, and +she straightway becomes charitable and renowned for good +works;--precisely in the same way as our famous stage 'stars', knowing +their lives to be less clean than the lives of their horses and their +dogs, give subscriptions and altar-cloths and organs to the clergy. It +is all very amusing!--I assure you I have often laughed at it. It is as +if they took Heaven by its private ear in confidence, and said, 'See +now, I want to put things straight with you if I can!--and if a few +church-ornaments, and candlesticks will pacify you, why, take them and +hold your tongue!'" + +He paused, but the Cardinal was silent. + +"I know," went on the Abbe, "that you think I am indulging in the worst +kind of levity to talk in this way. It sounds horrible to you. And you +perhaps think I cannot be serious. My dear Saint Felix, there never was +a more serious man than I. I would give worlds--universes--to believe +as you do! I have written books of religious discussion,--not because I +wanted the notice of the world for them,--for that I do not care +about,--but for the sake of wrestling out the subject for myself, and +making my pen my confidant. I tell you I envy the woman who can say her +rosary with the simple belief that the Virgin Mary hears and takes +delight in all those repetitions. Nothing would have given me greater +pleasure than to have composed a volume of prayers,--a 'Garland of +Flowers'--such as an innocent girl could hold in her hands, and bend +her sweet eyes over. It would have been a taste of the +sensual-spiritual, or the spiritual-sensual,--which is the most +exquisite of all human sensations." + +"There is no taint of sensuality in the purely spiritual," said the +Cardinal reprovingly. + +"Not for your nature,--no! You have made your body like a transparent +scabbard through which the glitter of the soul-sword is almost visible. +But I am different. I am so much of a materialist that I like to pull +down Heaven to the warm bosom of Earth and make them mingle. You would +lift up Earth to Heaven! Ah, that is difficult! Even Christ came down! +It is the chief thing I admire in Him, that He 'descended from Heaven +and was made Man'. TRES CHER Felix, I shall bewilder you to death with +my specious and frivolous reasoning,--and after all, I had much better +come to the main fact of what I intended to tell you,--a sort of +confession out of church. You know I have already told you I am going +to die soon, and that I am a bad man confessedly and hopelessly,--but +among other things is this, (and if you can give me any advice upon it +I will take it,) that for the last four or five years I have been +dodging about to escape being murdered,--not because I particularly +mind being murdered, because I probably deserve it,--and one way of +exit is as good as another,--but because I want to save the would-be +murderer from committing his crime. Is not that a good motive?" + +Cardinal Bonpre gazed at him in astonishment. Vergniaud appeared to him +in an entirely new light. He had always known him as a careless, +cynical-tempered man;--a close thinker,--a clever writer, and a +brilliant talker,--and he had been inclined to consider him as a +"society" priest,--one of those amiable yet hypocritical personages, +who, by the most jesuitical flatteries and studied delicacies of +manner, succeed in influencing weak-minded persons of wealth, +(especially women) to the end of securing vast sums of money to the +Church,--obtaining by these means such rank and favour for themselves +as would otherwise never have been granted to them. But now the Abbe's +frank admission of his own sins and failings seemed a proof of his +inherent sincerity,--and sincerity, whether found in orthodoxy or +heterodoxy, always commanded the Cardinal's respect. + +"Are you speaking in parables or in grave earnest?" he asked. "Do you +really mean that you are shadowed by some would-be assassin? An +assassin, too, whom you actually wish to protect?" + +"Exactly!" And Vergniaud smiled with the air of one who admits the +position to be curious but by no means alarming. "I want to save him +from the guillotine; and if he murders me I cannot! It is a question of +natural instinct merely. The would-be assassin is my son!" + +Cardinal Bonpre raised his clear blue eyes and fixed them full on the +Abbe. + +"This is a very serious matter," he said gently, "Surely it is best to +treat it seriously?" + +"Oh, I am serious enough, God knows!" returned Vergniaud, with a heavy +but impatient sigh, "I suppose there is, there must be, some terribly +exact Mathematician concerned in the working of things, else a man's +past sins and failings being done with and over, would not turn up any +more. But they DO turn up,--the unseen Mathematician counts every +figure;--and of course trouble ensues. My story is simply this;--Some +twenty-five years ago I was in Touraine;--I was a priest as I am +now--Oh, yes!--the sin is as black as the Church can make it!--and one +mid-summer evening I strolled into a certain quaint old church of a +certain quaint old town,--I need not name it--and saw there a girl, as +sweet as an apple blossom, kneeling in front of the altar. I watched +her,--I see her now!--the late sunlight through the stained glass +window fell like a glory on her pretty hair, and on the little white +kerchief folded so daintily across her bosom, and on her small hands +and the brown rosary that was twisted round her fingers. She was +praying, so she told me afterwards, to her guardian angel,--I wonder +what that personage was about just then, Bonpre! Anyhow, to her +petition came no answer but a devil,--a devil personified in me,--I +made her love me,--I tempted her by ever subtle and hellish persuasion +I could think of,--I can never even now think of that time without +wondering where all the eloquent evil of my tongue came +from--and--well!--she never was able to ask the guardian angel any more +favours! And I?--I think I loved her for a while,--but no, I am not +sure;--I believe there is no such good thing as absolute love in my +composition. Anyway, I soon left Touraine, and had almost forgotten her +when she wrote to tell me of the birth of her child--a son. I gave her +no reply, and then she wrote again,--such a letter!--such words! At the +moment they burnt me,--stabbed me--positively hurt me,--and I was not +then easily hurt. She swore she would bring the boy up to curse his +father,--and, to put it quite briefly,--she did. She died when he was +twenty, and it now appears the lad took an oath by her death-bed that +he would never rest till he had killed the man who had dishonoured his +mother, and broken her heart, and brought him into the world with a +stigma on his name. No filial respect, you see!" And Vergniaud tried to +force a smile. "To do the boy justice, he apparently means to keep his +oath,--he has not rested; he has been at infinite pains to discover me; +he has even been at the trouble to write me a warning letter, and is +now in Paris watching me. I, in my turn, take care to protect +myself;--I am followed by detectives, and am at enormous pains to guard +my life; not for my own sake but for his. An odd complication of +circumstances, is it not? I cannot have him arrested because he would +at once relate his history, and my name would be ruined. And that would +be quite as good a vengeance for him as the other thing. You will admit +that it is a very dramatic situation!" + +"It is a retribution!" said the Cardinal in a low voice, "And a +terrible one!" + +"Yes, I suppose it is. I imagined you would consider it in that light," +and Vergniaud half closed his eyes, leaning back in his chair +languidly, "But here I am, willing to set things as straight as I can, +and it really seems impossible to arrange matters. I am to die soon, +according to the doctors;--and so I have made my willleaving everything +I possess to this ridiculous boy who wishes to kill me; and it is more +than probable that he,--considering how he has been brought up and +educated--will cast all the money into the dirt, and kick at my grave. +But what can I do?" + +"Nothing," said the Cardinal, "You can do nothing, Vergniaud! That is +the worst of having inflicted a wrong upon the innocent,--you can never +by any means retrieve it. You can repent,--and it is probable that your +very repentance ensures your forgiveness at a higher tribunal than that +of earth's judgment,--but the results of wrong cannot be wiped out or +done away with in this life;--they continue to exist, and alas!--often +multiply. Even the harsh or unjust word cannot be recalled, and however +much we may regret having uttered it, somehow it is never forgotten. +But--" here leaning forward, he laid one hand gently on Vergniaud's +arm, "My dear friend--my dear brother--you have told me of your +sin;--it is a great sin,--but God forbid that I should presume to judge +you harshly when our Lord Himself declared that 'He came not to call +the righteous but sinners to repentance'. It may be that I can find a +way to help you. Arrange for me to see this misguided son of +yours,--and I will endeavour to find a means of restitution to him and +to the memory of his mother before you pass away from us,--if indeed +you are to pass away so soon. Under the levity you assume I perceive +you have deep feeling on this matter;--you shall not die with a wrong +on your soul, Vergniaud!--you shall not if I can prevent it! For there +undoubtedly is another life; you must go into it as purely as prayer +and penitence can make you." + +"I thought," said the Abbe, speaking somewhat unsteadily, "that you +might when you heard all, hurl some of Rome's thunderous denunciations +upon me . . ." + +"What am I, and what is Rome, compared with the Master's own word?" +said the Cardinal gently. "If our brothers sin against us seventy times +seven we are still to forgive, and they are still our brothers! +Denunciations, judgments and condemnations of one another are not any +part of our Lord's commands." + +Vergniaud rose up and held out his hand. + +"Will you take it," he said, "as a pledge that I will faithfully do +whatever you may see fitting and right to retrieve the past?--and to +clear my son's soul from the thirst of vengeance which is consuming it?" + +Cardinal Bonpre clasped the extended hand warmly. + +"There is your answer!" he said, with a smile which irradiated his fine +countenance with an almost supernatural beauty and tenderness, "You +have sinned against Heaven, and you have sinned against the Church and +your own calling,--but the greatest sinner can do no more than repent +and strive to make amends. For I see you fully know and comprehend the +extent of your sin." + +"Yes, I know it," and Vergniaud's eyes were clouded and his brows +knitted, "I know it only too well! Greater than any fault of +Church-discipline is a wrong to human life,--and I wronged and betrayed +an innocent woman who loved me! Her soul was as sweet as the honey-cup +of a flower,--I poisoned it. That was as bad as poisoning the +Sacrament! I should have kept it sweet and pure; I should have let the +Church go, and been honest! I should have seen to it that the child of +my love grew up to honour his father,--not to merely live for the +murder of him! Yes!--I know what I should have done--I know what I have +not done--and I am afraid I shall always know! Unless I can do +something to atone I have a strange feeling that I shall pass from this +world to the next--and that the first thing I shall see will be her +face! Her face as I saw it when the sunshine made a halo round her +hair, and she prayed to her guardian angel." + +He shuddered slightly, and his voice died away in a half whisper. The +Cardinal pressed his hand again warmly and tenderly. + +"Courage, courage!" he said. "It is true we cannot do away with our +memories,--but we can try and make them sweet. And who knows how much +God may help us in the task? Never forget the words that tell us how +'the angels rejoice more over one sinner that repenteth than over +ninety and nine just persons.'" + +"Ah!" and the Abbe smiled, recovering somewhat of his usual manner, +"And that is so faithfully enforced upon us, is it not? The Churches +are all so lenient? And Society is so kind?--so gentle in its estimate +of its friends? Our Church, for example, has never persecuted a +sinner?--has never tortured an unbeliever? It has been so patient, and +so unwearying in searching for stray sheep and bringing them back with +love and tenderness and pity to the fold? And Churchmen never say +anything which is slanderous or cruel? And we all follow Christ's +teaching so accurately? Yes!--Ah well--I wonder! I wonder what will be +the end! I wonder why we came into life at all--I wonder why we go! +Fortunately for me, by and by, there will be an end of all wondering, +and you can write above my tomb, 'Implora pace'! The idea of commencing +a new life is to me, horrible,--I prefer 'Nirvana' or nothingness. +Never have I read truer words than those of Byron, + + 'Count o'er the joys thine hours have seen, + Count o'er thy days from anguish free, + And know whatever thou hast been, + 'Tis something better not to be.'" + +"I cannot think that is either true or good philosophy," said the +Cardinal, "It is merely the utterance of a disappointed man in a +misanthropic mood. There is no 'not to be' in creation. Each morning +that lights the world is an expression of 'to be'! And however much we +may regret the fact, my dear Vergniaud, we find ourselves in a state of +BEING and we must make the best of it,--not the worst. Is that not so?" + +His look was gentle and commanding,--his voice soft yet firm,--and the +worldly Abbe felt somewhat like a chidden child as he met the gaze of +those clear true eyes that were undarkened by any furtive hypocrisies +or specious meanings. + +"I suppose it is, but unfortunately I have made the worst of it," he +answered, "and having made the worst I see no best. Who is that +singing?" + +He lifted his hand with a gesture of attention as a rich mezzo-soprano +rang out towards them,-- + + "Per carita + Mostrami il cielo; + Tulto e un velo, + E non si sa + Dove e il cielo. + Se si sta + Cosi cola, + Non si sa + Se non si va + Ahi me lontano! + Tulto e in vano! + Prendimi in mano + Per carita!" + +"It is Angela," said the Cardinal, "She has a wonderfully sweet voice." + + "Prendimi in mano, + Per carita!" + +murmured Abbe Vergniaud, still listening, "It is like the cry of a lost +soul!" + +"Or a strayed one," interposed the Cardinal gently, and rising, he took +Vergniaud's arm, and leaned upon it with a kindly and familiar grace, +an action which implied much more than the mere outward expression of +confidence,--"Nothing is utterly lost, my dear friend. 'The very hairs +of our head are numbered,'--not a drop of dew escapes to waste,--how +much more precious than a drop of dew is the spirit of a man!" + +"It is not so unsullied," declared Vergniaud, who loved +controversy,--"Personally, I think the dew is more valuable than the +soul, because so absolutely clean!" + +"You must not bring every line of discussion to a pin's point," said +Bonpre smiling, as he walked slowly across the room still leaning on +the Abbe's arm. "We can reduce our very selves to the bodiless +condition of a dream if we take sufficient pains first to advance a +theory, and then to wear it threadbare. Nothing is so deceptive as +human reasoning,--nothing so slippery and reversible as what we have +decided to call 'logic.' The truest compass of life is spiritual +instinct." + +"And what of those who have no spiritual instinct?" demanded Vergniaud. + +"I do not think there are any such. To us it certainly often seems as +if there were masses of human beings whose sole idea of living is to +gratify their bodily needs,--but I fancy it is only because we do not +know them sufficiently that we judge them thus. Few, if any, are so +utterly materialistic as never to have had some fleeting intuition of +the Higher existence. They may lack the force to comprehend it, or to +follow its teaching,--but in my opinion, the Divine is revealed to all +men once at least in their lives." + +They had by this time passed out of the drawing-room, and now, +ascending three steps, they went through a curtained recess into Angela +Sovrani's studio,--a large and lofty apartment made beautiful by the +picturesque disorder and charm common to a great artist's surroundings. +Here, at a grand piano sat Angela herself, her song finished, her white +hands straying idly over the keys,--and near her stood the gentleman +whom the Abbe Vergniaud had called "a terrible reformer and Socialist" +and who was generally admitted to be something of a remarkable +character in Europe. Tall and fair, with very bright flashing eyes, and +a wonderfully high bred air of concentrated pride and resolution, +united to a grace and courtesy which exhaled from him, so to speak, +with his every movement and gesture, he was not a man to pass by +without comment, even in a crowd. A peculiar distinctiveness marked +him,--out of a marching regiment one would have naturally selected him +as the commanding officer, and in any crisis of particular social +importance or interest his very appearance would have distinguished him +as the leading spirit of the whole. On perceiving the Cardinal he +advanced at once to be presented, and as Angela performed the ceremony +of introduction he slightly bent one knee, and bowed over the venerable +prelate's extended hand with a reverence which had in it something of +tenderness. His greeting of Abbe Vergniaud was, while perfectly +courteous, not quite so marked by the grace of a strong man's +submission. + +"Ah, Mr. Leigh! So you have not left Paris as soon as you determined?" +queried the Abbe with a smile, "I thought you were bound for Florence +in haste?" + +"I go to Florence to-morrow," answered Leigh briefly. + +"So soon! I am indeed glad not to have missed you," said Cardinal +Bonpre cordially. "Angela, my child, let me see what you have been +doing. All your canvases are covered, or turned with their faces to the +wall;--are we not permitted to look at any of them?" + +Angela immediately rose from the piano, and wheeled a large oaken chair +with a carved and gilded canopy, into the centre of the studio. + +"Well, if you want to see my sketches--and they are only sketches," she +said,--"you must come and sit here. Now," as her uncle obeyed her, "you +look enthroned in state,--that canopy is just fitted for you, and you +are a picture in yourself!--Yes, you are, dearest uncle! And not all +the artists in the world could ever do you justice I Monsieur l'Abbe, +will you sit just where you please?--And Mr. Leigh, you have seen +everything, so it does not matter." + +"It matters very much," said Leigh with a smile, "For I want to see +everything again. If I may, I will stand here." + +And he took up his position close to the Cardinal's chair. + +"But where is the boy?" asked Vergniaud, "Where is the foundling of the +Cathedral?" + +"He left us some minutes ago," said Angela, "He went to your room, +uncle." + +"Was he pleased with the music?" asked the Cardinal. + +"I think he enjoyed every note of it," said Leigh, "A thoughtful lad! +He was very silent while I played,--but silence is often the most +eloquent appreciation." + +"Are we to be silent then over the work of Donna Sovrani?" enquired the +Abbe gaily. "Must we not express our admiration?" + +"If you have any admiration to express," said Angela carelessly, +setting, as she spoke, an easel facing the Cardinal; "but I am afraid +you will greatly disapprove of me and condemn all my work this year. I +should explain to you first that I am composing a very large +picture,--I began it in Rome some three years ago, and it is in my +studio there,--but I require a few French types of countenance in order +to quite complete it. The sketches I have made here are French types +only. They will all be reproduced in the larger canvas--but they are +roughly done just now. This is the first of them. I call it 'A Servant +of Christ, at the Madeleine, Paris.'" + +And she placed the canvas she held on the easel and stood aside, while +all three men looked at it with very different eyes,--one with poignant +regret and pain,--the other with a sense of shame,--and the third with +a thrill of strong delight in the power of the work, and of triumph in +the lesson it gave. + + + + +IX. + +Low beetling brows,--a sensual, cruel mouth with a loosely projecting +under-lip,--eyes that appeared to be furtively watching each other +across the thin bridge of nose,--a receding chin and a narrow cranium, +combined with an expression which was hypocritically humble, yet +sly,--this was the type Angela Sovrani had chosen to delineate, sparing +nothing, softening no line, and introducing no redeeming point,--a type +mercilessly true to the life; the face of a priest,--"A servant of +Christ," as she called him. The title, united with that wicked and +repulsive countenance, was a terribly significant suggestion. For some +minutes no one spoke,--and the Cardinal was the first to break the +silence. + +"Angela,--my dear child"--he said, in low, strained tones, "I am sorry +you have done this! It is powerful--so powerful that it is painful as +well. It cuts me to the heart that you should find it necessary to +select such an example of the priesthood, though of course I am not in +the secret of your aims--I do not understand your purpose . . ." + +He broke off,--and Angela, who had stood silent, looking as though she +were lost in a dream, took up his unfinished sentence. + +"You do not understand my purpose?--Dearest uncle, I hardly understand +it myself! Some force stronger than I am, is urging me to paint the +picture I have begun,--some influence more ardent and eager than my +own, burns like a fever in me, persuading me to complete the design. +You blame me for choosing such an evil type of priest? But there is no +question of choice! These faces are ordinary among our priests. At all +the churches, Sunday after Sunday I have looked for a good, a noble +face;--in vain! For an even commonly-honest face,--in vain! And my +useless search has ended by impressing me with profound sorrow and +disgust that so many low specimens of human intellect are selected as +servants of our Lord. Do not judge me too severely! I feel that I have +a work to do,--and a lesson to give in the work, when done. I may +fail;--I may be told that as a woman I have no force, and no ability to +make any powerful or lasting impression on this generation;--but at any +rate I feel that I must try! If priests of the Church were like you, +how different it would all be! But you always forget that you are an +exception to the rule,--you do not realise how very exceptional you +are! I told you before I showed you this sketch that you would probably +disapprove of it and condemn me,--but I really cannot help it. In this +matter nothing--not even the ban of the Church itself, can deter me +from fulfilling what I have designed to do in my own soul!" + +She spoke passionately and with ardour,--and the Cardinal looked at her +with something of surprise and trouble. The fire of genius is as he +knew, a consuming one,--and he had never entirely realized how +completely it filled and dominated this slight feminine creature for +whom he felt an almost paternal tenderness. Before he could answer her +the Abbe Vergniaud spoke. + +"Donna Sovrani is faithful to the truth in her sketch," he said, +"therefore, as a lover of truth I do not see, my dear Bonpre, why you +should object! If she has,--as she says,--some great aim in view, she +must fulfil it in her own way. I quite agree with her in her estimate +of the French priests,--they are for the most part despicable-looking +persons,--only just a grade higher than their brothers of Italy and +Spain. But what would you have? The iron hand of Rome holds them back +from progress,--they are speaking and acting lies; and like the +stagemimes, have to put on paint and powder to make the lies go down. +But when the paint and powder come off, the religious mime is often as +ill-looking as the stage one! Donna Sovrani has caught this particular +example, before he has had time to put on holy airs and turn up the +footlights. What do you think about it, Mr. Leigh?" + +"I think, as I have always thought," said Leigh quietly, "that Donna +Sovrani is an inspired artist,--and that being inspired it follows that +she must carry out her own convictions whether they suit the taste of +others or not. 'A Servant of Christ' is a painful truth, boldly +declared." + +Angela was unmoved by the compliment implied. She only glanced +wistfully at the Cardinal, who still sat silent. Then without a word +she withdrew the offending sketch from the easel and set another in its +place. + +"This," she said gently, "is the portrait of an Archbishop. I need not +name his diocese. He is very wealthy, and excessively selfish. I call +this, 'LORD, _I_ THANK THEE THAT I AM NOT AS OTHER MEN'." + +Vergniaud laughed as he looked,--he knew the pictured dignitary well. +The smooth countenance, the little eyes comfortably sunken in small +rolls of fat, the smug smiling lips, the gross neck and heavy +jaw,--marks of high feeding and prosperous living,--and above all the +perfectly self-satisfied and mock-pious air of the man,--these points +were given with the firm touch of a master's brush, and the Abbe, after +studying the picture closely, turned to Angela with a light yet +deferential bow. + +"Chere Sovrani, you are stronger than ever! Surely you have improved +much since you were last in Paris? Your strokes are firmer, your grasp +is bolder. Have your French confreres seen your work this year?" + +"No," replied Angela, "I am resolved they shall see nothing till my +picture is finished." + +"May one ask why?" + +A flash of disdain passed over the girl's face. + +"For a very simple reason! They take my ideas and use them,--and then, +when my work is produced they say it is _I_ who have copied from THEM, +and that women have no imagination! I have been cheated once or twice +in that way,--this time no one has any idea what I am doing." + +"No one? Not even Signer Varillo?" + +"No," said Angela, smiling a little, "Not even Signor Varillo. I want +to surprise him." + +"In what way?" asked the Cardinal, rousing himself from his pensive +reverie. + +Angela blushed. + +"By proving that perhaps, after all, a woman can do a great thing in +art,--a really great thing!" she said, "Designed greatly, and greatly +executed." + +"Does he not admit that, knowing you?" asked Aubrey Leigh suggestively. + +"Oh, he is most kind and sympathetic to me in my work," explained +Angela quickly, vexed to think that she had perhaps implied some little +point that was not quite in her beloved one's favour. "But he is like +most men,--they have a preconceived idea of women, and of what their +place should be in the world--" + +"Unchanged since the early phases of civilization, when women were +something less valuable than cattle?" said Leigh smiling. + +"Oh, the cattle idea is not exploded, by any means!" put in Vergniaud. +"In Germany and Switzerland, for example, look at the women who are +ground down to toil and hardship there! The cows are infinitely +prettier and more preferable, and lead much pleasanter lives. And the +men for whom these poor wretched women work, lounge about in cafes all +day, smoking and playing dominoes. The barbaric arrangement that a +woman should be a man's drudge and chattel is quite satisfactory, I +think, to the majority of our sex. It is certainly an odd condition of +things that the mothers of men should suffer most from man's cruelty. +But it is the work of an all-wise Providence, no doubt; and you, Mr. +Leigh, will swear that it is all right!" + +"It is all right," said Leigh quietly, "or rather I should say, it WILL +be all right,--and it would have been all right long ago, if we had, as +Emerson puts it, 'accepted the hint of each new experience.' But that +is precisely what we will not do. Woman is the true helpmate of man, +and takes a natural joy in being so whenever we will allow +it,--whenever we will give her scope for her actions, freedom for her +intelligence, and trust for her instincts. But for the present many of +us still prefer to play savage,--the complete savage in low life,--the +civilized savage in high. The complete savage is found in the dockyard +labourer, who makes a woman bear his children and then kicks her to +death,--the savage in high life is the man who equally kills the mother +of his children, but in another way, namely, by neglect and infidelity, +while he treats his numerous mistresses just as the Turk treats the +creatures of his harem--merely as so many pretty soft animals, +requiring to be fed with sweets and ornamented with jewels, and then to +be cast aside when done with. All pure savagery! But we are slowly +evolving from it into something better. A few of us there are, who +honour womanhood,--a few of us believe in women as guiding stars in our +troubled sky,--a few of us would work and climb to greatness for love +of the one woman we adore,--would conquer all obstacles,--ay, would die +for her if need be, of what is far more difficult, would live for her +the life of a hero and martyr! Yes--such things are done,--and men can +be found who will do such things--all for a woman's sake." + +There was a wonderful passion in his voice,--a deep thrill of +earnestness which carried conviction with sweetness. Cardinal Bonpre +looked at him with a smile. + +"You are perhaps one of those men, Mr. Leigh?" he said. + +"I do not know,--I may be," responded Leigh, a flush rising to his +cheeks;--"but,--so far, no woman has ever truly loved me, save my +mother. But apart from all personalities, I am a great believer in +women. The love of a good woman is a most powerful lever to raise man +to greatness,--I do not mean by 'good' the goody-goody creature,--no, +for that is a sort of woman who does more mischief in her so-called +'blameless' life than a very Delilah. I mean by 'good', a strong, pure, +great soul in woman,--sincere, faithful, patient, full of courage and +calm,--and with this I maintain she must prove a truly God-given +helpmate to man. For we are rough creatures at best,--irritable +creatures too!--you see," and here a slight smile lighted up his +delicate features, "we really do try more or less to reach heights that +are beyond us--we are always fighting for a heaven of some sort, +whether we make it of gold, or politics, or art;--it is a 'heaven' or a +'happiness' that we want;--we would be as gods,--we would scale +Olympus,--and sometimes Olympus refuses to be scaled! And then we +tumble down, very cross, very sore, very much ruffled;--and it is only +a woman who can comfort us then, and by her love and tenderness mend +our broken limbs and put salve on our wounded pride." + +"Well, then, surely the Church is in a very bad way," said Vergniaud +smiling, "Think of the vow of perpetual celibacy!" + +"Celibacy cannot do away with woman's help or influence," said Leigh, +"There are always mothers and sisters, instead of sweethearts and +wives. I am in favour of celibacy for the clergy. I think a minister of +Christ should be free to work for and serve Christ only." + +"You are quite right, Mr. Leigh;" said the Cardinal, "There is more +than enough to do in every day of our lives if we desire to truly +follow His commands. But in this present time, alas!--religion is +becoming a question of form--not of heart." + +"Dearest uncle, if you think that, you will not judge me too severely +for my pictures," said Angela quickly, throwing herself on her knees +beside him. "Do you not see? It is just because the ministers of Christ +are so lax that I have taken to studying them in my way,--which is, I +know, not your way;--still, I think we both mean one and the same +thing!" + +"You are a woman, Angela," said the Cardinal gently, "and as a woman +you must be careful of offences--" + +"Oh, a woman!" exclaimed Angela, her beautiful eyes flashing with +mingled tenderness and scorn, and her whole face lighting up with +animation, "Only a woman! SHE must not give a grand lesson to the +world! SHE must not, by means of brush or pen, point out to a corrupt +generation the way it is going! Why? Because God has created her to be +the helpmate of man! Excellent reason! Man is taking a direct straight +road to destruction, and she must not stop him by so much as lifting a +warning finger! Again, why? Only because she is a woman! But I--were I +twenty times a woman, twenty times weaker than I am, and hampered by +every sort of convention and usage,--I would express my thoughts +somehow, or die in the attempt!" + +"BRAVISSIMA!" exclaimed Vergniaud, "Well said, chere Sovrani!--Well +said! But I am the mocking demon always, as you know--and I should +almost be tempted to say that you WILL die in the attempt! I do not +mean that you will die physically,--no, you will probably live to a +good old age; people who suffer always do!--but you will die in the +allegorical sense. You will grow the stigmata of the Saviour in your +hands and feet--you will bear terrible marks of the nails hammered into +your flesh by your dearest friends! You will have to wear a crown of +thorns, set on your brows no doubt by those whom you most love . . . +and the vinegar and gall will be very quickly mixed and offered to you +by the whole world of criticism without a moment's hesitation! And will +probably have to endure your agony alone,--as nearly everyone runs away +from a declared Truth, orif they pause at all, it is only to spit upon +it and call it a Lie!" + +"Do not prophesy so cruel a fate for the child!" said the Cardinal +tenderly, taking Angela's hand and drawing her towards him. "She has a +great gift,--I am sure she will use it greatly. And true greatness is +always acknowledged in the end." + +"Yes, when the author or the artist has been in the grave for a hundred +years or more;" said Vergniaud incorrigibly. "I am not sure that it +would not be better for Donna Sovrani's happiness to marry the amiable +Florian Varillo at once rather than paint her great picture! Do you not +agree with me, Mr. Leigh?" + +Leigh was turning over an old volume of prints in a desultory and +abstracted fashion, but on being addressed, looked up quickly. + +"I would rather not presume to give an opinion," he said somewhat +coldly, "It is only on the rarest occasions that a woman's life is +balanced between love and fame,--and the two gifts are seldom bestowed +together. She generally has to choose between them. If she accepts love +she is often compelled to forego fame, because she merges herself too +closely into the existence of another to stand by her own +individuality. If on the other hand, she chooses fame, men are +generally afraid of or jealous of her, and leave her to herself. Donna +Sovrani, however, is a fortunate exception,--she has secured both +fame--and love." + +He hesitated a moment before saying the last words, and his brows +contracted a little. But Angela did not see the slight cloud of +vexation that darkened his eyes,--his words pleased her, and she smiled. + +"Ah, Mr. Leigh sees how it is with me!" she said, "He knows what good +cause I have to be happy and to do the best work that is in me! It is +all to make Florian proud of me!--and he IS proud--and he will be +prouder! You must just see this one more sketch taken from life,--it is +the head of one of our most noted surgeons,--I call it for the present +'A Vivisectionist'." + +It was a wonderful study,--perhaps the strongest of the three she had +shown. It was the portrait of a thin, fine, intellectual face, which in +its every line suggested an intense, and almost dreadful curiosity. The +brows were high, yet narrow,--the eyes clear and cold, and pitiless in +their straight regard,--the lips thin and compressed,--the nose +delicate, with thin open nostrils, like those of a trained sleuth-hound +on the scent of blood. It was a three-quarter-length picture, showing +the hand of the man slightly raised, and holding a surgeon's knife,--a +wonderful hand, rather small, with fingers that are generally termed +"artistic"--and a firm wrist, which Angela had worked at patiently, +carefully delineating the practised muscles employed and developed in +the vivisectiomst's ghastly business. + +Aubrey Leigh stood contemplating it intently. + +"I think it is really the finest of all the types," he said presently, +"One can grasp that man's character so thoroughly! There is no pity in +him,--no sentiment--there is merely an insatiable avidity to break open +the great treasure-house of Life by fair means or foul! It is very +terrible--but very powerful." + +"I know the man," said Abbe Vergniaud, "Did he sit to you willingly?" + +"Very willingly indeed!" replied Angela, "He was quite amused when I +told him frankly that I wanted him as a type of educated and refined +cruelty." + +"Oh, these fellows see nothing reprehensible in their work," said +Leigh, "And such things go on among them as make the strongest man sick +to think of! I know of two cases now in a hospital; the patients are +incurable, but the surgeons have given them hope of recovery through an +'operation' which, however, in their cases, will be no 'operation' at +all, but simply vivisection. The poor creatures have to die anyhow, it +is true, but death might come to them less terribly,--the surgeons, +however, will 'operate', and kill them a little more quickly, in order +to grasp certain unknown technicalities of their disease." + +Angela looked at him with wide-open eyes of pain and amazement. + +"Horrible!" she murmured, "Absolutely horrible! Can nothing be done to +interfere with, or to stop such cruelty?" + +"Nothing, I fear," said Leigh, "I have been abroad some time, studying +various 'phases', of its so-called intellectual and scientific life, +and have found many of these phases nothing but an output of masked +barbarity. The savages of Thibet are more pitiful than the French or +Italian vivisectionist,--and the horrors that go on in the laboratories +would not be believed if they were told. Would not be believed! They +would be flatly denied, even by the men who are engaged in them! And +were I to write a plain statement of what I know to be true, and send +it to an English journal, it would not be put in, not even in support +of the Anti-Vivisection Society, lest it might 'offend' the foreign +schools of surgery, and also perhaps lest English schools might prove +not altogether free from similar crimes. If, however, by chance, such a +statement were published, it would be met with an indignant chorus of +denial from every quarter of accusation! How, then, can justice be +obtained from what I call the New Inquisition? The old-time Inquisitors +tortured their kind for Religion's sake,--the modern ones do it in the +name of Science,--but the inhumanity, the callousness, the inborn +savage love of cruelty--are all the same in both instances." + +Cardinal Bonpre shuddered as he heard. + +"Lord Christ, where art thou!" he thought, "Where is Thy spirit of +unfailing tenderness and care? How is Thy command of 'love one another' +obeyed!" Aloud he said, "Surely such deeds, even in the cause of +surgical science, ought not to be permitted in a Christian city?" + +"Christian city!" and Vergniaud laughed, "You would not apply that +designation to Paris, would you? Paris is hopelessly, riotously +pagan;--nay, not even pagan, for the pagans had gods and Paris has +none! Neither Jove--nor Jupiter--nor Jehovah! As for the Christ,--He is +made the subject of many a public caricature,--yes!--you may see them +in the side-streets pasted upon the walls and hoardings!--and also of +many a low lampoon;--but He is not accepted as a Teacher, nor even as +an Example. His reign is over, in Paris at least!" + +"Stop!" said the Cardinal, rising suddenly, "I forbid you, Vergniaud, +to tell me these things! If they are true, then shame upon you and upon +all the clergy of this unhappy city to stand by and let such disgrace +to yourselves, and blasphemy to our Master, exist without protest!" + +His tall spare figure assumed a commanding grandeur and authority,--his +pale face flushed and his eyes sparkled--he looked inspired--superb--a +very apostle burning with righteous indignation. His words seemed to +have the effect of an electric shock on the Abbe,--he started as though +stung by the lash of a whip, and drew himself up haughtily . . . then +meeting the Cardinal's straight glance, his head drooped, and he stood +mute and rigid. Leigh, though conscious of embarrassment as the witness +of a strong reproof administered by one dignitary of the Church to +another, yet felt deeply interested in the scene,--Angela shrank back +trembling,--and for a few moments which, though so brief, seemed +painfully long, there was a dead silence. Then Verginaud spoke in low +stifled accents. + +"You are perfectly right, Monseigneur! It IS shame to me!--and to the +priesthood of France! I am no worse than the rest of my class,--but I +am certainly no better! Your reproach is grand,--and just! I accept it, +and ask your pardon!" + +He bent one knee, touched the Cardinal's ring with his lips, and then +without another word turned and left the room. The Cardinal gazed after +his retreating figure like a man in a dream, then he said gently, + +"Angela, go after him!--Call him back!--" + +But it was too late. Vergniaud had left the house before Angela could +overtake him. She came back hurriedly to say so, with a pale face and +troubled look. Her uncle patted her kindly on the shoulder. + +"Well, well!--It will not hurt him to have seen me angry," he said +smiling, "Anger in a just cause is permitted. I seem to have frightened +you, Angela? Of a truth I have rather frightened myself! There, we will +not talk any more of the evils of Paris. Mr. Leigh perhaps thinks me an +intolerant Christian?" + +"On the contrary I think you are one of the few 'faithful' that I have +ever met," said Leigh, "Of course I am out of it in a way, because I do +not belong to the Roman Church. I am supposed--I say 'supposed' +advisedly--to be a Church of England man, or to put it more +comprehensively, a Protestant, and I certainly am so much of the latter +that I protest against all our systems altogether!" + +"Is that quite just?" asked Bonpre gently. + +"Perhaps not!--but what is one to do? I am not alone in my ideas! One +of our English bishops has been latterly deploring the fact that out of +a thousand lads in a certain parish nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine of +them never go to church! Well, what can you expect? I do not blame +those nine-hundred and-ninety-nine at all. I am one with them. _I_ +never go to church." + +"Why?" + +"Simply because I never find any touch of the true Spirit of Christ +there--and the whole tone of the place makes me feel distinctly +un-Christian. The nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine youths possibly would +sympathise with me. A church is a building more or less beautiful or +ugly as the case may be, and in the building there is generally a man +who reads prayers in a sing-song tone of voice, and perhaps another man +who preaches without eloquence on some text which he utterly fails to +see the true symbolical meaning of. There are no Charles Kingsleys +nowadays,--if there were, I should call myself a 'Kingsleyite'. But as +matters stand I am not moved by the church to feel religious. I would +rather sit quietly in the fields and hear the gentle leaves whispering +their joys and thanksgivings above my head, than listen to a human +creature who has not even the education to comprehend the simplest +teachings of nature, daring to assert himself as a teacher of the +Divine. My own chief object in life has been and still is to speak on +this and similar subjects to the people who are groping after lost +Christianity. They need helping, and I want to try in my way to help +them." + +"Groping after lost Christianity!" echoed the Cardinal, "Those words +are a terrible indictment, Mr. Leigh!" + +"Yet in your own soul your Eminence admits it to be true," returned +Leigh quickly,--"I can see the admission in your eyes,--in the very +expression of your face! You feel in yourself that the true spirit of +Christ is lacking in all the churches of the present day,--that the +sheep are straying for lack of the shepherd, and that the wolf is in +the fold! You know it,--you feel it,--you see it!" + +Cardinal Bonpre's head drooped. + +"God help me and forgive me, I am afraid I do!" he said sorrowfully. "I +see the shadow of the storm before it draws nigh,--I feel the terror of +the earthquake before it shakes down the edifice! No, the world is not +with Christ to-day!--and unhappily it is a fact that Christ's ministers +in recent years have done more to sever Him from Humanity than any +other power could ever have succeeded in doing. Not by action, but by +inertia!--dumbness--lack of protest,--lack of courage! Only a few stray +souls stand out firm and fair in the chaos,--only a few!" + +"'I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot,--I would thou +wert cold or hot! So because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot +I will spew thee out of my mouth!'" quoted Leigh, his eyes flashing and +his voice trembling with repressed earnestness, "That is the trouble +all through! Apathy,--dead, unproductive apathy and laissez-faire!--Ah, +I believe there are some of us living now who are destined to see +strange and terrible things in this new century!" + +"For myself," said the Cardinal slowly, "I think there is not much time +left us! I feel a premonition of Divine wrath threatening the world, +and when I study the aspect of the times and see the pride, +licentiousness, and wealth-worship of men, I cannot but think the days +are drawing near when our Master will demand of us account of our +service. It is just the same as in the case of the individual +wrong-doer, when it seems as if punishment were again and again +retarded, and mercy shown,--yet if all benefits, blessings and warnings +are unheeded, then at last the bolt falls suddenly and with terrific +effect. So with nations--so with churches--so with the world!" + +His voice grew feeble, and his eyes were clouded with pain. + +"You are fatigued," said Leigh gently, "And I ought not to have stayed +so long. I will bid you farewell now. If I am in Rome when you are +there, I trust you will permit me to pay my respects to you?" + +"It will be a pleasure to see you, my son," answered the Cardinal, +pressing his hand and courteously preventing him from making the formal +genuflection, "And let me add that it will help me very much to hear +from you what progress you make in your intention of working for +Christ. For,--when you speak to the people as a teacher, it is in His +name, is it not?" + +"In His name, and I pray in His spirit," said Leigh, "But not through +any church." + +The Cardinal sighed, but said no more, and Leigh turned to Angela. + +"Good-bye," he said, "I may come and see the picture in Rome?" + +"You may indeed," and Angela gave him her hand in frank friendliness, +"I shall feel the necessity of your criticism and the value of your +opinion." + +He looked at her intently for a moment. + +"Be of good courage," he then said in a low tone, "'Work out your own +salvation', it is the only way! Fulfil the expression of your whole +heart and soul and mind, and never heed what opposing forces may do to +hinder you. You are so clear-brained, so spiritually organised, that I +cannot imagine your doing anything that shall not create a power for +good. You are sometimes inclined to be afraid of the largeness of your +own conceptions in the picture you are dreaming of,--I can see +that,--but do not fear! The higher influences are with you and in +you;--give yourself up to them with absolute confidence! Good-bye--God +bless you!" He stooped and kissed her hand,--then left the room. + +Angela looked after him, and a half sigh escaped her lips +unconsciously. The Cardinal watched her with rather a troubled look. +After a little silence he said, + +"You must pardon me, my child, if I seemed over hasty in my judgment of +your work . . ." + +"Dearest uncle, do not speak of it!" exclaimed Angela, "You were pained +and sorry to see such a 'servant of Christ' as the type I chose,--you +could not help expressing your feeling--it was natural . . ." + +"Yes, I was vexed,--I own it!--" went on Bonpre, "For I know many +priests, poor, patient, simple men, who do their best for our Lord +according to their measure and capability,--men who deserve all honour, +all love, all respect, for the integrity of their lives,--still--I am +aware that these are in the minority, and that men of the kind your +sketch depicts, compose alas!--the majority. There is a frightful +preponderance of evil influences in the world! Industry, and commerce, +and science have advanced, and yet a noble and upright standard of +conduct among men is sadly lacking. Men are seeking for happiness in +Materialism, and find nothing but satiety and misery,--satiety and +misery which become so insupportable that very often suicide presents +itself as the only way out of such a tangle of wretchedness! Yes, +child!--all this is true--and if you think you have a lesson to give +which will be useful in these dark days, no one,--I least of +all--should presume to hinder you from giving it. Still, remember that +the results of work are not with the worker to determine--they rest +with God." + +"Truly I hope they do," said Angela fervently, "For then all bad work +will pass away and only the good and necessary remain." + +"That always is the rule," said the Cardinal, "No criticism can kill +good work or vivify bad. So be happy, Angela mia! Paint your great +picture with courage and hope--I will neither judge nor condemn, and if +the world's verdict should be cruel, mine shall be kind!" + +He smiled and stroked her soft hair, then taking her arm he leaned upon +it affectionately as they left the studio together. + + + + +X. + +The next day, and the next after that, were passed by the Cardinal in +gratifying a certain eagerness shown by his young foundling, Manuel, to +see the churches and great public buildings of Paris. The boy had a +quiet, straightforward way of expressing his wishes and opinions, and a +certain marked individuality in his manner--in fact, so simple and +straight were his words, and so much to the point, that they sometimes +caused confusion to his hearers. Once or twice he gave offence, as for +example, on visiting a great church where there were numerous jewelled +relics and priceless treasures of old lace and embroidery, when he said +suddenly: + +"There is a woman just outside the door, very ill and poor, with two +little starving children;--would it not be well to sell some of the +jewels here and give her the money?" + +The custodian looked amazed, and the attendant priest who was escorting +Cardinal Bonpre through the building, frowned. + +"The treasures of the Church are not to be sold," he said curtly. "The +beggar outside is no doubt a trained hypocrite." + +"Christ would not say so," answered Manuel softly,--"He would not, even +if He knew her to be a hypocrite, retain anything of value for Himself, +if by giving it to her, He could ease her pain and poverty. I cannot +understand why the Church should keep jewels." + +"That is because you are ignorant," said the priest roughly. + +Manuel raised his grave blue eyes and fixed them steadily upon him. + +"That may be," he said, "Yet I think it is nowhere written in the +Gospel that Christ cared for the world's wealth or the world's +possessions. When they are offered to Him did he not say, 'Get thee +behind me, Satan'! The only gem he prized was the 'pearl of great +price,'--the pure and perfect human soul." + +"The Church is the manufactory of those pearls," said the priest, with +something between a grin and a sneer. + +"Then the Church needs no other jewels" returned Manuel quietly, with a +little gesture of his hand, "These glittering baubles you show, are out +of place." + +The priest glanced him over with angry contempt. Then he said to the +Cardinal, + +"Your Eminence will have trouble with that boy," he said. "His opinions +are heretic." + +The Cardinal smiled a little. + +"You think so? Nay, there is something of truth in what he says, +notwithstanding his simplicity of utterance, which is not perhaps in +accordance with convention. I confess that I share his opinions +somewhat. Certainly I esteem myself happy that in my far-off diocese +there are none of the world's precious things, but only the unprized +prayers of the faithful." + +The priest said nothing in reply,--but he was conscious of discomfort +and uneasiness, and hurried through the rest of his duties with an +ill-grace, annoyed, though he knew not why, by the very presence of +Manuel. The boy, however, paid no heed to his angry glances, and noted +everything in his own quiet meditative way,--a way which was a +singularly winning one, graced as it was by an almost scholarly +thoughtfulness united to the charm of youth. Once, before a magnificent +priest's garment of lace, he paused, and touched the substance lightly. + +"See," he said softly, looking wistfully up in the Cardinal's face, +"See all the leaves and rosebuds worked in, this by the needle,--and +think how many human eyes have strained at it, and grown dull and blind +over it! If one could only believe that the poor eyes were comforted at +all in the following of the difficult thread!--but no,--the sunshine +must have lessened and the days grown darker and darker, till death +came and gently shut up the lids of the tired orbs of earthy vision, +and opened those of the soul to Light indeed! This work speaks with a +thousand tongues! I can hear them! +Torture,--poverty,--pain,--pitilessness,--long hours,--scant +reward,--tired fingers,--weary hearts!--and a priest of Christ wears +this to perform Christ's service! Clad in a garment of human suffering, +to preach mercy! Is it not strange?" + +"You think too deeply, my child," said the Cardinal, moved by the +tender pity in Manual's voice, "Nothing is accomplished without pain in +this world,--our dear Lord Himself suffered pain." + +"True," said Manuel, "But His pain was endured that there might be less +of it for others! He asked His children in this world to love one +another for His sake--not to grind each other down! Not to make +unnecessary hardships for each other! But it seems as if He had asked +in vain!" + +He was silent after this, and refrained from remark even when, during +their visit to Notre Dame, the treasury was unlocked for the Cardinal's +inspection, and the relics formerly contained in the now disused +"Sainte Chapelle," were shown,--including the fragments of the "crown +of thorns," and a nail from the "true cross." The Cardinal was silent +too. He had no remark to offer on these obvious "imaginations" of the +priesthood. Then they went up together to the platform on the summit of +the Cathedral, and looked at the great bell known as the "Bourdon de +Notre Dame";--and here they found a little wizened old man sitting +carelessly on the edge of a balustrade, in a seemingly very dangerous +position, who nodded and smiled familiarly as they appeared. He acted +as cicerone of the summit of the North Tower, and was soon at their +side explaining volubly all that was of interest. + +"Tired,--oh yes, one gets tired!" he admitted, in response to a query +from the Cardinal as to whether he did not find his duties fatiguing at +his age, "But after all, I like the griffins and dragons and devils' +faces up here, better than the griffins and dragons and devils down +there,--below on the Boulevards! I call this Heaven, and down there in +the streets, Hell. Yes, truly! It is wholesome up here,--the sky seems +very near, and the sculptured beasts do no harm. But down in the +streets one feels and smells the dirt and danger directly. I sit here +all by myself for hours thinking, when no one comes to visit the +tower,--for sometimes a whole day passes and no one wishes to ascend. +And there is a moral in that, Monseigneur, if one has eyes to see +it;--days pass, years, in the world,--and no one wishes to ascend!--to +Heaven, I mean!--to go down to Hell is delightful, and everyone is +ready for it! It is at night that the platform here is most +beautiful,--oh yes, at night it is very fine, Monseigneur!--but it is +only madmen and dreamers who call me up in the night hours, yet when +they do I never refuse to go with them, for look you, I am a light +sleeper and have no wife to bid me keep my bed. Yes,--if the +authorities knew that I took anybody up to the tower at night they +would probably dismiss me," and he chuckled like an old schoolboy with +a sense of his own innate mischief and disobedience, "But you see they +do not know! And I learn a great deal from the strange persons who come +at night,--much more than from the strange persons who come by day. +Now, the last so strange person that came here by night--you would not +perhaps believe it, Monseigneur, but it was a priest! Yes," and the old +fellow laughed, "a priest who had suddenly found out that the Church +was not following its Master! Yes, yes! . . . just fancy killing +himself for that!" + +"Killing himself!" cried the Cardinal, "What do you mean?" + +"You would like to hear the story?--ah, take care, mon ange!" he cried, +as he perceived Manuel standing lightly near the brink of the platform, +and stretching out his arms towards the city, "Thou art not a bird to +fly from that edge in the air! What dost thou see?" + +"Paris!" replied the boy in strangely sorrowful accents, turning his +young, wistful face towards the Cardinal, his hair blown back in the +light wind, "All Paris!" + +"Ah!--'tis a fine sight, all Paris!" said the old guide--"one of the +finest in the world, to judge by the outside of it. But the inside is a +very different matter; and if Paris is not a doomed city, then there is +no God, and I know nothing of the Bible. It has got all the old sins in +a new shape, and revels in them. And of the story of the priest, if you +would hear it;--ah!--that is well!" he said, as Manuel left the giddy +verge of the platform where he had been standing, and drew near. "It is +safer to be away from that edge, my child! And for the poor priest, it +happened in this way,--it was a fair night, and the moon was high--I +was dozing off in a chair in my room below, when the bell rang quickly, +yet softly. I got up with pleasure, for I said to myself, 'here is an +artist or a poet,--one of those persons who are unlike anyone +else'--just as I am myself unlike anyone else--'and so we two shall +have a pleasant evening.' But when I opened the door there was no one +but a priest, and poor-looking even at that; and he was young and pale, +and very uneasy in his manner, and he said to me, 'Jean Lapui'--(that +is my name)--'let me pass up to the platform.' 'Willingly,' said I, 'if +I may go with you.' 'Nay, I would rather be alone,' he answered. 'That +may not be,' I told him, 'I am as pleased to see the moonbeams shining +on the beasts and devils as any man,--and I shall do you no harm by my +company.' Well, he agreed to have me then, and up we went the three +hundred and seventy-eight steps,--(it is a long way, Monseigneur;--)and +he mounted quickly, I slowly,--but always keeping my eye upon him. At +last we reached this platform, and the moonlight was beautiful, and +clear as day. Then my little priest sat down and began to laugh. 'Ha, +my Lapui!' he said, 'Is it not droll that this should be all a lie! All +this fine building, and all the other fine buildings of the kind in +Paris! Strange, my Lapui, is it not, that this Cathedral should be +raised to the worship of a God whom no one obeys, or even thinks of +obeying! All show, my good Lapui! All to feed priests like me, and keep +them going--but God has nothing to do with it--nothing at all, I swear +to you!'--'You may be right, mon reverend,' I said, (for I saw he was +not in a mood to be argued with)--"Yet truly the Cathedral has not +always been a place of holiness. In seventeen ninety-three there was +not much of our Lord or the blessed Saints in it.' 'No, you are right, +Lapui!' he cried, 'Down came the statue of the Virgin, and up went the +statue of Liberty! There was the crimson flare of the Torch of +Truth!--and the effigies of the ape Voltaire and the sensualist +Rousseau, took the places of St. Peter and St. Paul! Ha!--And they +worshipped the goddess of Reason--Reason, impersonated by Maillard the +ballet-dancer! True to the life, my Lapui!--that kind of worship has +lasted in Paris until now!--it goes on still--Reason,--man's idea of +Reason,--impersonated by a ballet dancer! Yes,--the shops are full of +that goddess and her portraits, Jean Lapui! And the jewellers can +hardly turn out sufficient baubles to adorn her shrine!' He laughed +again, and I took hold of him by the arm. 'See here, petit pere,' I +said, 'I fancy all is not well with you.' 'You are right,' he answered, +'all is very ill!' 'Then will you not go home and to bed?' I asked him. +'Presently--presently;' he said, 'if I may tell you something first!' +'Do so by all means, reverend pere,' said I, and I sat down near him. +'It is just this, Lapui,' and he drew out a crucifix from his breast +and looked at it very earnestly, 'I am a priest, as you see; and this +symbol represents my faith. My mother told me that to be a priest and +to serve God was the highest happiness that could befall a man. I +believed it,--and when I look at the stars up there crowding around us +in such vast circles,--when I look at all this moonlight and the +majesty of creation around me, I believe it still! Up here, it seems +there MAY be a God; down there,' and he pointed towards the streets, 'I +know there is a devil! But I have discovered that it is no use telling +the people about God, because they do not believe in Him. They think I +am telling them a lie because it is my metier to tell lies. And also +because they think I have neither the sense nor the ability to do +anything else. They know they are telling lies themselves all day and +every day. Some of them pretend to believe, because they think it best +to be on the safe side even by feigning,--and they are the worst +hypocrites. It drives me mad, Lapui, to perform Mass for liars! If it +were only unbelievers! but liars!--liars! Liars who lie on their +death-beds, telling me with mock sighs of penitence that they believe +in God when they do not! I had a dream last night--you shall tell me if +I was mistaken in it,--it was a dream of this very tower of Notre Dame. +I was up here as I am now--and the moonlight was around me as it is +now--and I thought that just behind the wing of that third angel's head +carved yonder--do you see?' and he got up and made me get up too, and +turned me round with his hand on my shoulder--'a white dove had made +its resting-place. Is there a white dove there, Lapui? If there is I +shall be a happy man and all my griefs will be at an end! Will you go +and look--and tell me if there is a white dove nestling there? Then I +will say good-night to you and go home.' God forgive me!--I thought to +humor him in his fancy, and so I left him to walk those five +steps--only five at the utmost--and see if perhaps among the many doves +that fly about the towers, it might not be that a white one, as he +said, should have chosen to settle in the place he pointed out to me, +'for,' thought I, 'he will be quiet then and satisfied.' And like a +blind fool I went--and when I came back the platform was empty!--Ah, +Monseigneur!--he had said good-night indeed, and gone home!" + +"You mean that he flung himself from this parapet?" said Bonpre, in a +low, horrified tone. + +"That was the way of it, Monseigneur," said Lapui +commiseratingly,--"His body was found next day crushed to bits on the +pavement below; but somehow no one troubled much about it, or thought +he had thrown himself from the tower of Notre Dame. It was said that he +had been murdered and thrown out of a window, but nobody knew how or +when. Of course I could have spoken, but then I should have got into +trouble. And I avoid trouble whenever I can. A very strange thing it is +that no one has ever been suspected of leaping from Notre Dame into the +next world since Victor Hugo's great story was written. 'It is against +the rules,' say the authorities, 'to mount the towers at night.' True, +but rules are not always kept. Victor Hugo's 'Quasimodo,' who never +lived, is the only person the wiseacres associate with such a deed. And +I,--I could tell many a strange story; only it is better to be silent! +Life is hard living,--and when a priest of the Church feels there is no +God in this world, why what is there left for him except to try and +find out if there is in the next?" + +"Suicide is not the way to find Heaven," said the Cardinal gravely. + +"Maybe not,--maybe not," and the old custodian turned to lead the way +down the steps of the tower, "But when the brain is gone all through +grief at losing God, it may chance that God sees the conditions of +things, and has mercy. Events happen in this world of such a kind as to +make anyone who is not a saint, doubt the sense as well as the goodness +of the Creator,--of course that is a wicked thing to say, for we make +our own evils, no doubt--" + +"That is very certain," said the Cardinal, "The unhappy man you have +told me of should have trusted God to the end, whether those whom he +preached to, believed his message or not. Their conduct was not his +business,--his task was to declare, and not to judge." + +"Now that is very well put!" and the old man paused on the stairway and +looked round approvingly. "Of course that is said as only a wise man +could say it, for after all, Christ Himself did not judge any one in +any case. He came to save us all, not to punish us." + +"Then why does not everyone remember that, and try to save one another +rather than to condemn?" asked Manuel suddenly. + +They had reached the bottom of the tower stairway, and old Jean Lapui, +shading his eyes from the glare of the daylight with one wrinkled hand, +looked at the boy with a smile of compassionate interest. + +"Why does not everyone remember? Why does not everyone do as He did? +Ah, that is a question! You are young, and you will find out many +answers to it before you are much older. One fact is sure,--that if +everybody did remember Him and lived exactly as He wished, we should +have a new Heaven and a new Earth; and I will tell you something else," +and the old fellow looked sly and mischievous, "No offence meant--no +offence!--but there would be no churches and no priests! Believe me, I +speak the truth! But this would be a great happiness; and is not to be +our portion yet! Good-day, Monseigneur!--A thousand pardons for my +wicked speech! Good-day!" + +"Good-day!" responded the Cardinal gently, "Be careful of your night +visitors, my friend! Do not for the future leave them alone to plunge +into the Infinite without a warning!" + +The old man smiled deprecatingly. + +"Truly, Monseigneur, I am generally careful. I do not know when I have +spoken so freely to anyone as I have to you; for I am generally in a +bad humour with all Church dignitaries,--and of course I know you for a +Cardinal by your dress, while you might truly be a saint from your +manner;--so I should have held my tongue about the flight into the air +of the little priest. But you will say nothing, for you are discreet; +and even if you did, and I were asked about it, I should know nothing. +Oh, yes, I can tell lies as fast as anybody else!--Yes, truly! I do not +suppose anyone, not even an Archbishop himself, could surpass me in +lying!" + +"And are you not ashamed to lie?" asked Bonpre, with an intense +vibration of pain in his voice as he put the question. + +"Heaven bless you, no, Monseigneur!" replied Lapui cheerfully, "For is +not the whole world kept going by lies? Dear me, if we all told the +truth there would be an end of everything! I am a philosopher in my +way, Monseigneur,--and I assure you that a real serious truth told in +Paris without any gloss upon it, would be like an earthquake in the +city,--great houses would come down and numbers of people would be +killed by it! Good-day, Monseigneur!--Good-day." + +And still smiling and chuckling, the custodian of the North tower +retired into his den there to await fresh visitors. The Cardinal walked +slowly to the corner of the street where his carriage awaited him,--his +head bent and his eyes downcast; Manuel stepped lightly along beside +him, glancing at his pale face from time to time with a grave and +tender compassion. When they were seated in the vehicle and driving +homewards the boy spoke gently-- + +"You grieve too much for others, dear friend! You are now distressed +because you have heard the story of one unhappy man who sought to find +God by self-destruction, and you are pained also lest another man +should lose God altogether by the deliberate telling of lies. All such +mistakes and follies of the world weigh heavily on your heart, but they +should not do so,--for did not Christ suffer all this for you when He +was crucified?" + +The Cardinal sighed deeply. + +"Yes, my child, but He told us plainly WHY He suffered. It was that we +might learn to follow Him, and that there should be less suffering for +the future. And surely we have not obeyed Him, or there could not be so +much pain and difficulty in the world as there is now." + +"If He come again, you think He would be grieved and disappointed in +His followers?" queried Manuel softly. + +"If He came again, I fear He would not find much of His teaching in any +of the creeds founded on His name! If He came again, then indeed might +the churches tremble, totter and fall!" + +"If He came again," pursued Manuel, still in the same soft, even voice, +"how do you think He would come?" + +"'Watch ye therefore for ye know not when He cometh,'" murmured the +Cardinal,--"My dear child, I think if He came again it would be +perhaps in the disguise of one who is poor and friendless 'despised and +rejected of men,' as when He first glorified the earth by His presence; +and I fear that in such plight He would find Himself, as before, +unwelcome." + +Manuel made no reply just then, as they had arrived at home. The +servant who admitted them told them that Donna Sovrani had a visitor in +her studio,--so that the Cardinal and his young attendant went straight +to their own apartments. + +"Read to me, Manuel," then said Bonpre, seating himself near the +window, and looking out dreamily on the rich foliage of the woods and +grassy slopes that stretched before him, "Find something in the Gospels +that will fit what we have seen to-day. I am tired of all these temples +and churches!--these gorgeous tombs and reliquaries; they represent +penances and thank-offerings no doubt, but to me they seem useless. A +church should not be a shrine for worldly stuff, unless indeed such +things are used again for the relief of poverty and suffering; but they +are not used; they are simply kept under lock and key and allowed to +accumulate,--while human creatures dwelling perhaps quite close to +these shrines, are allowed to die of starvation. Did you think this +when you spoke to the priest who was offended with you to-day?" + +"Yes, I thought it," replied Manuel gently, "But then he said I was a +heretic. When one loves God better than the Church is one called a +heretic?" + +Cardinal Bonpre looked earnestly at the boy's inspired face,--the face +of a dreaming angel in its deep earnestness. + +"If so, then I am heretic," he answered slowly, "I love the Creator as +made manifest to me in His works,--I love Him in every flower which I +am privileged to look upon,--I find Him in every art and science,--I +worship Him in a temple not made with hands,--His own majestic +Universe! Above all churches,--above all formulated creeds and systems +I love Him! And as declared in the divine humanity of Christ I believe +in, and adore Him! If this makes me unworthy to be His priest and +servant then I confess my unworthiness!" + +He had spoken these words more to himself than Manuel, and in his +fervour had closed his eyes and clasped his hands,--and he almost +fancied that a soft touch, light as a falling rose-leaf, had for a +second rested on his brow. He looked up quickly, wondering whether it +was Manuel who had so touched him,--the boy was certainly near +him,--but was already seated with the Testament open ready to read as +requested. The Cardinal raised himself in his chair,--a sense of +lightness, and freedom, and ease, possessed him,--the hopeless and +tired feeling which had a few minutes since weighed him down with an +undefinable languor was gone,--and his voice had gained new strength +and energy when he once more spoke. + +"You have found words of our Lord which will express what we have seen +to-day?" he asked. + +"Yes," replied Manuel, and he read in a clear vibrating tone, "Woe unto +you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because ye build the tombs of +the prophets and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous." Here he +paused and said, while the Cardinal gazed at him wonderingly, "Is not +that true of Paris? There is their great Pantheon where most of their +prophets lie,--their poets and their teachers whom they wronged and +slandered in their lifetime--" + +"My child," interrupted Bonpre gently, "Poets and so-called teachers +are not always good men. One named Voltaire, who scoffed at God, and +enunciated the doctrine of materialism in France, is buried there." + +"Nevertheless he also was a prophet," persisted Manuel, in his quiet, +half-childlike, half-scholarly way, "A prophet of evil. He was the +incarnation of the future spirit of Paris. He lived as a warning of +what was to come,--a warning of the wolves that were ready to descend +upon the Master's fold. But Paris was then perhaps in the care of those +'hirelings' who are mentioned here as caring not for the sheep." + +He turned a few pages and continued reading. + +"'Well hath Esais prophesied of you, hypocrites, as it is written, This +people honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me. +Howbeit in vain do they worship me, TEACHING FOR DOCTRINE THE +COMMANDMENTS OF MAN.'" + +He emphasised the last few words and looked up at the Cardinal, then he +went on. + +"'Whosoever will come after me let him deny himself and take up his +cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, +but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake the same shall save it.'" + +"Yes," said Cardinal Bonpre fervently, "It is all there!--'Whosoever +will come after me let him deny himself,' LET HIM DENY HIMSELF! That is +the secret of it. Self-denial! And this age is one of self-indulgence. +We are on the wrong road, all of us, both Church and laity,--and if the +Master should come He will not find us watching, but sleeping." + +He broke off, as at that moment a knock came at the door and a servant +entered the room bringing him a letter. It was from the Abbe Vergniaud, +and ran as follows:-- + +"TRES CHER MONSIGNEUR! I preach the day after tomorrow at Notre Dame de +Lorette, and if you wish to do a favour to a dying man you will come +and hear me. I am moved to say things I have never said before, and it +is possible I may astonish and perchance scandalise Paris. What +inspires me I do not know,--perhaps your well-deserved reproach of the +other day--perhaps the beautiful smile of the angel that dwells in +Donna Sovrani's eyes,--perhaps the chance meeting with your Rouen +foundling on the stairs as I was flying away from your just wrath. He +had been gathering roses in the garden, and gave me one with a grace in +the giving which made the flower valuable. It still lives and blooms in +a glass on my writing-table at which I have been jotting down the notes +of what I mean to say. WHAT I MEAN TO SAY! There is more in those words +than there seems, if you could but guess all! I shall trust to the day +itself for the necessary eloquence. The congregation that assembles at +the Lorette is a curious and a mixed one. 'Artistes' of the stage and +the cafe chantant are among the worshippers;--dames of rank and fashion +who worship the male 'artistes,' and the golden youth of Paris who +adore the very points of the shoes of the female ones,--are generally +there also. It is altogether what 'perfide Albion,' or Dame Grundee +would call a 'fast' audience. And the fact that I have arranged to +preach there will draw a still greater mixture and 'faster' quality, as +I am, alas!--a fashion in preachers. I pray you to come, or I shall +think you have not forgiven me! + +"VERGNIAUD." + +Cardinal Bonpre folded the letter and put it aside with a curious +feeling of compassion for the writer. + +"Yes, I will go," he thought, "I have never heard him preach, though I +know by report that he is popular. I was told once that he seems to be +possessed by a very demon of mockery, and that it is this spirit which +makes his attraction for the people; but I hope it is something more +than that--I hope--" Here interrupting his meditations he turned to +Manuel. + +"So you gave the Abbe Vergniaud a rose the other day, my child?" + +"Yes," replied Manuel, "He looked sad when I met him,--and sometimes a +flower gives pleasure to a person in sorrow." + +The Cardinal thought of his own roses far away, and sighed with a +sensation of longing and homesickness. + +"Flowers are like visible messages from God," he said, "Messages +written in all the brightest and loveliest colours! I never gather one +without finding out that it has something to say to me." + +"There is a legend," said Manuel, "which tells how a poor girl who has +lost every human creature she loved on earth, had a rose-tree she was +fond of, and every day she found upon it just one bloom. And though she +longed to gather the flower for herself she would not do so, but always +placed it before the picture of the Christ. And God saw her do this, as +He sees everything. At last, quite suddenly she died, and when she +found herself in Heaven, there were such crowds and crowds of angels +about her that she was bewildered, and could not find her way. All at +once she saw a pathway edged with roses before her, and one of the +angels said, 'These are all the roses you gave to our Lord on earth, +and He has made them into a pathway for you which will lead you +straight to those you love!' And so with great joy she followed the +windings of the path, seeing her roses blossoming all the way, and she +found all those whom she had loved and lost on earth waiting to welcome +her at the end!" + +"A pretty fancy," said the Cardinal smiling, "And, as not even a +thought is wasted, who knows if it might not prove true?" + +"Surely the beautiful must be the true always!" said Manuel. + +"Not so, my child,--a fair face may hide an evil soul." + +"But only for a little while," answered the boy, "The evil soul must +leave its impress on the face in time, if life lasts long enough." + +"That is quite possible," said Bonpre, "In fact, I think it often +happens,--only there are some people who simulate the outward show of +goodness and purity perfectly, while inwardly 'they are as ravening +wolves,' and they never seem to drop the mask. Others again--" Here he +paused and looked anxiously at his young companion, "I wonder what you +will be like when you grow up, Manuel!" + +"But if I never grow up, what then?" asked Manuel with a smile. + +"Never grow up? You mean--" + +"I mean if I die," said Manuel, "or pass through what is called dying +before I grow up?" + +"God forbid!" said the Cardinal gently, "I would have you live--" + +"But why," persisted Manuel, "since death is a better life?" + +Bonpre looked at him wistfully. + +"But if you grow up and are good and great, you may be wanted in the +world," he said. + +An expression of deep pain swept like a shadow across the boy's fair +open brow. + +"Oh no!" he said quietly, "the world does not want me! And yet I love +the world--not because it is a world, for there are millions upon +millions of worlds,--they are as numerous as flowers in a garden--but +because it is a sorrowful world,--a mistaken world,--and because all +the creatures in it have something of God in them. Yes, I love the +world!--but the world does not love me." + +He spoke in a tone of gentle pathos, with the resigned and patient air +of one who feels the burden of solitude and the sense of +miscomprehension. And closing the Testament he held he rested his +clasped hands upon it, and for a moment seemed lost in sorrowful +reverie. + +"I love you," said the Cardinal tenderly, "And I will take care of you +as well as I can." + +Manuel looked up at him. + +"And that will be well indeed, my lord Cardinal!" he said softly, "And +you serve a Master who will hereafter say to you, remembering your +goodness,--'Verily, in asmuch as ye have done it unto the least of my +brethren ye have done it unto Me.'" + +He smiled; and the Cardinal meeting his glance wondered whether it was +the strong level light of the sinking sun through the window-pane that +made such a glory shine upon his face, and gave such a brilliancy to +his deep and steadfast eyes. + + + + +XI. + +Meanwhile, Angela Sovrani was detained in her studio by the fascinating +company and bewildering chatter of a charming and very well-known +personage in Europe,--a dainty, exquisitely dressed piece of femininity +with the figure of a sylph and the complexion of a Romney "Lady +Hamilton,"--the Comtesse Sylvie Hermenstein, an Austro-Hungarian of the +prettiest and most bewitching type, who being a thorough bohemienne in +spirit, and having a large fortune at her disposal, travelled +everywhere, saw everything, and spent great sums of money not only in +amusing herself, but in doing good wherever she went. By society in +general, she was voted "thoroughly heartless,"--when as a matter of +fact she had too much heart, and gave her "largesse" of sympathy +somewhat too indiscriminately. Poor people worshipped her,--the +majority of the rich envied her because most of them had ties and she +had none. She might have married scores of times, but she took a +perverse pleasure in "drawing on" her admirers till they were just on +the giddy brink of matrimony,--then darting off altogether she left +them bewildered, confused, and not a little angry. + +"They tell me I cannot love, cara mia," she was saying now to Angela +who sat in pleased silence, studying her form, her colouring, and her +animated expression; with all the ardour of an artist who knows how +difficult it is to catch the swift and variable flashes of beauty on +the face of a pretty woman, who is intelligent as well as personally +charming. "They tell me I have no heart at all. Me--Sylvie!--no heart! +Helas!--I am all heart! But to love one of those stupid heavy men, who +think that just to pull a moustache and smile is sufficient to make a +conquest--ah, no!--not for me! Yet I am now in love!--truly!--ah, you +laugh!--" and she laughed herself, shaking her pretty head, adorned +with its delicate "creation" in gossamer and feathers, which was +supposed to be a hat--"Yes, I am in love with the Marquis Fontenelle! +Ah!--le beau Marquis! He is so extraordinary!--so beautiful!--so +wicked! It must be that I love him, or why should I trouble myself +about him?" + +She spread out her tiny gloved hands appealingly, with a delightful +little shrug of her shoulders, and again Angela laughed. + +"He is good-looking, certainly," she said, "He is very like Miraudin. +They might almost be brothers." + +"Miraudin, ce cher Miraudin!" exclaimed the Comtesse gaily, "The +greatest actor in Europe! Yes, truly!--I go to the theatre to look at +him and I almost fancy I am in love with him instead of Fontenelle, +till I remember he stage-manages;--ah!--then I shudder!--and my shudder +kills my love! After all it is only his resemblance to the Marquis that +causes the love,--and perhaps the shudder!" + +"Sylvie, Sylvie!" laughed Angela, "Can you not be serious? What do you +mean?" + +"I mean what I say," declared Sylvie, "Miraudin used to be the darling +of all the sentimental old maids and little school-girls who did not +know him off the stage. In Paris, in Rome, in Vienna, in +Buda-Pesth--always a conqueror of ignorant women who saw him in his +beautiful 'make-up'! Yes, he was perfectly delightful,--this big +Miraudin, till he became his own manager and his own leading actor as +well! Helas! What it is to be a manager! Do you know? It is to keep a +harem like a grand Turk;--and woe betide the woman who joins the +company without understanding that she is to be one of the many! The +sultana is the 'leading lady'. Poor Miraudin!--he must have many little +faggots to feed his flame! Oh, you look so shocked! But the Marquis is +just like him,--he also stage-manages." + +"In what way?" + +"Ah, he has an enormous theatre,--the world! A big stage,--society! The +harem is always being replenished! And he plays his part so well! He +has what the wise-acrescall 'perverted morals',--they are so +charming!--and he will not marry. He says, 'Why give myself to one when +I can make so many happy!' And why will not I, Sylvie Hermenstein, be +one of those many? Why will I not yield to the embraces of Monsieur le +beau Marquis? Not to marry him,--oh, no! so free a bird could not have +his wings clipped! And why will I not see the force of this?--" + +She stopped, for Angela sprang towards her exclaiming, + +"Sylvie! Do you mean to tell me that the Marquis Fontenelle is such a +villain?--" + +"Tais-toi! Dear little flame of genius, how you blaze!" cried Sylvie, +catching her friend by the hand and kissing it, "Do not call Fontenelle +a villain--he is too charming!--and he is only like a great many other +men. He is a bold and passionate person; I rather like such +characters,--and I really am afraid--afraid--" here she hesitated, then +resumed, "He loves me for the moment, Angela, and I--I very much fear I +love him for a little longer than that! C'est terrible! He is by no +means worthy of it,--no, but what does that matter! We women never +count the cost of loving--we simply love! If I see much of him I shall +probably sink into the Quartier Latin of love--for there is a Quartier +Latin as well as a high class Faubourg in the passion,--I prefer the +Faubourg I confess, because it is so high, and respectable, and clean, +and grand--but--" + +"Sylvie," said Angela determinedly, "You must come away from +Paris,--you must not see this man--" + +"That is what I have arranged to do," said Sylvie, her beautiful violet +eyes flashing with mirth and malice intermingled, "I am flying from +Paris . . . I shall perhaps go to Rome in order to be near you. You are +a living safety in a storm,--you are so serene and calm. And then you +have a lover who believes in the ideal and perfect sympathy." + +Angela smiled,--and Sylvie Hermenstein noted the warm and tender flush +of pleasure that spread over her fair face. + +"Yes, Florian is an idealist," she said, "There is nothing of the brute +in him." + +"And you think Fontenelle a brute?" queried Sylvie, "Yes, I suppose he +is; but I have sometimes thought that all men are very much +alike,--except Florian!" She paused, looking rather dubiously, and with +a touch of compassion at Angela, "Well!--you deserve to be happy, +child, and I hope you will be! For myself, I am going to run away from +Monsieur le Marquis with as much speed as if I had stolen his watch!" + +"It is the best thing you can do," said Angela with a little sigh of +relief, "I am glad you are resolved." + +Comtesse Sylvie rose from her chair and moved about the studio with a +pretty air of impatience. + +"If his love for me could last," she said, "I might stay! I would love +him with truth and passion, and I would so influence him that he should +become one of the most brilliant leading men of his time. For he has +all the capabilities of genius,--but they are dormant,--and the joys of +self-indulgence appeal to him more strongly than high ambition and +attainment. And he could not love any women for more than a week or a +month at most,--in which temperament he exactly resembles the +celebrated Miraudin. Now I do not care to be loved for a week or a +month--I wish to be loved for always,--for always!" she said with +emphasis, "Just as your Florian loves you." + +Angela's eyes grew soft and pensive. + +"Few men are like Florian," she said. Again Sylvie looked at her +doubtfully, and there was a moment's silence. Then Sylvie resumed. + +"Will you help me to give a little lesson to Monsieur le Marquis, +Angela?" + +"Willingly, if I can. But how?" + +"In this way. It is a little drama! To-morrow is Saturday and you +'receive.' 'Tout Paris', artistic Paris, at any rate, flocks to your +studio. Your uncle, the Cardinal Bonpre, is known to be with you, and +your visitors will be still more numerous. I have promised Fontenelle +to meet him here. I am to give him his answer--" + +"To what?" enquired Angela. + +"To his proposal." + +"Of marriage?" + +"Dear me, no!" And Sylvie smiled, but there was a look of pain in her +eyes, "He has an idyllic house buried in the Foret St. Germain, and he +wants me to take possession . . . you know the rest! He is a villain? +Yes--he is like Miraudin, who has a luxurious flat in Paris and sends +each lady of his harem there in turn. How angry you look! But, my dear, +I am not going to the house in the Foret, and I shall not meet him +here. He will come--looking charming as usual, and he will wait for me; +but I shall not arrive. All I want you to do for me is to receive him +very kindly, talk to him very sweetly, and tell him quite suddenly that +I have left Paris." + +"What good will that do?" enquired Angela, "Could you not write it to +him?" + +"Of course I could write it to him but--" Here Sylvie paused and turned +away her head. Angela, moved by quick instinct, went to her and put her +arm around her waist. + +"Now there are tears in your eyes, Sylvie," she said, "You are +suffering for this man's heartlessness and cruelty. For it IS +heartless,--it is insulting, and selfish, and cruel to offer you +nothing but dishonour if he knows you love him." + +Sylvie took out a tiny cobweb of a lace handkerchief and dried her +tears. + +"No, I will not have him called heartless, or cruel," she said, "He is +merely one of his class. There are hundreds like him in Paris. Never +mind my tears!--they are nothing. There are hundreds of women who would +accept his proposals,--and he thinks I must be like them,--ready to +fall into his arms like a ripe peach at a touch! He thinks all I say to +him is an assumed affectation of virtue, and that he can easily break +down that slight barricade. He tells me I am a charming preacher, but +that he could never learn anything from sermons!" She laughed, "Oh, he +is incorrigible! But I want you to let him know that for once he is +mistaken. Will you? And you shall not have to say even the smallest +figment of an untruth,--your news will be quite correct--for I leave +Paris to-morrow morning." + +She was very quiet now as she spoke--her brilliant eyes were dark with +thought, and her delicate face wore a serious, almost melancholy +expression. + +"Dear Sylvie!" said Angela, kissing her soft cheek, "You really care +for this wretched man?" + +"I am not sure," she answered with a touch of hesitation in her voice, +"I think I do--and yet despise myself for it!--but--who knows what +wonders change of air and scene may work! You see, if I go away he will +forget at once, and will trouble himself about me no more." + +"Are you sure of that?" + +Sylvie hesitated. + +"Well, no, I cannot be quite certain,--you see no woman has ever +avoided him,--it will be quite a new experience for him, and a strange +one!" Her laughter rippled out musically on the air. "Positively I do +not think he will ever get over it!" + +"I begin to understand," said Angela, "You wish to make this callous +man of the world realise that a woman may be beautiful, and brilliant, +and independent, and yet live a pure, good life amid numerous +temptations?" + +"Yes,--I wish him to feel that all women are not to be led away by +flattery, or even by the desire to be loved, which is the hardest +temptation of all to resist! Nothing so hard as that, Angela! Nothing +so hard! I have often thought what a contemptible creature Goethe's +Gretchen was to allow herself to be tempted to ruin with a box of +jewels! Jewels! Worthless baubles! I would not cross the road to look +at the biggest diamond in the world! But to be loved! To feel that you +are all in all to one man out of the whole world! That would be +glorious! That I have never felt--that I shall never know!" + +Angela looked at her sympathetically,--what a strange thing it was, she +thought, that this pretty creature, with her winsome, bright, +bewitching ways, should be craving for love, while she, Angela Sovrani, +was elected to the happiness of having the absolute devotion of such an +ideal lover as Florian Varillo! + +"But I am becoming quite tragic in my remarks," went on Sylvie, +resuming her usual gaiety, "Melodramatic, as they say! If I go on in +this manner I shall qualify to be the next 'leading lady' to Miraudin! +Quelle honneur! Good-bye Angela;--I will not tell you where I am going +lest Fontenelle should ask you,--and then you would have to commit +yourself to a falsehood,--it is enough to say I have left Paris." + +"Shall I see you again soon?" said Angela, holding her by both hands +and looking at her anxiously. + +"Yes, very soon, before the winter is over at any rate. You sweet, +calm, happy Angela! I wonder if anything could ever whip you in a +storm!" + +"Would you like to see me in a stormy humour?" asked Angela, smiling. + +"No, not exactly;--but,--you are TOO quiet,--too secure--too satisfied +in your art and your surroundings; and you do not enter at all into the +passions and griefs of other people. You are absorbed in your love and +your work,--a beautiful existence! Only I hope the gods will not wake +you up some day!" + +"I am not asleep," said Angela, "nor dreaming." + +"Yes you are! You dream of beautiful things,--and the world is full of +ugly ones; you dream of love and constancy, and purity,--and the world +is full of spite, and hate, and bribery, and wickedness; you have a +world of your own,--but Angela, it is a glass world!--in which only the +exquisite colours of your own soul are reflected, take care that the +pretty globe does not break!--for if it does you will never be able to +put it together again! Adieu!" + +"Adieu!" and Angela returned her loving embrace with equal affection, +"I will announce your departure to the Marquis Fontenelle to-morrow." + +"You will? Sweet Angela! And when you hear from me, and know where I +am, you will write me a long, long letter and tell me how he looked, +and what he said, and whether he seemed sorry or indifferent, or angry, +or ashamed--or--" + +Before she could finish the sentence the studio door was thrown open, +and the servant announced, "Monsieur le Marquis Fontenelle!" + + + + +XII. + +A moment's flashing glance of half-amused dismay at Angela, and the +Comtesse Sylvie had vanished. Passing quickly behind one of the several +tall tapestry screens that adorned the studio, she slipped away through +a little private door at which Angela's "models" presented themselves, +a door which led into the garden and then into the Bois, and making +straight for her carriage which was in waiting round the corner, she +sprang into it and was rapidly driven away. Meanwhile, Angela Sovrani, +rather bewildered by her friend's swift departure, was left alone to +face the Marquis, who entered almost on the heels of the servant who +announced him, and in one swift survey of the studio saw that the +object of his search was not there. Concealing his disappointment, +however, under an admirable show of elegant indifference, he advanced +towards Angela and saluted her with a courtly old-world grace that very +well became his handsome face and figure. + +"I must apologise for this intrusion," he said, speaking in deep, soft +accents which gave a singular charm to his simplest words, "But--to be +quite frank with you--I thought I should find the Comtesse Hermenstein +here." + +Angela smiled. In her heart she considered the man a social reprobate, +but it was impossible to hear him speak, and equally impossible to look +at him without a vague sense of pleasure in his company. + +"Sylvie was here a moment ago," she answered, still smiling. + +The Marquis took one or two quick impulsive steps forward--then +checking himself, stopped short, and selecting a chair deliberately sat +down. + +"I understand!" he said, "She wished to avoid me, and she has done so. +Well!--I would not run after her for the world. She must be perfectly +free." + +Angela looked at him with a somewhat puzzled air. She felt herself in a +delicate and awkward position. To be of any use in this affair now +seemed quite impossible. Her commission was to have told the Marquis +that Sylvie had left Paris, but she could not say that now as Sylvie +was still in the city. Was she supposed to know anything about the +Marquis's dishonourable proposals to her friend? Surely not! Then what +was she to do? She stood hesitating, glancing at the fine, clear-cut, +clean-shaven face of Fontenelle, the broad intellectual brows, and the +brilliant hazel eyes with their languid, half-satirical expression, and +her perplexity increased. Certainly he was a man with a grand +manner,--the manner of one of those never-to-be-forgotten haughty and +careless aristocrats of the "Reign of Terror" who half redeemed their +vicious lives by the bravery with which they faced the guillotine. +Attracted, yet repelled by him, Angela had always been,--even when she +had known no more of him than is known of a casual acquaintance met at +different parties and reunions, but now that she was aware of Sylvie's +infatuation, the mingled attraction and revulsion became stronger, and +she caught herself wishing fervently that the Marquis would rouse +himself from his lethargy of pleasure, and do justice to the +capabilities which Nature had evidently endowed him with, if a fine +head and noble features are to be taken as exponents of character. +Fontenelle himself, meanwhile, leaning carelessly back in the chair he +had taken, looked at her with a little quizzical lifting of his +eyebrows. + +"You are very silent, mademoiselle," he broke out at last, "Have you +nothing to say to me?" + +At this straight question Angela recovered her equanimity. + +"I HAD something to say to you, Marquis," she answered quietly, "but it +was to have been said to-morrow." + +"To-morrow? Ah, yes! You receive your world of art to-morrow," he said, +"and I was to come and meet la Comtesse,--and of course she would not +have been here! I felt that by a natural instinct! Something +psychological--something occult! I saw her carriage pass my windows up +the Champs Elysees,--and I followed in a common fiacre. I seldom ride +in a common fiacre, but this time I did so. It was an excitement--la +chasse! I saw the little beauty arrive at your door,--I gave her time +to pour out all her confidences,--and then I arranged with myself and +le bon Dieu to escort her home." + +"You arranged well," said Angela, inclined to laugh at his easy +audacity, "but le bon Dieu was evidently not of your opinion,--and you +must remember that the most excellent arrangements are not always +carried out." + +"True!" and Fontenelle smiled, "In the case of the fascinating Sylvie, +I do not know when I have had so much trouble about a woman. It is +interesting, but vexatious. Sometimes I think I shall have to give up +and gallop off the hunting-field altogether--" + +"Excuse me, Marquis," said Angela coldly, "Sylvie Hermenstein is my +friend--pray understand that I cannot allow her to be spoken of in the +tone of badinage you are pleased to assume." + +He looked up with a curious air of surprise and mock penitence. + +"Pardon! But there is no badinage at all about the very serious +position in which I find myself," he said, "You, mademoiselle, as a +woman, have not the slightest idea of the anxiety and trouble your +charming sex gives to ours. That is, of course, when you are +charming--which is not always. Now Sylvie, your friend Sylvie--is so +distinctly charming that she becomes provoking and irritating. I am +sure she has told you I am a terrible villain . . ." + +"She has never said so,--never spoken one word against you!" interposed +Angela. + +"No? That is curious--very curious! But then Sylvie is curious. You see +the position is this;--I wish to give her all I am worth in the world, +but she will not have it,--I wish to love her, but she will not be +loved--" + +"Perhaps," said Angela, gaining courage to speak plainly, "Perhaps your +love is not linked with honour?" + +"Honour?" echoed the Marquis, lifting his finely arched eyebrows, "You +mean marriage? No--I confess I am not guilty of so much impudence. For +why should the brilliant Sylvie become the Marquise Fontenelle? It +would be a most unhappy fate for her, because if there WERE a Marquise +Fontenelle, my principles would oblige me to detest her!" + +"You would detest your own wife!" said Angela surprised. + +"Naturally! It is the fashion. To love one's wife would be petite +bourgoisie--nothing more absurd! It is the height of good form to +neglect one's wife and adore one's mistress,--the arrangement works +perfectly and keeps a man well balanced,--perpetual complaint on one +side, perpetual delight on the other." + +He laughed, and his eyes twinkled satirically. + +"Are you serious?" asked Angela. + +"I never was more serious in my life," declared the Marquis +emphatically, "With all my heart I wish to make the delicious pink and +white Sylvie happy,--I am sure I could succeed in my way. If I should +ever allow myself to do such a dull thing as to marry,--imagine +it!--such a dull and altogether prosy thing!--my gardener did it +yesterday;--I should of course choose a person with a knowledge of +housekeeping and small details,--her happiness it would be quite +unnecessary to consider. The maintenance of the establishment, the +servants, and the ever increasing train of milliners and dressmakers +would be enough to satisfy Madame la Marquise's ambitions. But for +Sylvie,--half-fairy, half-angel as she is,--there must be poetry and +moonlight, flowers, and romance, and music, and tender +nothings,--marriage does not consort with these delights. If you were a +little school-girl, dear Donna Sovrani, I should not talk to you in +this way,--it would not be proper,--it would savour of Lord Byron, and +Maeterlinck, and Heinrich Heine, and various other wicked persons. It +would give you what the dear governesses would call 'les idees folles', +but being an artist, a great artist, you will understand me. Now, you +yourself--you will not marry?" + +"I am to be married next year if all is well, to Florian Varillo," said +Angela, "Surely you know that?" + +"I have heard it, but I will not believe it," said the Marquis airily, +"No, no, you will never marry this Florian! Do not tell me of it! You +yourself will regret it. It is impossible! You could not submit to +matrimonial bondage. If you were plain and awkward I should say to you, +marry, and marry quickly, it is the only thing for you!--but being what +you are, charming and gifted, why should you be married? For +protection? Every man who has once had the honour of meeting you will +constitute himself your defender by natural instinct. For +respectability? Ah, but marriage is no longer respectable,--the whole +estate of matrimony is as full of bribery and corruption as the French +War Office." + +He threw himself back in his chair and laughed, running one hand +through his hair with a provoking manner of indifferent ease and +incorrigible lightheartedness. + +"I cannot argue with you on the matter," said Angela, rather vexedly, +"Your ideas of life never will be mine,--women look at these things +differently . . ." + +"Poor dear women! Yes!--they do," said the Marquis, "And that is such a +pity,--they spoil all the pleasure of their lives. Now, just think for +a moment what your friend Sylvie is losing! A devoted, ardent and +passionate lover who would spare no pains to make her happy,--who would +cherish her tenderly, and make her days a dream of romance! I had +planned in my mind such a charming boudoir for Sylvie, all ivory and +white satin,--flowers, and a soft warm light falling through the +windows,--imagine Sylvie, with that delicate face of hers and white +rose skin, a sylph clad in floating lace and drapery, seen in a faint +pink hue as of a late sunset! You are an artist, mademoiselle, and you +can picture the fairy-like effect! I certainly am not ashamed to say +that this exquisite vision occupies my thoughts,--it is a suggestion of +beauty and deliciousness in a particularly ugly and irksome world,--but +to ask such a dainty creature as Sylvie to be my housekeeeper, and make +up the tradesmen's books, I could not,--it would be sheer insolence on +my part,--it would be like asking an angel just out of heaven to cut +off her wings and go downstairs and cook my dinner!" + +"You please yourself and your own fanciful temperament by those +arguments," said Angela,--"but they are totally without principle. Oh, +why," and raising her eyes, she fixed them on him with an earnest look, +"Why will you not understand? Sylvie is good and pure,--why would you +persuade her to be otherwise?" + +Fontenelle rose and took one or two turns up and down the room before +replying. + +"I expect you will never comprehend me," he said at last, stopping +before Angela, "In fact, I confess sometimes I do not comprehend +myself. Of course Sylvie is good and pure--I know that;--I should not +be so violently in love with her if she were not--but I do not see that +her acceptance of me as a lover would make her anything else than good +and pure. Because I know that she would be faithful to me." + +"Faithful to you--yes!--while you were faithless to her!" said Angela, +with a generous indignation in her voice, "You would expect her to be +true while you amused yourself with other women. A one-sided +arrangement truly!" + +The Marquis seemed unmoved. + +"Every relation between the sexes is one-sided," he declared, "It is +not my fault! The woman gives all to one,--the man gives a little to +many. I really am not to blame for falling in with this general course +of things. You look very angry with me, Donna Sovrani, and your eyes +positively abash me;--you are very loyal to your friend and I admire +you for it; but after all, why should you be so hard upon me? I am no +worse than Varillo." + +Angela started, and her cheeks crimsoned. + +"Than Varillo? What do you mean?" + +"Well, Varillo has Pon-Pon,--of course she is useful--what he would do +without her I am sure I cannot imagine,--still she IS Pon-Pon." + +He paused, checked by Angela's expression. + +"Please explain yourself, Marquis," she said in cold, calm accents, "I +am at a loss to understand you." + +Fontenelle glanced at her and saw that her face had grown as pale as it +was recently flushed, and that her lips were tightly set; and in a +vague way he was sorry to have spoken. But he was secretly chafing at +everything,--he was angry that Sylvie had escaped him,--and angrier +still that Donna Sovrani should imply by her manner, if not by her +words, that she considered him an exceptional villain, when he himself +was aware that nearly all the men of his "Cercle" resembled him. + +"Pon-Pon is Signor Varillo's model," he said curtly, "I thought you +were aware of it. She appears in nearly all his pictures." + +Angela breathed again. + +"Oh, is that all!" she murmured, and laughed. + +Fontenelle opened his eyes a little, amazed at her indifference. What a +confiding, unsuspecting creature was this "woman of genius"! This time, +however, he was discreet, and kept his thoughts to himself. + +"That is all," he said, "But . . . artists have been known to admire +their models in more ways than one." + +"Yes," said Angela tranquilly, "But Florian is entirely different to +most men." + +The Marquis was moved to smile, but did not. He merely bowed with a +deep and reverential courtesy. + +"You have reason to know him best," he said, "and no doubt he deserves +your entire confidence. For me--I willingly confess myself a +vaurien--but I assure you I am not as bad as I seem. Your friend Sylvie +is safe from me." + +Angela's eyes lightened,--her mind was greatly relieved. + +"You will leave her to herself--" she began. + +"Certainly I will leave her to herself. She will not like it, but I +will do it! She is going away to-morrow,--I found that out from her +maid. Why will you beautiful ladies keep maids? They are always ready +to tell a man everything for twenty or forty francs. So simple!--so +cheap!--Sylvie's maid is my devoted adherent,--and why?--not only on +account of the francs, but because I have been careful to secure her +sweetheart as my valet, and he depends upon me to set him up in +business. So you see how easy it is for me to be kept aware of all my +fair lady's movements. This is how I learned that she is going away +to-morrow--and this is why I came here to-day. She has given me the +slip--she has avoided me and now I will avoid her. We shall see the +result. I think it will end in a victory for me." + +"Never!" said Angela, "You will never win Sylvie to your way of +thinking, but it is quite possible she may win you!" + +"That would be strange indeed," said the Marquis lightly, "The world is +full of wonders, but that would be the most wonderful thing that ever +happened in it! Commend me to the fair Comtesse, Mademoiselle, and tell +her it is _I_ who am about to leave Paris." + +"Where are you going?" asked Angela impulsively. + +"Ah, feminine curiosity!" said the Marquis laughing, "How it leaps out +like a lightning flash, even through the most rigid virtue! Chere +Mademoiselle, where I am going is my own secret, and not even your +appealing looks will drag it out of me! But I am in no hurry to go +away; I shall not fly off by the midnight train, or the very early one +in the morning, as your romantic friend the Comtesse Sylvie will +probably do,--I have promised the Abbe Vergniaud to hear him preach on +Sunday. I shall listen to a farewell sermon and try to benefit by +it,--after that I take a long adieu of France;--be good enough to say +to the Countesse with my humblest salutations!" + +He bowed low over Angela's hand, and with a few more light parting +words took his graceful presence out of the room, and went down the +stairs humming a tune as he departed. + +After he had gone Angela sat for some minutes in silence thinking. Then +she went to her desk and wrote a brief note to the Comtesse as +follows:-- + +"Dear Sylvie: Dismiss your maid. She is in the employ of Fontenelle and +details to him all your movements. He has been here for half an hour +and tells me that he takes a long adieu of France after Sunday, and he +has promised me to LEAVE YOU TO YOURSELF. I am sure you are glad of +this. My uncle and I go to Rome next week. + +"ANGELA." + +She sealed and marked the envelope "private", and ringing the bell for +her man-servant requested him to deliver it himself into the hands of +the Comtesse Hermenstein. This matter dismissed from her mind she went +to a portfolio full of sketches, and turned them over and over till she +came to one dainty, small picture entitled, "Phillida et les Roses". It +was a study of a woman's nude figure set among branching roses, and was +signed "Florian Varillo". Angela looked at it long and earnestly,--all +the delicate flesh tints contrasting with the exquisite hues of red and +white roses were delineated with wonderful delicacy and precision of +touch, and there was a nymph-like grace and modesty about the woman's +form and the drooping poise of her head, which was effective yet subtle +in suggestion. Was it a portrait of Pon-Pon? Angry with herself Angela +tried to put the hateful but insinuating thought away from her,--it was +the first slight shadow on the fairness of her love-dream,--and it was +like one of those sudden clouds crossing a bright sky which throws a +chill and depression over the erstwhile smiling landscape. To doubt +Florian seemed like doubting her own existence. She put the "Phillida" +picture back in the portfolio and paced slowly to and fro in her +studio, considering deeply. Love and Fame--Fame and Love! She had +both,--and yet Aubrey Leigh had said such fortune seldom fell to the +lot of a woman as to possess the two things together. Might it not be +her destiny to lose one of them? If so, which would she prefer to keep? +Her whole heart, her whole impulses cried out, "Love"! Her intellect +and her ambitious inward soul said, "Fame"! And something higher and +greater than either heart, intellect, or soul whispered to her inmost +self, "Work!--God bids you do what is in you as completely as you can +without asking for a reward of either Love or Fame." "But," she argued +with herself, "for a woman Love is so necessary to the completion of +life." And the inward monitor replied, "What kind of Love? Ephemeral or +immortal? Art is sexless;--good work is eternal, no matter whether it +is man or woman who has accomplished it." And then a great sigh broke +from Angela's lips as she thought, "Ah, but the world will never own +woman's work to be great even if it be so, because men give the +verdict, and man's praise is for himself and his own achievements +always." "Man's praise," went on the interior voice, "And what of God's +final justice? Have you not patience to wait for that, and faith to +work for it?" Again Angela sighed; then happening to look up; in the +direction of the music-gallery which occupied one end of her studio +where the organ was fitted, she saw a fair young face peering down at +her over the carved oak railing, and recognised Manuel. She +smiled;--her two or three days' knowledge of him had been more than +sufficient to win her affection and interest. + +"So you are up there!" she said, "Is my uncle sleeping?" + +"No," replied Manuel, "he is writing many letters to Rome. Will you +come and play to me?" + +"Willingly!" and Angela went lightly up the winding steps of the +gallery, "But you have been out all day,--are you not tired?" + +"No, not now. I WAS weary,--very weary of seeing and hearing so many +false things . . ." + +"False things?" echoed Angela thoughtfully, as she seated herself at +the organ, "What were they?" + +"Churches principally," said Manuel quietly; "How sad it is that people +should come into those grand buildings looking for Christ and never +finding Him!" + +"But they are all built for the worship of Christ," said Angela, +pressing her small white fingers on the organ keys, and drawing out one +or two deep and solemn sounds by way of prelude, "Why should you think +He is not in them?" + +"He cannot be," answered Manuel, "They are all unlike Him! Remember how +poor he was!--He told His followers to despise all riches and worldly +praise!--and now see how the very preachers try to obtain notice and +reward for declaring His simple word! The churches seem quite empty of +Him,--and how empty too must be the hearts and souls of all the poor +people who go to such places to be comforted!" + +Angela did not reply,--her hands had unconsciously wandered into the +mazes of a rich Beethoven voluntary, and the notes, firm, grand, and +harmonious, rolled out in the silence with a warm deep tenderness that +thrilled the air as with a rhythmic beat of angels' wings. Lost in +thought, she scarcely knew what she played, nor how she was +playing,--but she was conscious of a sudden and singular exaltation of +spirit,--a rush of inward energy that was almost protest,--a force +which refused to be checked, and which seemed to fill her to the very +finger tips with ardours not her own,--martyrs going to the destroying +flames might have felt as she felt then. There was a grave sense of +impending sorrow hanging over her, mingled with a strong and prayerful +resolve to overcome whatever threatened her soul's peace,--and she +played on and on, listening to the rushing waves of sound which she +herself evoked, and almost losing herself in a trance of thought and +vision. And in this dreamy, supersensitive condition, she imagined that +even Manuel's face fair and innocent as it was, grew still more +beautiful,--a light, not of the sun's making, seemed to dwell like an +aureole in his clustering hair and in his earnest eyes,--and a smile +sweeter than any she had ever seen, seemed to tremble on his lips as +she looked at him. + +"You are thinking beautiful things," he said gently, "And they are all +in the music. Shall I tell you about them?" + +She nodded assent, while her fingers, softly pressing out the last +chord of Beethoven's music, wandered of their own will into the +melancholy pathos of a Schubert "Reverie." + +"You are thinking of the wonderful plan of the world," he said,--"Of +all the fair and glorious things God has made for those who love Him! +Of the splendour of Faith and Hope and Courage,--of the soul's divine +origin and responsibility,--and all the joy of being able to say to the +Creator of the whole universe, 'Our Father!' You are thinking--because +you know--that not a note of the music you are playing now fails to +reach the eternal spheres,--echoing away from your touch, it goes +straight to its mark,--sent with the soul's expression of love and +gratitude, it flies to the centre of the soul's worship. Not a +pulsation of true harmony is lost! You are thinking how grand it is to +live a sweet and unsullied life, full of prayer and endeavour, keeping +a spirit white and clean as the light itself, a spirit dwelling on the +verge of earth but always ready to fly heavenward!--You are thinking +that no earthly reward, no earthly love, no earthly happiness, though +good in itself, can ever give you such perfect peace and joy as is +found in loving, serving, and obeying God, and suffering His will to be +entirely worked in you!" + +Angela listened, deeply moved--her heart throbbed quickly,--how +wonderfully the boy expressed himself!--with what sweetness, +gentleness, and persuasion! She would have ceased playing, but that +something imperative urged her to go on,--and Manuel's soft voice +thrilled her strangely when he spoke again, saying-- + +"You know now--because your wise men are beginning to prove it--that +you can in very truth send a message to heaven." + +"To heaven!" murmured Angela, "That is a long way! We know we can send +messages in a flash of lightfrom one part of the world to another--but +then there must be people to receive them--" + +"And heaven is composed of millions of worlds," said Manuel, "'In my +Father's house are many mansions!" And from all worlds to all +worlds--from mansion to mansion, the messages flash! And there are +those who receive them, with such directness as can admit of no error! +And your wise men might have known this long ago if they had believed +their Master's word, 'Whatsoever is whispered in secret shall be +proclaimed on the housetops.' But you will all find out soon that it is +true, and that everything you say, and that every prayer you utter God +hears." + +"My mother is in heaven," said Angela wistfully, "I wish I could send +her a message!" + +"Your very wish has reached her now!" said Manuel, "How is it possible +that you in the spirit could ardently wish to communicate with one so +beloved and she not know it! Love would be no use then, and there would +be a grave flaw in God's perfect creation." + +Angela ceased playing, and turned round to face the young speaker. + +"Then you think we never lose those we love? And that they see us and +hear us always?" + +"They must do so," said Manuel, "otherwise there would be cruelty in +creating the grace of love at all. But God Himself is Love. Those who +love truly can never be parted,--death has no power over their souls. +If one is on earth and one in heaven, what does it matter? If they were +in separate countries of the world they could hear news of each other +from time to time,--and so they can when apparent death has divided +them." + +"How?" asked Angela with quick interest. + +"Your wise men must tell you," said Manuel, with a grave little smile, +"I know no more than what Christ has said,--and He told us plainly that +not even a sparrow shall fall to the ground without our Father. 'Fear +not,' He said, 'Ye are more than many sparrows.' So, as there is +nothing which is useless, and nothing which is wasted, it is very +certain that love, which is the greatest of all things, cannot lose +what it loves." + +Angela's eyes filled with tears, she knew not why, "Love which is the +greatest of all things cannot lose what it loves!"--How wonderfully +tender was Manuel's voice as he spoke these words! + +"You have very sweet thoughts, Manuel," she said, "You would be a great +comfort to anyone in sorrow." + +"That is what I have always wished to be," he answered, "But you are +not in sorrow yet,--that is to come!" + +She looked up quickly. + +"You think I shall have some great trouble?" she asked, with a little +tremour in her accents. + +"Yes, most surely you will!" replied Manuel, "No one in the world ever +tried to be good and great at the same time without suffering +miscomprehension and bitter pain. Did not Christ say, 'In the world ye +shall have tribulation'?" + +"Yes,--and I have often wondered why," said Angela musingly. + +"Only that you might learn to love God best," answered Manuel with a +delicate inflexion of compassion in his voice, "And that you might know +for certain and beyond all doubt that this life is not all. There is +something better--greater--higher!--a glory that is worth winning +because immortal. 'In the world ye shall have tribulation'--yes, that +is true!--but the rest of the saying is true also--'Be of good +cheer,--I have overcome the world'!" + +Moved by an impulse she could not understand, Angela suddenly turned +and extended her hands with an instinctive grace that implied reverence +as well as humility. The boy clasped them lightly then let them +go,--and without more words went softly away and left her. + + + + +XIII. + +The Church of Notre Dame de Lorette in Paris with its yellow stucco +columns, and its hideous excess of paint and gilding, might be a +ball-room designed after the newest ideas of a vulgar nouveau riche +rather than a place of sanctity. The florid-minded Blondel, pupil of +the equally florid-minded Regnault, hastily sketched in some of the +theatrical frescoes in the "Chapel of the Eucharist," and a misguided +personage named Orsel, splashed out the gaudy decorations of the +"Chapel of the Virgin." The whole edifice glares at the spectator like +a badly-managed limelight, and the tricky, glittering, tawdry effect +blisters one's very soul. But here may be seen many little select +groups out of the hell of Paris,--fresh from the burning as it were, +and smelling of the brimstone,--demons who enjoy their +demonism,--satyrs, concerning whom, one feels that their polished boots +are cleverly designed to cover their animal hoofs, and that skilful +clothiers have arranged their garments so that their tails are not +perceived. But that hoofs and tails are existent would seem to be a +certainty. Here sometimes will sing a celebrated tenor, bulky and +brazen,--pouring out from his bull-throat such liquid devotional notes +as might lift the mind of the listener to Heaven ifone were not so +positive that a moral fiend sang them;--here sometimes may be seen the +stout chanteuse who is the glory of open-air cafes in the Champs +Elysees, kneeling with difficulty on a velvet hassock and actually +saying prayers. And one must own that it is an exhilarating and moving +sight to behold such a woman pretending to confess her sins, with the +full delight of them written on her face, and the avowed intention of +committing them all over again manifesting itself in every turn of her +head, every grin of her rouged lips, and every flash of her painted +eyes! For these sections out of the French "Inferno," Notre Dame de +Lorette is a good place to play penitence and feign prayer;--the +Madeleine is too classic and serene and sombre in its interior to +suggest anything but a museum, from which the proper custodian is +absent,--Notre Dame de Paris reeks too much with the blood of slain +Archbishops to be altogether comfortable,--St. Roch in its +"fashionable" congregation, numbers too many little girls who +innocently go to hear the music, and who have not yet begun to paint +their faces, to suit those whose lives are all paint and +masquerade,--and the "Lorette" is just the happy medium of a church +where, Sham being written on its walls, one is scarcely surprised to +see Sham in the general aspect of its worshippers. Among the ugly +columns, and against the heavy ceiling divided into huge raised lumps +of paint and gilding, Abbe Vergniaud's voice had often resounded,--and +his sermons were looked forward to as a kind of witty entertainment. In +the middle or the afterwards of a noisy Mass,--Mass which had been +"performed" with perhaps the bulky tenor giving the "Agnus Dei," with +as sensually dramatic an utterance as though it were a love-song in an +opera, and the "basso," shouting through the "Credo," with the deep +musical fury of the tenor's jealous rival,--with a violin "interlude," +and a 'cello "solo,"--and a blare of trumpets at the "Elevation," as if +it were a cheap spectacle at a circus fair,--after all this +melodramatic and hysterical excitement it was a relief to see the Abbe +mount the pulpit stairs, portly but lightfooted, his black clerical +surtout buttoned closely up to his chin, his round cleanshaven face +wearing a pious but suggestive smile, his eyes twinkling with latent +satire, and his whole aspect expressing, "Welcome excellent humbugs! I, +a humbug myself, will proceed to expound Humbug!" His sermons were +generally satires on religion,--satires delicately veiled, and full of +the double-entendres so dear to the hearts of Parisians,--and their +delight in him arose chiefly from never quite knowing what he meant to +imply, or to enforce. Not that his hearers would have followed any +counsel even if he had been so misguided as to offer it; they did not +come to hear him "preach" in the full sense of the word,--they came to +hear him "say things,"--witty observations on the particular fad of the +hour--sharp polemics on the political situation--or what was still more +charming, neat remarks in the style of Rochefoucauld or Montaigne, +which covered and found excuses for vice while seemingly condemning +viciousness. There is nothing perhaps so satisfactory to persons who +pride themselves on their intellectuality, as a certain kind of +spurious philosophy which balances virtue and vice as it were on the +point of a finger, and argues prettily on the way the two can be easily +merged into each other, almost without perception. "If without +perception, then without sin," says the sophist; "it is merely a +question of balance." Certainly if generosity drifts into extravagance +you have a virtue turned into a vice;--but there is one thing these +spurious debaters cannot do, and that is to turn a vice into a virtue. +That cannot be done, and has never been done. A vice is a vice, and its +inherent quality is to "wax fat and gross," and to generally enlarge +itself;--whereas, a virtue being a part of the Spiritual quality and +acquired with difficulty, it must be continually practised, and guarded +in the practice, lest it lapse into vice. We are always forgetting that +we have been, and still are in a state of Evolution,--out of the Beast +God has made Man,--but now He expects us, with all the wisdom, learning +and experience He has given us, to evolve for ourselves from Man the +Angel,--the supreme height of His divine intention. Weak as yet on our +spiritual wings, we hark back to the Beast period only too willingly, +and sometimes not all the persuasion in the world can lift us out of +the mire wherein we elect to wallow. Nevertheless, there must be and +will be a serious day of reckoning for any professing priest of the +Church, or so-called "servant of the Gospel", who by the least word or +covert innuendo, gives us a push back into prehistoric slime and +loathliness,--and that there are numbers who do so, no one can deny. +Abbe Vergniaud had flung many a pebble of sarcasm at the half-sinking +faith of some of his hearers with the result that he had sunk it +altogether. In his way he had done as much harm as the intolerant +bigot, who when he finds persons believing devoutly in Christ, but +refusing to accept Church-authority, considers such persons atheists +and does not hesitate to call them so. The "Pharisees" in Christian +doctrine are as haughty, hypocritical and narrow as the Pharisees whom +Jesus calls "ravening wolves," and towhom He said, "Ye shut up the +Kingdom of Heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, NEITHER +SUFFER YE THEM THAT ARE ENTERING TO GO IN," and "Even so ye also +outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of +hypocrisy and iniquity." The last words, it may be said, will apply +fittingly to more than one-half of the preachers of the Gospel at the +present day! + +It was a brilliant, soft autumnal Sunday morning when Cardinal Bonpre, +mindful of Abbe Vergniaud's request that he should be present to hear +him preach, took his slow and thoughtful way to the church of the +Lorette, accompanied by his niece Angela and Manuel. The building was +crammed, and had not the Abbe been previously careful to reserve seats, +and to mention the Cardinal's name to the custodian, he would have +scarcely obtained admission. As it was, however, he passed slowly up +the centre aisle without hindrance, followed by Manuel and Angela, and +watched by a good many inquisitive persons, who wondered as they +looked, who the boy was that walked after His Eminence with such easy +self-possession,--with such a noble and modest bearing, and with such a +strangely thoughtful face. A few whispered and nudged each other as +"the Sovrani" passed them, dressed in her usual quiet black, her head +slightly bent and her eyes downcast. The Marquis Fontenelle, seated in +an attitude which suggested a languid indifference to all persons and +events, lifted his bright hazel eyes as she passed,--and a sudden wave +of consciousness swept over him,--uneasy consciousness that perhaps +this small slight woman despised him. This was not quite a pleasant +reflection for a man and a Marquis to boot,--one who could boast of an +ancient and honourable family pedigree dating back to the fighting days +of Coeur-de-Lion and whose coat-of-arms was distinguished by three +white lilies of France on one of its quarterings. The lilies of +France!--emblems of honour, loyalty, truth, and chivalry!--what smudged +and trampled blossoms they seem to day! He frowned as this fancy +crossed his mind, and turned his eyes away from the following of +Angela's slight form up the aisle; and his glance fell instead on a +face he detested, because it was almost the counterpart of his +own,--the face of the great French actor Miraudin. The same +clean-shaven classic face and clustering hair,--the same glittering, +amorous hazel eyes;--the same charming and kindly smile,--all these +attributes were in Miraudin's face, indefinably coarsened, while in +Fontenelle's they remained refined and inicative of the highest +breeding. The Marquis moved uneasily in his seat,--he saw himself in +the famous actor,--himself as he would be, if he continued his career +of self-indulgence,--for Miraudin though gifted with a genius that +could move all Paris to the wildest excesses of admiration, was in +private life known as a man of detestable reputation, whose liaisons +with women were endless, but who, in his extreme egotism and +callousness had never been known to yield to the saving grace of a +"grande passion,"--one of those faithful passions which sometimes make +the greatness of both man and woman concerned, and adorn the pages of +dull history with the brilliancy of deathless romance. Was he, Guy +Beausire de Fontenelle no better, no nobler, no higher, in his desires +and ambitions than Miraudin? What was he doing with the three lilies +emblazoned on his escutcheon? He thought with a certain fretful +impatience of Sylvie, of her captivating grace, her tender eyes, her +sweet laughter, and sweeter smile. She had seemed to him a mere slight +creation of the air and the moonbeams,--something dainty that would +have melted at a touch, and dropped into his mouth, as it were, like a +French bon-bon. So he, man-like, had judged, and now lo!--the little +ethereal creature had suddenly displayed a soul of adamant--hard and +pure, and glittering as a diamond,--which no persuasion could break or +bend. She had actually kept her word!--she had most certainly left +Paris. The Marquis knew that, by the lamentable story of her dismissed +maid who had come to him with hysterical tears, declaring that "Madame" +had suddenly developed a "humeur incroyable"--and had gone away +alone,--alone, save for a little dusky-skinned Arab boy whom she had +once brought away from Biskra and had trained as an attendant,--her +"gouvernante" and companion, Madame Bozier, and her old butler who had +known her from childhood. Fontenelle felt that the dismissal of the +maid who had been such a convenient spy for him, was due to Angela +Sovrani's interference, and though angry, he was conscious of feeling +at the same time mean in himself, and miserable. To employ a servant to +play the spy on her mistress, and report to him her actions and +movements, might be worthy of a Miraudin, but was it quite the thing +for a Marquis Fontenelle? Thinking over these things his handsome face +grew flushed and anon pale again, as from time to time he stole a vexed +side glance at the easy Miraudin,--so like him in features +and--unfortunately so equally like him in morals! Meanwhile, the music +of the Mass surged round him, in thunders of the organ, wailings of +violins, groaning of 'cellos, and flutings of boys' and men's +voices,--and as the cloudy incense rose upon the air he began to weave +strange fancies in his mind, and to see in the beams of sunlight +falling through the stained glass windows a vision of the bright face +of Sylvie looking down upon him with a half-tender, half-reproving +smile,--a smile that seemed to say, "If thou lovest me, set the grace +of honour on thy love!" These were strange thoughts for him to +entertain, and he was almost ashamed of them,--but as long as the +melodies of the Mass kept rolling on and reverberating around him he +could not help thinking of them; so that he was relieved when a pause +came,--the interval for the sermon,--and Abbe Vergniaud, leisurely +mounting the steps of the pulpit, stood surveying the congregation with +the composed yet quizzical air for which he was celebrated, and waiting +till the rustling, fidgeting, coughing, snuffing, toe-scraping noises +of the congregation had settled down into comparative silence. His +attitude during this interval was suggestive. It implied contempt, +wearied patience, resignation, and a curious touch of defiance. Holding +himself very erect he rested his left hand on the elaborate sculptured +edge of the pulpit,--it was the hand on which he usually wore his ring, +a diamond of purest lustre,--but on this occasion the jewel had been +removed and the white, firm fingers, outlined against the pulpit edge, +looked as though they had just relaxed their grasp of something that +had been more or less of a trouble to retain. Nothing perhaps is so +expressive as a hand,--the face can disguise itself,--even the eyes can +lie,--but the hand never. Its shape, its movements, its attitude in +repose, give a more certain clue to character and disposition than +almost any other human feature. Thus, with the Abbe, while his left +hand suggested a "letting go," his right hand, which held a small +black-bound Testament implied defiance, grip, resolve and courage. And +when the people seated immediately around the pulpit lifted their eyes +expectantly to the popular preacher's face, several of the more +observant noticed something in his look and manner which was unfamiliar +and curiously disconcerting. If it be true, as there is every reason to +believe it is, that each human being unconsciously gives out an "aura" +of his interior personality which is made more or less powerful to +attract or repel by the nature of his intentions, and which affects the +"aura" of those with whom he is brought in contact, then Abbe Vergniaud +was this morning creating all unawares to himself a very singular +impression of uneasiness. Some of the persons thus uncomfortably +influenced coughed violently in an instinctive attempt to divert or +frustrate the preacher's mood, but even the most persistent cougher +must cease coughing at some time or another--and the Abbe was evidently +determined to wait for an absolute silence before he spoke. At last +silence came, and he opened the Testament. Holding it up to the view of +the congregation, he began with all that easy eloquence which the +French tongue gives to a cultured speaker,--his voice full and +sonorous, reaching distinctly to every part of the crowded church. + +"This," he said, "is a small book which you all pretend to know. It is +so small a book that it can easily be read through in an hour. It is +the Testament;--or the Last Will and Command to the world of one Jesus +Christ, who was crucified on account of His Divinity more than eighteen +hundred years ago. I mention the fact, in case any of you have +forgotten it! It is generally understood that this book is the message +of God and the key of Faith;--upon it our churches and religious +systems are founded;--by its teaching we are supposed to order our +conduct of life--and yet,--though as I have said, it is a very small +book, and would not take you an hour to read it--none of you know any +thing about it! That is a strange thing, is it not?" + +Here he leaned over the pulpit edge, and his bright eyes, coldly +satiric, flashed a comprehensive glance over the whole congregation. + +"Yes, it is a strange thing, but I affirm it true,--that none of you +know anything whatever about the contents of this small volume which is +the foundation of the Christian Faith! You never read it +yourselves,--and if we priests read it to you, you never remember it! +It is a locked Mystery,--perhaps, for all we know, the greatest mystery +in the world,--and the one most worth probing! For the days seem to be +coming, if they have not already come, which were prophesied by St. +John the Divine, whom certain 'clever' men of the time have set down as +mad;--days which were described as 'shaking the powers of heaven and +creating confusion on the earth.' St. John said some strange things; +one thing in particular, concerning this very book, which reads +thus;--'I saw in the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne a book +sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a +loud voice; Who is worthy to open and to loose the seals thereof? And +no man in heaven or in earth was able to open the book neither to look +thereon. And I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and to +read the book, neither to look thereon.' But St. John the Divine was +mad, we are told,--madness and inspiration being judged as one and the +same thing. Well, if in these statements he is supposed to prove his +madness, I consider a doubt must be set upon everyone's sanity. For his +words are an exact description of the present period of the world's +existence and its attitude towards the Gospel of Christ,--'NO MAN IS +FOUND WORTHY TO LOOSE THE SEALS OF THE BOOK OR TO LOOK THEREON.' But I +am not going to talk to you about the seven seals. They adequately +represent our favourite 'seven deadly sins,' which have kept the book +closed since the days of the early martyrs;--and are likely to keep it +closed still. Nor shall I speak of our unworthiness to read what we +have never taken the trouble to rightly understand,--for all this would +be waste of time. It is part of our social sham to pretend we know the +Gospel,--and it is a still greater sham to assume that we have ever +tried in the smallest degree to follow its teaching. What we know of +these teachings has influenced us unconsciously, but the sayings in the +Gospel of Christ are in very truth as enveloped in mystery to each +separate individual reader as the oracles of the ancient Egyptians were +to the outside multitude. And why? Merely because, to comprehend the +teaching of Jesus we should have to think,--and we all hate thinking. +It is too much exertion,--and exertion itself is unpleasant. A quarter +of an hour's hard thinking will convince each one of us that he or she +is a very worthless and ridiculous person, and we strongly object to +any process which will, in itself, bring us to that conclusion. I say +'we' object,--that is, I and you; particularly I. I admit at once that +to appear worthless and ridiculous to the world has always seemed to me +a distressing position, and one to be avoided. Worthless and ridiculous +in my own eyes I have always been,--but that is not your affair. It is +strictly mine! And though I feel I am not worthy 'to loose the seals of +the book or look thereon,' there is one passage in it which strikes me +as particularly applicable to the present day, and from it I will +endeavour to draw a lesson for your instruction, though perhaps not for +your entertainment." + +Here he paused and glanced at his hearers with an indefinable +expression of mingled scorn and humour. + +"What an absurdity it is to talk of giving a 'lesson' to you!--you who +will barely listen to a friend's advice,--you who will never take a +hint for your mental education or improvement, you who are apt to fly +into a passion, or take to the sulks when you are ever so slightly +contradicted. Tiens, tiens! c'est drole! Now the words I am about to +preach from, are supposed to have been uttered by Divine lips; and if +you thoroughly believed this, you would of your own accord kneel down +and pray that you might receive them with full comprehension and ready +obedience. But you do not believe;--so I will not ask you to kneel down +in mockery, or feign to pray when you are ignorant of the very spirit +of prayer! So take the words,--without preparation, without thought, +without gratitude, as you take everything God gives you, and see what +you can make of them. 'The light of the body is the eye,--if therefore +thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if +thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If +therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that +darkness!'" + +Here he closed the Testament, and rested it edgewise on the pulpit +cushion, keeping one hand firmly clasped upon it as he turned himself +about and surveyed the whole congregation. + +"What is the exact meaning of the words, 'IF THINE EYE BE SINGLE'? It +is an expressive term; and in its curt simplicity covers a profound +truth. 'If thine eye,' namely,--the ability to see,--'be single,' that +is straight and clear, without dimness or obliquity,--'thy whole body +shall be full of light.' Christ evidently did not apply this expression +to the merely physical capability of sight,--but to the moral and +mental, or psychic vision. It matters nothing really to the infinite +forces around us, whether physically speaking, we are able to see, or +whether we are born blind; but spiritually, it is the chief necessity +of our lives that we should be able to see straight morally. Yet that +is what we can seldom or never do. Modern education, particularly +education in France, provides us at once with a double psychic lens, +and a side-squint into the bargain! Seeing straight would be too +primitive and simple for us. But Christ says, 'If thine eye be evil, +thy whole body shall be full of darkness.' Now this word 'evil,' as set +in juxtaposition to the former term 'single,' evidently implies a +double sight or perverted vision. With this 'evil,' or double sight, +our whole body 'shall be full of darkness.' Very well, my friends, if +this be true,--(and you surely must believe it true, otherwise you +would not support churches for the exposition of the truth as spoken by +the Founder of our Faith;--) then we are children of the dark indeed! I +doubt if one amongst us,--for I include myself with you,--can be said +to see clearly with a straight psychic vision. The straight psychic +vision teaches us that God is the Creator of all things,--God is Light +and Love,--God desires good from us, and from every particle of his +creation;--but the double or perverted line of sight offers a different +view and declares, 'This life is short and offers many pleasures. I +cannot be sure of God because I have never seen Him;--the Universe is +certainly very majestic, and somewhat startling to me in its exact +mathematical proportions; but I have no more to do with it than has a +grain of sand;--my lot is no more important than that of the midge in +the sunbeam;--I live,--I breed--I die;--and it matters to no one but +myself how I do these three things, provided I satisfy my nature.' This +is the Philosophy of the Beast, and it is just now very fashionable. It +is 'la haute mode' both in France, and England, Italy, and Spain. Only +young America seem to be struggling for a Faith,--a Christian +Faith;--it has almost, albeit faintly and with a touching indecision, +asked for such a Faith from the Pope,--who has however declared it to +be impossible in these words addressed to Cardinal Gibbons, 'Discussion +of the principles of the Church cannot be tolerated even in the United +States. There can only be one interpreter, the Pope. In the matter of +discipline, concessions may be allowed, but in doctrine none.' Mark the +words, 'cannot be tolerated'! Consider what stability a Faith can have +whose principles may not be discussed! Yet the authority of the Church +is, we are told the authority of God Himself. How is this? We can +discuss God and His principles. He 'tolerates' us while we search for +His laws, and stand amazed and confounded before His marvellous +creation. The more we look for Him the more He gives Himself gloriously +to us; and Christ declares 'Seek and ye shall find,'--the Church says +'Seek and ye shall not be tolerated'! How are we to reconcile these two +assertions? We do not reconcile them; we cannot; it is a case of double +sight,--oblique and perverted psychic vision. Christ spoke +plainly;--the Church speaks obscurely. Christ gave straight +commands,--we fly in the face of them and openly disobey them. Truth +can always be 'discussed,' and Truth MUST be 'tolerated' were a +thousand Holy Fathers to say it nay! But note again the further words +to America, 'There can only be one interpreter,--the Pope. In the +matter of discipline, concessions may be allowed, but in doctrine +none.' Let us examine into this doctrine. It is the doctrine of Christ, +plain and straightforward; enunciated in such simple words that even a +child can understand them. But the Church announces with a strident +voice that there can only be one interpreter,--the Pope. Nevertheless +Truth has a more resonant voice than even that of the Church. Truth +cries out at this present day, 'Unless you will listen to Me who am the +absolute utterance of God, who spake by the prophets, who spake through +Christ,--who speaks through Christ and all things still,--your little +systems, your uncertain churches, your inefficient creeds, your +quarrelsome sects, shall crumble away into dust and ruins! For humanity +is waiting for the true Church of Christ; the one pure House of Praise +from which all sophistry, all superstition and vanity shall have fled, +and only God in the Christ-Miracle and the perfection of His Creation +shall remain!' And there is no more sure foundation for this +much-needed House of Praise than the Catholic Church,--the word +'catholic' being applied in its widest sense, meaning a 'Universal' +answering to the needs of all;--and I am willing to maintain that the +ROMAN Catholic Church has within it the vital germ of a sprouting +perfection. If it would utterly discard pomp and riches, if it would +set its dignity at too high an estimate for any wish to meddle in +temporal or political affairs, if it would firmly trample down all +superstition, idolatry and bigotry, and 'use no vain repetition as the +heathen do'--to quote Christ's own words,--if in place of ancient dogma +and incredible legendary lore, it would open its doors to the marvels +of science, the miracles and magnificence daily displayed to us in the +wonderful work of God's Universe, then indeed it might obtain a lasting +hold on mankind. It might conquer Buddhism, and Christianize the whole +earth. But--'If thine eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of +darkness,'--and while the Church remains double-sighted we are bound +also to see double. And so we listen with a complete and cynical +atheism to the conventional statement that 'one man alone' shall +interpret Christ's teaching to us of the Roman following,--and this man +an old frail teacher, whose bodily and intellectual powers are, in the +course of nature, steadily on the decline. Why we ask, must an aged man +be always elected to decide on the teaching of the ever-young and +deathless Christ?--to whom the burden of years was unknown, and whose +immortal spirit, cased for a while in clay, saw ever the rapt vision of +'old things being made new'? In all other work but this of religious +faith, men in the prime of life are selected to lead,--men of energy, +thought, action, and endeavour,--but for the sublime and difficult task +of lifting the struggling human soul out of low things to lofty, an old +man, weak, and tottering on the verge of the grave, is set before us as +our 'infallible' teacher! There is something appalling in the fact, +that look where we may, no profession holds out much chance of power or +authority to any man past sixty, but the Head of the Church may be so +old that he can hardly move one foot before the other, yet he is +permitted to be declared the representative of the ever-working, +ever-helping, ever-comforting Christ, who never knew what it was to be +old! Enough, however of this strange superstition which is only one of +many in the Church, and which are all the result of double or perverted +sight,--I come to the last part of the text which runs, 'If therefore +the light in thee be darkness how great is that darkness.' IF THEREFORE +THE LIGHT IN THEE BE DARKNESS! My friends, that is exactly my +condition, and has been my condition ever since I was twenty. The light +in me has been darkness. The intellectual quality of my brain which has +helped me to attain my present false position among you . . ." + +Here he paused, for there was a distinct movement of surprise among his +audience, which till now, had remained to a man so still that the buzz +of a fly on the window-pane sounded almost as loud as the drone of a +bag-pipe,--then with a faint smile on his lips he resumed,-- + +"I hope you all heard my words distinctly! I said, the false position I +have attained among you. I repeat it lest there should be any mistake. +It IS a false position and always has been. I have never for an instant +believed half what I have asked you to believe! And I have preached to +you what I have never dreamed of practising! Yet I venture to say that +I am not worse than most of my brethren. The intellectual men of +France, whether clergy or laity, are in a difficult situation. Their +brains are keen and clear; and, intellectually speaking, they are +totally unable to accept the Church superstitions of the tenth and +twelfth centuries. But in rejecting superstition it would have been +quite possible to have held them fast to a sublime faith in God and an +Immortal Future, had the Church caught them when slipping, and risen to +the mental demand made upon her resources. But the old worn-out thunder +of the Vatican, which lately made a feeble noise in America, has rolled +through France with the same assertion, 'Discussion cannot be +tolerated'; and what has been the result? Simply this,--that all the +intellectual force of the country is arrayed against priestcraft;--and +the spirit of an insolent, witty, domineering atheism and materialism +rules us all. Even young children can be found by the score who laugh +at the very idea of a God, and who fling a jeer at the story of the +Crucifixion of Christ,--while vice and crime are tolerated and often +excused. Moral restraint is being less and less enforced, and the +clamouring for sensual indulgence has become so incessant that the +desire of the whole country, if put into one line, might be summed up +in the impotent cry of the Persian voluptuary Omar Khayyam to his god, +'Reconcile the law to my desires'. This is as though a gnat should seek +to build a cathedral, and ask for the laws of architecture to be +altered in order to suit his gnat-like capacity. The Law is the Law; +and if broken, brings punishment. The Law makes for good,--and if we +pull back for evil, destroys us in its outward course. Vice breeds +corruption in body and in soul; and history furnishes us with more than +sufficient examples of that festering disease. It is plainly demanded +of us that we should assist God's universe in its way towards +perfection; if we refuse, and set a drag on the majestic Wheel, we are +ourselves crushed in its progress. Here is where our Church errs in the +present generation. It is setting itself as a drag on the Wheel. +Meanwhile, Truth advances every day, and with no uncertain voice +proclaims the majesty of God. Heaven's gates are thrown open;--the +secrets of the stars are declared,--the mysteries of light and sound +are discovered; and we are approaching possibly to the time when the +very graves shall give up their dead, and the secrets of all men's +hearts shall be made manifest. Yet we go on lying, deceiving, cajoling, +humbugging each other and ourselves;--living a daily life of fraud and +hypocrisy, with a sort of smug conviction in our souls that we shall +never be found out. We make a virtue of animalism, and declare the +Beast-Philosophy to be in strict keeping with the order of nature. We +gloat over our secret sins, and face the world with a brazen front of +assumed honour. Oh, we are excellent liars all! But somehow we never +seem to think we are fools as well! We never remember that all we do +and all we say, is merely the adding of figures to a sum which in the +end must be made up to the grand total, and paid! Every figure +tells;--the figure 'nought' especially, puts an extra thousand on the +whole quantity! But the light in us being darkness, how great is that +darkness! So great that we refuse to look an inch before us! We will +not see, we will not understand,--we utterly decline to accept any +teaching or advice which might inflict some slight inconvenience on our +own Ego. And so we go on day after day, till all at once a reckoning is +called and death stares us in the face. What! So soon finished? All +over? Must we go at once, and no delay? Must we really and truly drop +all our ridiculous lies and conventions and be sent away naked-souled +into the Living Unknown? Not the Dead Unknown remember!--for nothing is +actually dead! The whole universe palpitates and burns with ever +re-created life. What have we done with the past life?--and what shall +we do with this other life? Oh, but there is no time to ask questions +now,--we should have asked them before; the hour of departure is come, +and there is not a moment's breathing time! Our dear friends (if we +have any), and our paid doctors and servants stand around us +awe-struck,--they watch out last convulsive shudder--and weep--not so +much for sorrow sometimes as terror,--and then when all is over, they +say we are 'gone'. Yes,--we are gone--but where? Well, we shall each of +us find that out, my friends, when we pass away from Popes, Churches, +Creeds, and Conventions to the majesty of the actual Glory! Shall we +pray then? Shall we weep? Shall we talk of rituals? Shall we say this +or that form of prayer was the true one?--this or that creed was the +'only' one? Shall we complain of our neighbours?--or shall we not +suddenly realise that there never was but one way of life and progress +through creation,--the good and pure, the truthful and courageous, as +taught with infinite patience by the God-Man, and that wheresoever we +have followed our own inclinations rather than His counsel, then our +OWN action, not God's punishment, condemns us,--our OWN words, not +God's, re-echo back our sins upon ourselves!" + +He paused, looking everywhere around him,--all his hearers were +listening with an almost breathless attention. + +"Oh, yes! I know the charm of sin!" he continued with mingled mockery +and passion vibrating in his voice;--"The singular fascination of pure +devilry! All of you know it too,--those of you who court the world's +applause on the stage, or in the salons of art and literature, and who +pretend that by your work you are elevating and assisting humanity, +while in your own private lives you revel in such vice as the very dogs +you keep might be ashamed of! There is no beast so bestial as man at +his worst! And some of you whom I know, glory in being seen at your +worst always. There are many among you here to-day whose sole excuse +for a life of animalism is, that it is your nature, 'I live according +to my temperament,--my disposition,--I do not wish to change +myself--you cannot change me; I am as I am made'! So might the thief +argue as he steals his neighbour's money,--so may the murderer console +himself as he stabs his victim! 'It is my nature to stab and to +steal--it is my nature to live as a beast--I do not wish to change; you +cannot change me'. Now if these arguments were true, and hold good, man +would be still where he begun,--in the woods and caves,--an uncouth +savage with nothing save an animal instinct to lead him where he could +find food. But even this earliest instinct, savage though it was, +taught him that something higher than himself had made him, and so he +began to creep on by slow degrees towards that higher at once; hence +instinct led to reason, and reason to culture and civilization. And now +having touched as high a point of experience and knowledge as the +ancient Assyrians and Egyptians attained before their decline, he is +beginning even as they did, to be weary and somewhat afraid of what +lies beyond in the as yet unfathomed realms of knowledge; and he half +wishes to creep back again on all-fours to the days when he was beast +merely. The close contemplation of the Angel terrifies him,--he dare +not grow his wings! Further than life, as life appears to him on its +material side, he is afraid to soar,--what lies in the far distance he +dare not consider! This is where the Pause comes in all progress,--the +hesitation, the doubt, the fear;--the moment when the Creature draws so +near to his Creator that he is dazzled and confounded. And it is a +strange fact that he is always left alone,--alone with his own Will, in +every such grand crisis. He has been helped so much by divine +influences, that he is evidently considered strong enough to decide his +own fate. He is strong enough,--he has sufficient reason and knowledge +to decide it for the Highest, if he would. But, with national culture +goes national luxury,--the more civilised a community, the greater its +bodily ease,--the more numerous the temptations against which we are +told we must fight. Spirit flies forward--Body pulls back. But Spirit +is one day bound to win! We have attained in this generation a certain +knowledge of Soul-forces--and we are on a verge, where, if we hesitate, +we are lost, and must recoil upon our own Ego as the centre of all +desire. But if we go on boldly and leave our own Ego behind, we shall +see the gates of Heaven opening indeed, and all the Mysteries unveiled! +How often we pause on the verge of better things, doubting whether to +rise or grovel! The light in us is darkness, and how great is that +darkness! Such is the state of mind in which I, your preacher, have +found myself for many years! I do not know whether to rise or +grovel,--to sink or soar! To be absolutely candid with you, I am quite +sure that I should not sink in your opinion for confessing myself to be +as outrageous in my conceptions of mortality as many of you are. You +would possibly pretend to be ashamed of me, but in your hearts you +would like me all the better. The sinking or the soaring of my nature +has therefore nothing whatever to do with you. It is a strictly +personal question. But what I specially wish to advise you of this +morning,--taking myself as an example,--is that none of you, whether +inclined to virtue or to vice, should remain such arrant fools as to +imagine that your sins will not find you out. They will,--the instant +they are committed, their sole mission is to start on your track, and +hunt you down! I cannot absolutely vouch to you that there is a +God,--but I am positive there is a hidden process of mathematics going +on in the universe which sums up our slightest human affairs with an +exactitude which at the least is amazing. Twenty-five years ago I did a +great wrong to a human creature who was innocent, and who absolutely +trusted me. There is no crime worse than this, yet it seemed to me +quite a trifling affair,--an amusement--a nothing! I was perfectly +aware that by some excessively straightlaced people it might be termed +a sin; but my ideas of sin were as easy and condoning as yours are. I +never repented it,--I can hardly say I ever thought of it,--if I did I +excused myself quickly, and assured my own conscience in the usual way, +that the fault was merely the result of circumstances over which I had +no control. Oh, those uncontrollable circumstances! How convenient they +are! And what a weak creature they make of man, who at other times than +those of temptation, is wont to assert himself master of this planet! +Master of a planet and cannot control a vice! Excellent! Well,--I +never, as I say, thought of the wrong I had done,--but if _I_ forgot +it, some One or some Thing remembered it! Yes--remembered it!--put it +down--chronicled it with precision as to time and place,--and set it, a +breathing fact, before me in my old age,--a living witness of my own +treachery." + +He paused, the congregation stirred,--the actor Miraudin looked up at +him with a surprised half-smile. Angela Sovrani lifted her beautiful +violet eyes towards him in amazed compassion,--Cardinal Bonpre, +recalling the Abbe previous confession to him, bent his head, deeply +moved. + +"Treachery," resumed Vergniaud determinedly, "Is always a covert thing. +We betray each other in the dark, with silent foot-steps and sibilant +voices. We whisper our lies. We concoct our intrigues with carefully +closed doors. I did so. I was a priest of the Roman Church as I am now; +it would never have done for a priest to be a social sinner! I +therefore took every precaution to hide my fault;--but out of my lie +springs a living condemnation; from my carefully concealed hypocrisy +comes a blazonry of truth, and from my secret sin comes an open +vengeance . . ." + +At the last words the loud report of a pistol sounded through the +building . . . there was a puff of smoke, a gleam of flame, and a +bullet whizzed straight at the head of the preacher! The congregation +rose, en masse, uttering exclamations of terror,--but before anyone +could know exactly what had happened the smoke cleared, and the Abbe +Vergniaud was seen leaning against the steps of the pulpit, pale but +uninjured, and in front of him stood the boy Manuel with arms +outstretched, and a smile on his face. The bullet had split the pulpit +immediately above him. An excited group assembled round them +immediately, and the Abbe was the first to speak. + +"I am not hurt!--" he said quickly--"See to the boy! He sprang in front +of me and saved my life." + +But Manuel was equally unhurt, and waived aside all enquiries and +compliments. And while eager questions were poured out and answered, a +couple of gendarmes were seen struggling in the centre of the church +with a man who seemed to have the power of a demon, so fierce and +frantic were his efforts to escape. + +"Ah, voila! The assassin!" cried Miraudin, hastening to give assistance. + +"The assassin!" echoed a dozen other persons pressing in the same +direction. + +Vergniaud heard, and gave one swift glance at Cardinal Bonpre who, +though startled by the rapidity and excitement of the scene that had +occurred, was equal to the occasion, and understood his friend's appeal +at once, even before he said hurriedly, + +"Monseigneur! Tell them to let him go!--or--bring him face to face with +me!" + +The Cardinal endeavoured to pass through the crowd, but though some +made way for him on account of his ecclesiastical dignity, others +closed in, and he found it impossible to move more than a few steps. +Then Vergniaud, moved by a sudden resolve, raised himself a little, and +resting one hand on the shoulder of Manuel, who still remained on the +steps of the pulpit in front of him, he called, + +"Let Monsieur the assassin come here to me! I have a word to say to +him!" + +Through the swaying, tumultuous, murmuring throng came a sudden +stillness, and everyone drew back as the gendarmes responding to Abbe +Vergniaud's command, pushed their way along, dragging and hustling +their prisoner between them,--a young black-browed, black-eyed peasant +with a handsome face and proud bearing, whose defiant manner implied +that having made one fierce struggle for liberty and finding it in +vain, he was now disdainfully resigned to the inevitable. When brought +face to face with the Abbe he lifted his head, and flashed his dark +eyes upon him with a look of withering contempt. His lips parted,--he +seemed about to speak when his glance accidentally fell upon +Manuel,--then something caused him to hesitate,--he checked himself on +the very verge of speech and remained silent. The Abbe surveyed him +with something of a quizzical half-admiring smile, then addressing the +gendarmes he said, + +"Let him go!" + +The men looked up astonished, doubting whether they had heard aright. + +"Let him go!" repeated the Abbe firmly, "I have no accusation to make +against him. Had he killed me he would have been perfectly justified! +Let him go!" + +"Cher Abbe!" remonstrated the Marquis Fontenelle, who had made himself +one of the group immediately around the pulpit, "Is not this a mistake +on your part? Let me advise you not to be so merciful . . ." + +"'Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy'"! quoted the +Abbe with a strange smile, while his breath came and went quickly, and +his face grew paler as he spoke. "Set him free, messieurs, if you +please! I decline to prosecute my own flesh and blood! I will be +answerable for his future conduct,--I am entirely answerable for his +past! He is my son!" + + + + +XIV. + +No one ever afterwards quite knew how the crowd in the church broke up +and dispersed itself after this denouement. For a few minutes the crush +of people round the pulpit was terrific; all eyes were fixed on the +young black-browed peasant who had so nearly been a parricide,--and on +the father who publicly exonerated him,--and then there came a pressing +towards the doors which was excessively dangerous to life and limb. +Cardinal Bonpre, greatly moved by the whole unprecedented scene, placed +himself in front of Angela as a shield and defence from the crowd; but +before he had time to consider how he should best pilot her through the +pushing and scrambling throng, a way was made for him by Manuel, +who,--with a quiet step and unruffled bearing,--walked through the +thickest centre of the crowd, which parted easily on either side of +him, as though commanded to do so by some unheard but absolute +authority. Admiring and wondering glances were turned upon the boy, +whose face shone with such a grave peace and sweetness;--he had saved +the Abbe's life, the people whispered, by springing up the steps of the +pulpit, and throwing himself between the intended victim and the bullet +of his assailant. Who was he? Where did he come from? No one knew;--he +was merely the attendant of that tall ascetic-looking Cardinal, the +uncle of the famous Sovrani. So the words ran from mouth to mouth, as +Felix Bonpre and his niece moved slowly through the throng, following +Manuel;--then, when they had passed, there came a general hubbub and +confusion once more, and the people hustled and elbowed each other +through the church regardless of consequences, eager to escape and +discuss among themselves the sensation of the morning. + +"C'est un drame! Un veritable drame!" said Miraudin, pausing, as he +found himself face to face with the Marquis Fontenelle. + +Fontenelle stared haughtily. + +"Did you speak to me, Monsieur?" he enquired, glancing the actor up and +down with an air of supreme disdain. + +Miraudin laughed carelessly. + +"Yes, I spoke to you, Marquis!" he replied, "I said that the public +confession of our dear priest Vergniaud was a veritable drame!" + +"An unfortunate scandal in the Church!" said Fontenelle curtly. + +"Yes!" went on the unabashed Miraudin, "If it were on the stage it +would be taken as a matter of course. An actor's follies help to +populate the world. But a priest's petite faute would seem to suggest +the crushing down of a universe!" + +"Custom and usage make the rule in these things," said Fontenelle +turning away, "I have the honour to wish you good-day, Monsieur!" + +"One moment!" said the actor smiling, "There is a curious personal +resemblance between you and me, Monsieur le Marquis! Have you ever +noticed it? We might almost be brothers by our looks--and also I +believe by our temperaments!" + +Fontenelle's hazel eyes flashed angrily. + +"I think not!" he said coldly, "A certain resemblance between totally +unrelated persons is quite common. For the rest, we are absolutely +different--absolutely!" + +Again Miraudin laughed. + +"As you will, Marquis!" and he raised his hat with a light, +half-mocking air, "Au revoir!" + +Fontenelle scarcely acknowledged the salutation,--he was too much +annoyed. He considered it a piece of insolence on Miraudin's part to +have addressed him at all without previous introduction. It was true +that the famous actor was permitted a license not granted to the +ordinary individual,--as indeed most actors are. Even princes, who +hedge themselves round with impassable barriers to certain of their +subjects who are in all ways great and worthy of notice, unbend to the +Mime who today takes the place of the Court-jester, and allow him to +enter the royal presence, often bringing his newest wanton with him. +And there was not the slightest reason for the Marquis Fontenelle to be +at all particular in his choice of acquaintances. Yet somehow or other, +he was. The fine and sensitive instincts of a gentleman were in him, +and though in the very depths of his own conscience he knew himself to +be as much of a social actor as Miraudin was a professional +one,--though he was aware that his passions were as sensual, and +therefore as vulgar, (for sensuality is vulgarity), there was a latent +pride in him which forbade him to set himself altogether on the same +level. And now as he walked away haughtily, his fine aristocratic head +lifted a little higher in air than usual, he was excessively +irritated--with everything and everybody, but with himself in +particular. Abbe Vergniaud's sermon had stung him in several ways, and +the startling FINALE had vexed him still more. + +"What folly!" he thought, as he entered his luxuriously appointed flat, +and threw himself into a chair with a kind of angry weariness, "How +utterly stupid of Vergniaud to blazon the fact that he is no better +than other men, in the full face of his congregation! He must be mad! A +priest of the Roman Church publicly acknowledging a natural son! +[Footnote: ROME, August 19, 1899--A grave scandal has just burst upon +the world here. The Gazetta di Venezia having attacked the bishops +attending the recent conclave of "Latin America," that is, +Spanish-speaking America, as men of loose morality, the Osservatore +Cattolico, the Vatican organ, replied declaring that the life of the +bishops present at the conclave was above suspicion. The Gazetta di +Venezia responds, affirming that the majority of the bishops brought +with them to Rome their mistresses, and in some instances their +children. The Gazetta offers to disclose the names of these bishops, +and demands that the Pope shall satisfy the Catholic world by taking +measures against them.--Central News.] Has ever such a thing been heard +of! And the result is merely to create scandal and invite his own +disgrace! A quoi bon!" + +He lit a cigarette and puffed at it impatiently. His particular "code" +of morality had been completely upset;--things seemed to have taken a +turn for general offence, and the simplest thoughts became like +bristles in his brain, pricking him uncomfortably in various sore and +sensitive places. Then, added to his general sense of spleen was the +unpleasant idea that he was really in love, where he had never meant to +be in love. "In love", is a wide term nowadays, and covers a multitude +of poor and petty passing emotions,--and it is often necessary to add +the word "really" to it, in order to emphasise the fact that the +passion has perhaps,--and even then it is only a perhaps,--taken a +somewhat lasting form. Why could not Sylvie Hermenstein have allowed +things to run their natural course?--this natural course being +according to Fontenelle, to drop into his arms when asked, and leave +those arms again with equal alacrity also when asked! It would have +been quite pleasant and satisfactory to him, the Marquis;--and for +Sylvie--well!--for Sylvie, she would soon have got over it! Now there +was all this fuss and pother about virtue! Virtue, quotha! In a woman, +and in Paris! At this time of day! Could anything be more preposterous +and ridiculous! + +"One would imagine I had stumbled into a convent for young ladies," he +grumbled to himself, "What with Sylvie actually gone, and that pretty +pattern of chastity, Angela Sovrani, preaching at me with her big +violet eyes,--and now Vergniaud who used to be 'bon camarade et bon +vivant', branding himself a social sinner--really one would imagine +that some invisible Schoolmaster was trying to whip me into order . . +." + +"Peut-on entrer?" called a clear voice outside at this juncture, and +without waiting for permission the speaker entered, a very pretty woman +in an admirably fitting riding habit, which she held daintily up with +one gloved hand, extending the other as she came to the Marquis who +gracefully bent over it and kissed it. + +"Charme de vous voir Princesse!" he murmured. + +"Not at all! Spare me your falsehoods!" was the gay reply, accompanied +by a dazzling smile, "You are not in the least charmed, +nothing,--nobody charms you,--I least of all! Did you not see me in +church? No! Where were your eyes? On the courageous Vergniaud, who so +nearly gave us the melancholy task of arranging a 'Chapelle ardente' +for him this afternoon?" She laughed, and her eyes twinkled +maliciously,--then she went on, "Do you know he is quite a delightful +boy,--the peasant son and assassin? I think of taking him to my Chateau +and making something of him. I waited to see the whole play out, and +bring you the news. Papa Vergniaud has gone home with his good-looking +offspring--then Cardinal Bonpre--do you know the Cardinal Bonpre?" + +"By reputation merely," replied the Marquis, setting a chair for his +fair visitor, "And as the uncle of Donna Sovrani." + +"Oh, reputation is nothing," laughed the lady, known as the Princesse +D'Agramont, an independent beauty of great wealth and brilliant +attainments, "Your butler can give you a reputation, or take it away +from you! But the Cardinal's reputation is truly singular. It is +goodness, merely! He is so good that he has become actually famous for +it! Now I once thought that to become famous for goodness must surely +imply that the person so celebrated had a very hypocritical +nature,--the worst of natures indeed;--that of pretending to be what he +was not,--but I was mistaken. Cardinal Bonpre IS good. Absolutely +sincere and noble--therefore a living marvel in this age!" + +"You are pleased to be severe, Princesse," said the Marquis, "Is +sincerity so difficult to find?" + +"The most difficult of virtues!" answered the Princesse, lightly +tapping out a little tune with the jewelled handle of her riding whip +on the arm of her chair, "That is why I like horses and dogs so +much--they are always honest. And for that reason I am now inclined to +like Abbe Vergniaud whom I never liked before. He has turned honest! +To-day indeed he has been as straightforward as if he were not a man at +all!--and I admire him for it. He and his son will be my guests at the +Chateau D'Agramont." + +"What a very strange woman you are!" said Fontenelle, with a certain +languid admiration beginning to glimmer in his eyes, "You always do +things that nobody else would dare do--and yet . . . no lovers!" + +She turned herself swiftly round and surveyed him with a bright scorn +that swept him as with a lightning flash from head to heel. + +"Lovers! Who would be bored by them! Such delightful company! So +unselfish in their demands--so tender and careful of a woman's +feelings! Pouf! Cher ami!--you forget! I was the wife of the late +Prince D'Agramont!" + +"That explains a great many of your moods certainly," said the Marquis +smiling. + +"Does it not? Le beau Louis!--romantic Louis!--poet Louis!--musician +Louis!--Louis, who talked pretty philosophies by the hour,--Louis who +looked so beautiful by moonlight,--who seemed fastidious and refined to +a degree that was almost ethereal!--Louis who swore, with passion +flashing in his eyes, that I was the centre of the universe to him, and +that no other woman had ever occupied, would ever occupy, or SHOULD +ever occupy his thoughts!--yes, he was an ideal lover and husband +indeed!" said the Princesse smiling coldly, "I gave him all my life and +love, till one day, when I found I was sharing his caresses with my +plumpest dairymaid, who called him "HER Louis"! Then I thought it was +time to put an end to romance. TIENS!" and she gave a little shrug and +sigh, "It is sad to think he died of over-eating." + +The Marquis laughed. + +"You are incorrigible, belle Loyse!" he said, "You should write these +things, not speak them." + +"Really! And do I not write them? Yes, you know I do, and that you envy +me my skill. The Figaro is indebted to me for many admirable essays. At +the same time I do not give you permission to call me Loyse." + +"Forgive me!" and the Marquis folded his hands with an air of mock +penitence. + +"Perhaps I will, presently," and she laughed, "But meanwhile I want you +to do something for me." + +"Toujours a votre service, madame!" and Fontenelle bowed profoundly. + +"How theatrical you look! You are alarmingly like Miraudin;--and one +MUST draw the line at Miraudin! This is a day of truth according to the +Abbe Vergniaud; how dare you say you are at my service when you do not +mean it?" + +"Princesse, I protest . . ." + +"Oh, protest as much as you like,--on the way to Rome!" + +The Marquis started. + +"To Rome?" + +"Yes, to Rome. I am going, and I want someone to look after me. Will +you come? All Paris will say we have eloped together." She laughed +merrily. + +The Marquis stood perplexed and silent. + +"Well, what is it?" went on the Princesse gaily, "Is there some faint +sense of impropriety stealing over you? Not possible! Dear me, your +very muscles are growing rigid! You will not go?" + +"Madame, if you will permit me to be frank with you,--I would rather +not!" + +"A la bonheur!--then I have you!" And the Princesse rose, a dazzling +smile irradiating her features, "You have thrown open your heart! You +have begun to reform! You love Sylvie Hermenstein--yes!--you positively +LOVE her!" + +"Princesse--" began the Marquis, "I assure you--" + +"Assure me nothing!" and she looked him straight in the eyes, "I know +all about it! You will not journey with me because you think the +Comtesse Sylvie will hear of it, and put a wrong construction on your +courtesy. You wish to try for once, to give her no cause for doubting +you to be sans peur et sans reproche. You wish to make her think you +something better than a sort of Miraudin whose amorous inclinations are +not awakened by one woman, but by women! And so you will not do +anything which, though harmless in itself, may seem equivocal. For this +you refuse the friendly invitation of one of the best known 'society +leaders' in Europe! CHER Marquis!--it is a step in the right direction! +Adieu!" + +"You are not going so soon," he said hurriedly, "Wait till I explain . +. ." + +"There is nothing to explain!" and the pretty Princesse gave him her +hand with a beneficent air, "I am very pleased with you. You are what +the English call 'good boy'! Now I am going to see the Abbe and place +the Chateau D'Agramont at his disposal while he is waiting to be +excommunicated,--for of course he will be excommunicated--" + +"What does it matter!--Who cares?" said the Marquis recklessly. + +"It does not matter, and nobody cares--not in actual Paris. But very +very nice people in the suburbs, who are morally much worse than the +Abbe, will perhaps refuse to receive him. That is why my doors are open +to him, and also to his son." + +"Original, as usual!" + +"Perfectly! I am going to write a column for the Figaro on the amazing +little scene of this morning. Au revoir! My poor horse has been waiting +too long already,--I must finish my ride in the Bois, and then go to +Angela Sovrani; for all the dramatis personae of to-day's melodrama are +at her studio, I believe." + +"Who is that boy with the Cardinal?" asked the Marquis suddenly. + +"You have noticed him? I also. A wonderful face! A little acolyte, no +doubt. And so you will not go to Rome with me?" + +"I think not," and Fontenelle smiled. + +"Comme il vous plaira! I will tell Sylvie." + +"The Comtesse Hermenstein is not in Paris." + +"No!" and the Princesse laughed mischievously, "She is in Rome! She +must have arrived there this morning. Au revoir, Marquis!" Another +dazzling smile, and she was gone. + +Fontenelle stood staring after her in amazement. Sylvie was in Rome +then? And he had just refused to accompany the Princesse D'Agramont +thither! A sudden access of irritation came over him, and he paced the +room angrily. Should he also go to Rome? Never! It would seem too close +a pursuit of a woman who had by her actions distinctly shown that she +wished to avoid him. Now he would prove to her that he also had a will +of his own. HE would leave Paris;--he would go--yes, he would go to +Africa! Everybody went to Africa. It was becoming a fashionable +pasture-land for disappointed lives. He would lose himself in the +desert,--and then--then Sylvie would be sorry when she did not know +where he was or what he was doing! But also,--he in his turn would not +know where Sylvie was, or what she was doing! This was annoying. It was +certain that she would not remain in Rome a day longer than she chose +to,--well!--then where would she go? In Africa he would find some +difficulty in tracing her movements. On second thoughts he resolved +that he would lose himself in another fashion--and would go to Rome to +do it! + +"She shall not know I am there!" he said to himself, with a kind of +triumph in his own decision, "I shall amuse myself--I shall see +her--but she shall not see me." + +Satisfied with this as yet vague plan of entertainment, he began at +once making his arrangements for departure;--meanwhile, the Princesse +D'Agramont riding gracefully through the Bois on her beautiful Arab, +was amusing herself with her thoughts, and weighing the PROS and CONS +of the different lives of her friends, without giving the slightest +consideration to her own. Here was a strange nature,--as a girl she had +been intensely loving, generous and warm-hearted, and she had adored +her husband with exceptional faith and devotion. But the handsome +Prince's amours were legion, though he had been fairly successful in +concealing them from his wife, till the unlucky day when she had found +him making desperate love to a common servant,--and after that her +confidence, naturally, was at an end. One discovery led to +another,--and the husband around whom she had woven her life's romance, +sank degraded in her sight, never to rise again. She was of far too +dignified and proud a nature to allow her sense of outrage and wrong to +be made public, and though she never again lived with D'Agramont as his +wife, she carried herself through all her duties as mistress of the +household and hostess of his guests, with a brave bright gaiety, which +deceived even the closest observer,--and the gossips of Paris used to +declare that she did not know the extent of her husband's follies. But +she did know,--and while filled with utter disgust and loathing for his +conduct she nevertheless gave him no cause of complaint against +herself. And when he died of a fever brought on through over-indulgence +in vice, she conformed to all the strictest usages of society,--wore +her solemn widow's black for more than the accustomed period,--and then +cast it off,--not to dash into her fashionable "circle" again with a +splurge of colour, but rather to glide into it gracefully, a vision of +refinement, arrayed in such soft hues as may be seen in some rare +picture; and she took complete possession of it by her own unaided +charm. No one could really tell whether she grieved for D'Agramont's +death or not; no one but herself knew how she had loved him,--no one +guessed what agonies of pain and shame she had endured for his sake, +nor how she had wept herself half blind with despair when he died. All +this she shut up in her own heart, but the working of the secret +bitterness within her had made a great change in her disposition. Her +nature, once as loving and confiding as that of a little child, had +been so wronged in its tenderest fibres that now she could not love at +all. + +"Why is it," she would ask herself, "that I am totally unable to care +for any living creature? That it is indifferent to me whether I see any +person once, or often, or never? Why are all men like phantoms, +drifting past my soul's immovability?" + +The answer to her query would be, that having loved greatly once and +been deceived, it was impossible to love again. Some women,--the best, +and therefore the unhappiest--are born with this difficult temperament. + +Now, as she rode quietly along, sometimes allowing her horse to prance +upon the turf for the delight of its dewy freshness, she was weaving +quite a brilliant essay on modern morals out of the scene she had +witnessed at the Church of the Lorette that morning. She well knew how +to use that dangerous weapon, the pen,--she could wield it like a wand +to waken tears or laughter with equal ease, and since her husband's +death she had devoted a great deal of time to authorship. Two witty +novels, published under a nom-de-plume had already startled the world +of Paris, and she was busy with a third. Such work amused her, and +distracted her from dwelling too much on the destroyed illusions of the +past. The Figaro snatched eagerly at everything she wrote; and it was +for the Figaro that she busied her brain now, considering what she +should say of the Abbe Vergniaud's confession. + +"It is wisest to be a liar and remain in the Church? or tell the truth +and go out of the Church?" she mused, "Unfortunately, if all priests +told the truth as absolutely as the Abbe did this morning we should +have hardly any of them left." + +She laughed a little, and stroked her horse's neck caressingly. + +"Good Rex! You and your kind never tell lies; and yet you are said to +have no souls. Now I wonder why we, who are mean and cunning and +treacherous and hypocritical should have immortal souls, while horses +and dogs who are faithful and kind and honest should be supposed to +have none." + +Rex gave a gay little prance forward as one who should say, "Yes, but +it is only you silly human beings who suppose such nonsense. We know +what WE know;--we have our own secrets!" + +"Now the Church," went on Loyse D'Agramont, pursuing the tenor of her +thoughts, "is in a bad way all over the world. It is possible that God +is offended with it. It is possible, that after nearly two thousand +years of patience He is tired of having come down to us to teach us the +path of Heaven in vain. Something out of the common has surely moved +the Abbe Vergniaud to speak as he spoke to-day. He was quite unlike +himself and beyond himself; if all our preachers were seized by the +spirit of frankness in like manner--" + +Here she broke off for she had arrived at Angela Sovrani's door, and a +servant coming out, assisted her to alight, and led her horse into the +courtyard there to await her leisure. She was an old friend of Angela's +and was accustomed to enter the house without announcement, but on this +occasion she hesitated, and after ascending the first few steps leading +to the studio paused and rang the bell. Angela herself answered the +summons. + +"Loyse! Is it you! Oh, I am so glad!" and Angela caught her by both +hands,--"You cannot imagine the confusion and trouble we have been in +this morning!" + +"Oh yes, I can!" answered the Princesse smiling, as she put an arm +round her friend's waist and entered the studio, "You have certainly +had an excitement! What of the courageous Abbe? Where is he?" + +"Here!" And Angela's eyes expressed volumes,--"Here, with my uncle. +They are talking together--and that young man--Cyrillon--the son, you +know--" + +"Is that his name?--Cyrillon?" queried the Princesse. + +"Yes,--he has been brought up as a peasant. But he is not ignorant. He +has written books and music, so it appears--yet he still keeps to his +labour in the fields. He seems to be a kind of genius; another sort of +Maeterlinck--" + +"Oh, capricious Destiny!" exclaimed the Princesse, "The dear Abbe +scandalises the Church by acknowledging his son to all men,--and +lo!--the son he was ashamed of all these years, turns out a prodigy! +The fault once confessed, brings a blessing! Angela, there is something +more than chance in this, if we could only fathom it!" + +"This Cyrillon is all softness and penitence now,' Angela went on, "He +is overcome with grief at his murderous attempt,--and has asked his +father's pardon. And they are going away together out of Paris till--" + +"Till excommunication is pronounced," said the Princesse, "Yes, I +thought so! I came here to place my Chateau at the Abbe's disposal. I +am myself going to Rome; so he and his son can be perfectly at home +there. I admire the man's courage, and above all I admire his +truthfulness. But I cannot understand why he was at such pains to keep +silence all these years, and THEN to declare his fault? He must have +decided on his confession very suddenly?" + +Angela's eyes grew dark and wistful. + +"Yes," she answered slowly,--then with a sudden eagerness in her manner +she added, "Do you know, Loyse, I feel as if some very strange +influence had crept in among us! Pray do not think me foolish, but I +assure you I have had the most curious sensations since my uncle, +Cardinal Bonpre arrived from Rouen--bringing Manuel--" + +"Manuel? Is that the boy I saw in the church this morning? The boy who +threw himself as a shield between Verginaud and the flying shot? Yes? +And do you not know who he is?" + +"No," and Angela repeated the story of the way in which Manuel had been +found and rescued by the Cardinal; "You see," she continued, "it is not +possible to ask him any questions since he has declined to tell us more +than we already know." + +"Strange!" And the Princesse D'Agramont knitted her delicate brows +perplexedly. "And you have had curious feelings since he came, you say? +What sort of feelings?" + +"Well, you will only laugh at me," replied Angela, her cheeks paling a +little as she spoke, "but it really is as if some supernatural being +were present who could see all my inward thoughts,--and not only mine, +but the thoughts of everyone else. Someone too who impels us to do what +we have never thought of doing before--" + +The Princesse opened her eyes in amazement. + +"My dear girl! You must have been over-working to get such strange +fancies into your head! There is nothing supernatural left to us +nowadays except the vague idea of a God,--and even that we are rather +tired of!" + +Angela trembled and grew paler than usual. + +"Do not speak in that way," she urged, "The Abbe talked in just such a +light fashion until the other day here,--yet this morning I think--nay, +I am sure he believes in something better than himself at last." + +The Princesse was silent for a minute. + +"Well, what is to happen next?" she queried, "Excommunication of +course! All brave thinkers of every time have been excommunicated, and +many of our greatest and most valuable scientific works are on the +Index Expurgatorius. It is my ambition to get into that Index,--I shall +never rest till I win the honour of being beside Darwin's 'Origin of +Species'!" + +Angela smiled, but her thoughts were elsewhere. + +"I hope the Abbe will go away at once," she said meditatively, "But you +have no idea how happy and at ease he is! He seems to be ready for +anything." + +"What does Cardinal Bonpre think?" asked the Princesse. + +"My uncle never thinks in any way except the way of Christ," replied +Angela. "He says, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee; arise and walk', to every +soul stricken with the palsy of pain and repentance. He helps the +fallen; he does not strike them down more heavily." + +"Ah, so! And is he fit to be a Cardinal?" queried the Princesse +D'Agramont dubiously. + +Angela gave her a quick look, but had no time to reply as at that +moment a servant entered and announced, "Monsignor Moretti!" + +Angela started nervously. + +"Moretti!" she said in a low tone, "I thought he had left Paris!" + +Before she had time to say any more the visitor himself entered, a tall +spare priest with a dark narrow countenance of the true Tuscan type,--a +face in which the small furtive eyes twinkled with a peculiarly hard +brilliancy as though they were luminous pebbles. He walked into the +room with a kind of aggressive dignity common to many Italians, and +made a slight sign of the cross in air as the two ladies saluted him. + +"Pardon me, Mesdames, for this intrusion," he said in a harsh metallic +voice, "But I hear that the Abbe Vergniaud is in this house,--and that +Cardinal Felix Bonpre has received him here SINCE" (and he emphasised +the word "since") "the shameful scene of this morning. My business in +Paris is ended for the moment; and I am returning to Italy +to-night,--but I wish to know if the Abbe has anything to say through +me to His Holiness the Pope in extenuation of his conduct before I +perform the painful duty of narrating this distressing affair at the +Vatican." + +"Will you see him for yourself, Monsignor?" said Angela quietly, +offering to lead the way out of the studio, "You will no doubt obtain a +more direct and explicit answer from the Abbe personally." + +For a moment Moretti hesitated. Princesse D'Agramont saw his +indecision, and her smile had a touch of malice in it as she said, + +"It is a little difficult to know how to address the Abbe to-day, is it +not, Monsignor? For of course he is no longer an Abbe--no longer a +priest of Holy Church! Helas! When anybody takes to telling the truth +in public the results are almost sure to be calamitous!" + +Moretti turned upon her with swift asperity. + +"Madame, you are no true daughter of the Church," he said, "and my +calling forbids me to enter into any discussion with you!" + +The Princesse gave him a charming upward glance of her bright eyes, and +curtsied demurely, but he paid no heed to her obeisance, and moving +away, went at once with Angela towards the Cardinal's apartments. In +the antechamber he paused, hearing voices. + +"Is there anyone with His Eminence, besides Vergniaud?" he asked. + +"The Abbe's son Cyrillon," replied Angela timidly. + +Moretti frowned. + +"I will go in alone," he said, "You need not announce me. The Abbe +knows me well, and--" he added with a slight sneer, "he is likely to +know me better!" + +Without further words he signed to Angela to retire, and passing +through the antechamber, he opened the door of the Cardinal's room and +entered abruptly. + + + + +XV. + +The Cardinal was seated,--he rose as Moretti appeared. + +"I beg your Eminence to spare yourself!" said Moretti suavely, with a +deep salutation, "And to pardon me for thus coming unannounced into the +presence of one so highly esteemed by the Holy Father as Cardinal +Bonpre!" + +The Cardinal gave a gesture of courteous deprecation; and Monsignor +Moretti, lifting his, till then, partially lowered eyelids, flashed an +angry regard upon the Abbe Vergniaud, who resting his back against the +book-case behind him, met his glance with the most perfect composure. +Close to him stood his son and would-be murderer Cyrillon,--his dark +handsome face rendered even handsomer by the wistful and softened +expression of his eyes, which ever and anon rested upon his father with +a look of mingled wonder and respect. There was a brief silence--of a +few seconds at most,--and then Moretti spoke again in a voice which +thrilled with pent-up indignation, but which he endeavoured to render +calm and clear as he addressed the Cardinal. + +"Your Eminence is without doubt aware of the cause of my visit to you. +If, as I understand, your Eminence was present at Notre Dame de Lorette +this morning, and witnessed the regrettable conduct of the faithless +son of the Church here present--" + +"Pardon! This is my affair." interposed Vergniaud, stepping forward, +"His Eminence, Cardinal Bonpre, is not at all concerned in the matter +of the difficult dispute which has arisen between me and my own +conscience. You call me faithless, Monsignor,--will you explain what +you mean by 'faithless' under these present conditions of argument?" + +"It shows the extent and hopelessness of your retrogression from all +good that you should presume to ask such a question," answered Moretti, +growing white under the natural darkness of his skin with an impotency +of rage he could scarcely suppress, "Your sermon this morning was an +open attack on the Church, and the amazing scene at its conclusion is a +scandal to Christianity!" + +"The attack on the Church I admit," said the Abbe quietly, "I am not +the only preacher in the world who has so attacked it. Christ Himself +would attack it if He were to visit this earth again!" + +Moretti turned angrily towards the Cardinal. + +"Your Eminence permits this blasphemy to be uttered in your presence?" +he demanded. + +"Nay, wherever and whenever I perceive blasphemy, my son, I shall +reprove it," said the Cardinal, fixing his mild eyes steadily on +Moretti's livid countenance, "I cannot at present admit that our +unhappy and repentant brother here has blasphemed. In his address to +his congregation to-day he denounced social hypocrisy, and also pointed +out certain failings in the Church which may possibly need +consideration and reform; but against the Gospel of Christ, or against +the Founder of our Faith I heard no word that could be judged +ill-fitting. As for the conclusion which so very nearly ended in +disaster and crime, there is nothing to be said beyond the fact that +both the persons concerned are profoundly sorry for their sins." + +"No sorrow can wipe out such infamy--" began Moretti hotly. + +"Patience! Patience, my son!" and the Cardinal raised his hand with a +slight gesture of authority, "Surely we must believe the words of our +Blessed Lord, 'There is more joy in Heaven over one sinner that +repenteth than over ninety and nine just persons which have no need of +repentance'!" + +"And on this old and well-worn phrase you excuse a confessed heretic?" +said Moretti, with a sneer. + +"This old and well-worn phrase is the saying of our Master," answered +the Cardinal firmly, "And it is as true as the truth of the sunshine +which, in its old and well-worn way, lights up this world gloriously +every morning! I would stake my very life on the depth and the truth of +Vergniaud's penitence! Who, seeing and knowing the brand of disgrace he +has voluntarily burnt into his own social name and honour, could doubt +his sincerity, or refuse to raise him up, even as our Lord would have +done, saying, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee! Go, and sin no more!'?" + +Moretti's furtive eyes disappeared for a moment under his discoloured +eyelids, which quivered rapidly like the throbbings in the throat of an +angry snake. Before he could speak again however, Vergniaud interposed. + +"Why trouble His Eminence with my crimes or heresies?" he said quietly, +"I am grateful to him from my soul for his gentleness and charity of +judgment--but I need no defence--not even from him. I am answerable to +God alone!--neither to Church nor Creed! It was needful that I should +speak as I spoke to-day--" + +"Needful to scandalize the Church?" demanded Moretti sharply. + +"The Church is not scandalized by a man who confesses himself an +unworthy member of it!" returned Vergniaud, "It is better to tell the +truth and go out of the Church than to remain in it as a liar and a +hypocrite." + +"According to your own admission you have been a liar and a hypocrite +for twenty-five years!" said Moretti bitterly, "You should have made +your confession before, and have made it privately. There is something +unnatural and reprehensible in the sudden blazon you have made to the +public of your gross immorality." + +"'A sudden blazon' you call it,--" said the Abbe, "Well, perhaps it is! +But murder will out, no matter how long it is kept in. You are not +entirely aware of my position, Monseigneur. Have you the patience to +hear a full explanation?" + +"I have the patience to hear because it is my duty to hear," replied +Moretti frigidly, "I am bound to convey the whole of this matter to His +Holiness." + +"True! That is your duty, and who shall say it is not also your +pleasure!" and Vergniaud smiled a little. "Well!--Convey to His +Holiness the news that I, Denis Vergniaud, am a dying man, and that +knowing myself to be in that condition, and that two years at the +utmost, is my extent of life on this planet, I have taken it seriously +into my head to consider as to whether I am fit to meet death with a +clean conscience. Death, Monsignor, admits of no lying, no politeness, +no elegant sophistries! Now, the more I have considered, the more I am +aware of my total unfitness to confront whatever may be waiting for me +in the Afterwards of death--(for without doubt there is an +afterwards,)--and being conscious of having done at least one grave +injury to an innocent person, I have taken the best and quickest way to +make full amends. I wronged a woman--this boy's mother--" and he +indicated with a slight gesture Cyrillon, who had remained a silent +witness of the scene,--"and the boy himself from early years set his +mind and his will to avenge his mother's dishonour. I--the chief actor +in the drama,--am thus responsible for a woman's misery and shame; and +am equally responsible for the murderous spirit which has animated one, +who without this feeling, would have been a promising fellow enough. +The woman I wronged, alas!--is dead, and I cannot reinstate her name, +save in an open acknowledgment of her child, my son. I do acknowledge +him,--I acknowledge him in your presence, and therefore virtually in +the presence of His Holiness. I thus help to remove the stigma I myself +set on his name. Plainly speaking, Monsignor, we men have no right +whatever to launch human beings into the world with the 'bar sinister' +branded upon them. We have no right, if we follow Christ, to do +anything that may injure or cause trouble to any other creature. We +have no right to be hasty in our judgment, even of sin." + +"Sin is sin,--and demands punishment--" interrupted Moretti. + +"You quote the law of Moses, Monsignor! I speak with the premise 'if'. +IF we follow Christ;--if we do not, the matter is of course different. +We can then twist Scripture to suit our own purpose. We can organise +systems which are agreeable to our own convenience or profit, but which +have nothing whatever of Christ's Divine Spirit of universal love and +compassion in them. My action this morning was unusual and quixotic no +doubt. Yet, it seemed to me the only way to comport myself under those +particular circumstances. I did a wrong--I seek to make amends. I +believe this is what God would have me do. I believe that the Supernal +Forces judge our sins against each other to be of a far worse nature +than sins against Church or Creed. I also believe that if we try to +amend our injustices and set crooked things straight, death will be an +easier business, and Heaven will come a little nearer to our souls. As +for my attack on the Church--" + +"Ah truly! What of your attack on the Church?" said Moretti, his small +eyes glistening, and his breath going and coming quickly. + +"I would say every word of it again with absolute conviction," declared +Vergniaud, "for I have said nothing but the truth! There is a movement +in the world, Monsignor, that all the powers of Rome are unable to cope +with!--the movement of an advancing resistless force called Truth,--the +Voice of God,--the Voice of Christ! Truth cannot be choked, murdered +and killed nowadays as in the early Inquisition! Rather than that the +Voice of Truth should be silenced or murdered now at this period of +time, God will shake down Rome!" + +"Not so!" exclaimed Moretti hotly--"Every nation in the world shall +perish before Rome shall lose her sacred power! She is the 'headstone +of the corner'--and 'upon whomsoever that stone shall fall, it shall +grind him to powder!'" + +"You think so?" and Verginaud shrugged his shoulders ever so +slightly--"Well! For me, I believe that material as well as spiritual +forces combine to fight against long-concealed sin and practised old +hypocrisies. It would not surprise me if the volcanic agencies which +are for ever at work beneath the blood-stained soil of Italy, were to +meet under the Eternal City, and in one fell burst of flame and thunder +prove its temporary and ephemeral worth! The other day an earthquake +shook the walls of Rome and sent a warning shock through St. Peter's. +St. Peter's, with its vast treasures, its gilded shrines, its locked-up +wealth, its magnificence,--a strange contrast to Italy itself!--Italy +with its people ground down under the heel of a frightful taxation, +starving, and in the iron bonds of poverty! 'The Pope is a prisoner and +can do nothing'? Monsignor, the Pope is a prisoner by his own choice! +If he elected to walk abroad among the people and scatter Peter's Pence +among the sick and needy, he would then perhaps be BEGINNING to do the +duties our Lord enjoined on all His disciples!" + +Moretti had stood immovable during this speech, his dark face rigid, +his eyes downcast, listening to every word, but now he raised his hand +with an authoritative gesture. + +"Enough!" he said, "I will hear no more! You know the consequences of +this at the Vatican?" + +"I do." + +"You are prepared to accept them?" + +"As prepared as any of the truth-tellers who were burned for the love +of Christ by the Inquisition," replied Vergniaud deliberately. "The +world is wide,--there is room for me in it outside the Church." + +"One would imagine you were bitten by the new 'Christian Democratic' +craze," said Moretti with a cold smile, "And that you were a reader and +follower of the Socialist, Gys Grandit!" + +At this name, Vergniaud's son Cyrillon stirred, and lifting his dark +handsome head turned his flashing eyes full on the speaker. + +"Did you address me, Monsignor?" he queried, in a voice rich with the +musical inflexions of Southern France, "I am Gys Grandit!" + +Had he fired another pistol shot in the quiet room as he had fired it +in the church, it could hardly have created a more profound sensation. + +"You--you--" stammered Moretti, retreating from him as from some +loathsome abomination, "You--Gys Grandit!" + +"You, Cyrillon!--you!--you, my son!"--and the Abbe almost lost breath +in the extremity of his amazement, while Cardinal Bonpre half rose from +his chair doubting whether he had heard aright. Gys Grandit!--the +writer of fierce political polemics and powerful essays that were the +life and soul, meat and drink of all the members of the Christian +Democratic party! + +"Gys Grandit is my nom-de-plume," pursued the young man, composedly, "I +never had any hope of being acknowledged as Cyrillon Vergniaud, son of +my father,--I had truly no name and resolved to create one. That is the +sole explanation. My history has made me--not myself." + +There was a dead pause. At last Moretti spoke. + +"I have no place here!" he said, biting his lips hard to keep them from +trembling with rage, "This house which I thought was the abode of a +true daughter of the Church, Donna Sovrani, is apparently for the +moment a refuge for heretics. And I find these heretics kept in +countenance by Cardinal Felix Bonpre, whose reputation for justice and +holiness should surely move him to denounce them were he not held in +check by some malignant spirit of evil, which seems to possess this +atmosphere--" + +"Monsignor Moretti," interposed the Cardinal with dignity, "it is no +part of justice or holiness to denounce anything or anybody till the +full rights of the case have been heard. I was as unaware as yourself +that this young man, Cyrillon Vergniaud, was the daring writer who has +sent his assumed name of 'Gys Grandit' like a flame through Europe. I +have read his books, and cannot justly denounce them, because they are +expressed in the language of one who is ardently and passionately +seeking for Truth. Equally, I cannot denounce the Abbe, because he has +confessed his sin, declared himself as he is, to the public, saved his +son from being a parricide, and has to some extent we trust, made his +peace with God. If you can find any point on which, as a servant of +Christ, I can denounce these two human beings who share with me the +strange and awful privileges of life and death, and the promise of an +immortal hereafter, I give you leave to do so. The works of Gys Grandit +do not blaspheme Christ,--they call, they clamour, they appeal for +Christ through all and in all--" + +"And with all this clamour and appeal their writer is willing to become +a murderer!" said Moretti satirically. + +Young Vergniaud sprang forward. + +"Monsignor, in the name of the Master you profess to serve I would +advise you to set a watch upon your tongue!" he said, "Granted that I +was willing to murder the man who had made my mother's life a misery, I +was also willing to answer to God for it! I saw my mother die--" here +he gave a quick glance towards the Abbe who instinctively shrank at his +words, "I shall pain you, my father, by what I say, but the pain is +perhaps good for us both! I repeat--I saw my mother die. She passed +away uncomforted after a long life of patient loneliness and +sorrow--for she was faithful to the last, ever faithful! I have seen +her weep in the silence of the night!--I have heard her ever since I +was able to understand the sound of weeping! Oh, those tears!--Do you +not think God has seen them! She worked and toiled, and starved herself +to educate me,--she had no friends, for she had 'fallen', they said, +and sometimes she could get no employment, and often we starved +together; and when I thought of the man who had done this thing, even +as a young boy I said to myself, 'I will kill him!' She did not mean, +poor mother, to curse her lover to me--but unconsciously she did,--her +sorrow was so great--her loneliness so bitter!" + +Moretti gave a gesture of impatience and contempt. Cyrillon noted it, +and his dark eyes flashed, but he went on steadily,-- + +"And then I saw her die--she stretched her poor thin hard-working hands +out to God, and over and over again she muttered and moaned in her +fever the refrain of an old peasant song we have in Touraine, 'Oh, la +tristesse d'avoir aime!' If you had heard her--if you had seen her--if +you had, or have a heart to feel, nerves to wrench, a brain to rack, +blood to be stung to frenzy, you would,--seeing your mother perish +thus,--have thought, that to kill the man who had made such a wreck of +a sweet pure life, would be a just, aye even a virtuous deed! I thought +so. But my intended vengeance was frustrated--whether by the act of +God, who can say? But the conduct of the man whom I am now proud to +call my father--" + +"You have great cause for pride!" said Moretti sarcastically. + +"I think I have"--said the young man, "In the close extremity of death +at my hands, he won my respect. He shall keep it. It will be my glory +now to show him what a son's love and pardon may be. If it be true as I +understand, that he is attacked by a disease which needs must be fatal, +his last hours will not be desolate! It may be that I shall give him +more comfort than Churches,--more confidence than Creeds! It may be +that the clasp of my hand in his may be a better preparation for his +meeting with God,--and my mother,--than the touch of the Holy Oils in +Extreme Unction!" + +"Like all your accursed sect, you blaspheme the +Sacraments"--interrupted Moretti indignantly--"And in the very presence +of one of her chiefest Cardinals, you scorn the Church!" + +Cyrillon gave a quick gesture of emphatic denial. + +"Monsignor, I do not scorn the Church,--but I think that honesty and +fair dealing with one another is better than any Church! Christ had no +Church. He built no temples, He amassed no wealth,--He preached simply +to those who would hear Him under the arching sky,--in the open air! He +prophesied the fall of temples; 'In this place,' He said, 'is One +greater than the temple.' [Footnote: Matt. xii. v. 6.] He sought to +destroy long built-up hypocrisies. 'My house is called the house of +prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.' Thieves, not only of +gold, but of honour!--thieves of the very Gospel, which has been +tampered with and twisted to suit the times, the conditions and +opinions of varying phases of priestcraft. Who that has read, and +thought, and travelled and studied the manuscripts hidden away in the +old monasteries of Armenia and Syria, believes that the Saviour of the +world ever condescended to 'pun' on the word Petrus, and say, 'On this +Rock (or stone) I will build my Church,' when He already knew that He +had to deal with a coward who would soon deny Him?" + +"Enough! I will hear no further!" cried Moretti, turning livid with +fury--"Cardinal Bonpre, I appeal to you . . ." + +But Cyrillon went on unheedingly,-- + +"Beware of that symbol of your Church, Monsignor! It is a very strange +one! It seems about to be expanded into a reality of dreadful earnest! +'I know not the man,' said Peter. Does not the glittering of the +world's wealth piled into the Vatican,--useless wealth lying idle in +the midst of hideous beggary and starvation,--proclaim with no +uncertain voice, 'I KNOW NOT THE MAN'? The Man of sorrows,--the Man of +tender and pitying heart,--the Man who could not send the multitude +away without bread, and compassed a miracle to give it to them,--the +Man who wept for a friend's death,--who took little children in His +arms and blessed them,--who pardoned the unhappy outcast and said, 'Sin +no more,'--who was so selfless, so pure, so strong, so great, that even +sceptics, while denying His Divinity, are compelled to own that His +life and His actions were more Divine than those of any other creature +in human shape that has ever walked the earth! Monsignor, there is no +true representative of Christ in this world!" + +"Not for heretics possibly," said Moretti disdainfully. + +"For no one!" said Cyrillon passionately--"For no poor sinking, seeking +soul is there any such visible comforter! But there is a grand tendency +in Mankind to absorb His Spirit and His teaching;--to turn from forms +and shadows of faith to the Faith itself,--from descriptions of a +possible heaven to the REAL Heaven, which is being disclosed to us in +transcendent glimpses through the jewel-gates of science! There were +twelve gates in the visioned heaven of St. John,--and each gate was +composed of one pearl! Truly do the scoffers say that never did any +planetary sea provide such pearls as these! No,--for they were but +prophetic emblems of the then undiscovered Sciences. Ah, +Monsignor!--and what of the psychic senses and forces?--forces which we +are just beginning to discover and to use,--forces which enable me to +read your mind at this present moment and to see how willingly you +would send me to the burning, Christian as you call yourself, for my +thoughts and opinions!--as your long-ago predecessors did with all men +who dared to reason for themselves! But that time has passed, +Monsignor; the Spirit of Christ in the world has conquered the Church +THERE!" + +The words rushed from his lips with a fervid eloquence that was +absolutely startling,--his eyes were aglow with feeling--his face so +animated and inspired, that it seemed as though a flame behind it +illumined every feature. Abbe Vergniaud, astonished and overcome, laid +a trembling hand on the arm of the passionate speaker with a gesture +more of appeal than restraint, and the young man caught that hand +within his own and held it fast. Moretti for a moment fixed his eyes +upon father and son with an expression of intense hatred that darkened +his face with a deep shadow as of a black mask,--and then without a +word deliberately turned his back upon both. + +"Your Eminence has heard all this," he said coldly, addressing the +Cardinal who sat rigidly in his chair, silent and very pale. + +"I have," replied Bonpre in a low strained tone. + +"And I presume your Eminence permits--?" + +"Why talk of permission?" interrupted the Cardinal, raising his eyes +with a sorrowful look, "Who is to permit or deny freedom of speech in +these days? Have I--have you--the right to declare that a man shall not +express his thoughts? In what way are we to act? Deny a hearing? We +cannot--we dare not--not if we obey our Lord, who says, 'Whatsoever ye +would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them.' If we ask +for ourselves to be heard, we must also hear." + +"We may hear--but in such a case as the present one must we not also +condemn?" demanded Moretti, watching the venerable prelate narrowly. + +"We can only condemn in the case of a great sin," replied Bonpre +gently, "and even then our condemnation must be passed with fear and +trembling, and with full knowledge of all the facts pertaining to the +error. 'Judge not that ye be not judged.' We are told plainly that our +brother may sin against us not only seven times but seventy times +seven, and still we are bound to forgive, to sustain, to help, and not +to trample down the already fallen." + +"These are your Eminence's opinions?" said Moretti. + +"Most assuredly! Are they not yours?" + +Moretti smiled coldly. + +"No. I confess they are not! I am a faithful servant of the Church; and +the Church is a system of moral government in which, if the slightest +laxity be permitted, the whole fabric is in danger--" + +"A house of cards then, which a breath may blow down!" interposed "Gys +Grandit," otherwise Cyrillon Vergniaud, "Surely an unstable foundation +for the everlasting ethics of Christ!" + +"I did not speak to you, sir," said Moretti, turning upon him angrily. + +"I know you did not. I spoke to you," answered the young man coolly, "I +have as much right to speak to you, as you have to speak to me, or to +be silent--if you choose. You say the Church is a system of moral +government. Well, look back on the past, and see what it has done in +the way of governing. In the very earliest days of Christianity, when +men were simple and sincere, when their faith in the power of the +Divine things was strong and pure, the Church was indeed a safeguard, +and a powerful restraint on man's uneducated licentiousness and +inherent love of strife. But when the lust of gain began to creep like +a fever into the blood of those with whom worldly riches should be as +nothing compared to the riches of the mind, the heart, and the spirit, +then the dryrot of hypocrisy set in--then came craftiness, cruelty, +injustice, and pitilessness, and such grossness of personal conduct as +revolts even the soul of an admitted sinner. Moral government? Where is +it to day? Look at France--Italy--Spain! Count up the lies told by the +priests in these countries to feed the follies of the ignorant! Did +Christ ever tell lies? No. Then why, if you are His follower, do you +tell them?" + +"I repeat, I did not speak to you," said Moretti, his eyes sparkling +with fury,--"To me you are a heretic, accursed, and +excommunicate!--thrust out of salvation, and beyond my province to deal +with!" + +"Oh, that a man should be thrust out of salvation in these Christian +days!" exclaimed Cyrillon with a flashing look of scorn, "And that he +should find a servant of Christ to tell him so! Accursed and +excommunicate! Then I am a kind of leper in the social community! And +you, as a disciple of your Master, should heal me of my infirmity--and +cleanse me of my Leprosy! Loathsome as leprosy is whether of mind or +body, Christ never thrust it out of salvation!" + +"The leper must wish to be cleansed!" said Moretti fiercely, "If he +does not himself seek to be healed of his evil, no miracle can help +him." + +"Oh but I do seek!" And young Vergniaud threw back his handsome head +with a splendid gesture of appeal, "With all my soul, if I am diseased, +I wish to be cleansed! Will YOU cleanse me? CAN you? I wish to stand up +whole and pure, face to face with the Divine in this world, and praise +Him for His goodness to me. But surely if He is to be found anywhere it +is in the Spirit of Truth! Not in any sort of a lie! Now, according to +His own words the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Truth. 'When the Spirit +of Truth is come He will guide you into all Truth.' And what then? +Monsignor, it is somewhat dangerous to oppose the Spirit of Truth, +whether that Force speak through the innocent lips of a child or the +diseased ones of a leper! 'For whosoever speaketh a word against the +Son of Man it shall be forgiven him, BUT WHOSOEVER SPEAKETH AGAINST THE +HOLY GHOST'--or the Spirit of Truth, known sometimes as Inspiration . . +. "IT SHALL NOT BE FORGIVEN HIM in this world, neither in the world to +come.' That is a terrible curse, which an ocean of Holy Water could +scarcely wash away!" + +"Your argument is wide of the mark," said Moretti, impatiently, yet +forced in spite of himself to defend his position, "the Church is not +opposed to Truth but to Atheism." + +"Atheism! There is no such thing as a real atheist in the world!" +declared Cyrillon passionately, "No reasoning human being alive, that +has not felt the impress of the Divine Image in himself and in all the +universe around him! He may, through apathy and the falsehoods of +priestcraft, have descended into callousness, indifference and egotism, +but he knows well that that impress cannot be stamped out--that he will +have to account for his part, however small it be, in the magnificent +pageant of life and work, for he has not been sent into it 'on chance.' +Inasmuch as if there is chance in one thing there must be chance in +another, and the solar system is too mathematically designed to be a +haphazard arrangement. With all our cleverness, our logic, our +geometrical skill, we can do nothing so exact! As part of the solar +system, you and I have our trifling business to enact, Monsignor,--and +to enact it properly, and with satisfaction to our Supreme Employer, it +seems to me that if we are honest with the world and with each other, +we shall be on the right road." + +"For my part, I am perfectly honest with you," said Moretti smiling +darkly, "I told you, and I tell you again, that to me you are a +heretic, accursed and excommunicate. You will, as the democrat 'Gys +Grandit,' no doubt feel a peculiar pleasure when your father is also +declared accursed and excommunicate. I have said, and I say again, that +the Church is a system of moral government, and that no laxity can be +permitted. It is a system founded on the Gospel of our Lord, but to +obey the commands of our Lord to the letter we should have to find +another world to live in--" + +"Pardon me--I ask for information," interposed Cyrillon, "You of course +maintain that Christ was God in Man?" + +"Most absolutely!" + +"And yet you say that to obey His commands to the letter we should have +to find another world to live in! Strange! Since He made the world and +knows all our capabilities of progress! But have you never fancied it +possible that we may be forced to obey His commands to the letter, or +perish for refusing to do so?" + +Moretti made as though he would have sprung forward,--his face was +drawn and rigid, his lips tightly compressed, but he had no answer to +this unanswerable logic. He therefore took refuge in turning brusquely +away as before and was about to address himself to Bonpre, but stopped +short, as he perceived Manuel, who had entered while the conversation +was going on, and who now stood quietly by the Cardinal's chair in an +attitude of composed attention. Moretti glanced at him with a vexed +sense of irritation and reluctant wonder;--then moistening his dry lips +he began, + +"I am bound to regret deeply that your Eminence has allowed this +painful discussion to take place in your presence without reproof. But +I presume you are aware of the responsibility incurred?" + +The Cardinal slowly inclined his head in grave assent. + +"In relating the scene of to-day to His Holiness, I shall be compelled +to mention the attitude you have maintained throughout the +conversation." + +"You are at perfect liberty to do so, my son," said Bonpre with +unruffled gentleness. + +Moretti hesitated. His eyes again rested on Manuel. + +"Pardon me," he said suddenly and irrelevantly, "This boy . . ." + +"Is a foundling," said the Cardinal, "He stays with me till I can place +him well in the world. He has no friends." + +"He took some part in the affair of this morning, I believe?" queried +Moretti, with a doubtful air. + +"He saved my life," said Abbe Vergniaud advancing, "It was not +particularly worth saving--but he did it. And I owe him much--for in +saving me, he also saved Cyrillon from something worse than death." + + +"Naturally you must be very gratefu," retorted Moretti satirically, +"The affection of a son you have denied for twenty-five years must be +exceedingly gratifying to you!" He paused--then said, "Does this boy +belong to the Church?" + +"No," said Manuel, answering for himself, "I have no Church." + +"No Church!" exclaimed Moretti, "His Eminence must educate you, boy. +You must be received." + +"Yes," said Manuel, raising his eyes, and fixing them full on Moretti, +"I must be received! I need education to understand the Church. And +so,--for me to be received might be difficult!" + + + + +XVI. + +As he thus spoke, slowly and with an exquisite softness, something in +his voice, manner, or words aroused a sudden and violent antipathy in +Moretti's mind. He became curiously annoyed, without any possible +cause, and out of his annoyance answered roughly. + +"Ignorance is always difficult to deal with," he said, "But if it is +not accompanied by self-will or obstinacy--(and boys of your age are +apt to be self-willed and obstinate)--then much can be done. The Church +has infinite patience even with refractory sinners." + +"Has it?" asked Manuel simply, and his clear eyes, turning slowly +towards Vergniaud and his son, rested there a moment, and then came +back to fix the same steady look upon Moretti's face. Not another word +did he say,--but Moretti flushed darkly, and anon grew very pale. +Restraining his emotions however by an effort, he addressed himself +with cold formality once more to the Abbe. + +"You have no explanation then to offer to His Holiness, beyond what you +have already said?" + +"None!" replied Vergniaud steadily. "The reasons for my conduct I think +are sufficiently vital and earnest to be easily understood." + +"And your Eminence has nothing more to say on this matter?" pursued +Moretti, turning to the Cardinal. + +"Nothing, my son! But I would urge that the Holy Father should extend +his pardon to the offenders, the more so as one of them is on the verge +of that land where we 'go hence and are no more seen.'" + +Moretti's eyelids quivered, and his lips drew together in a hard and +cruel line. + +"I will assuredly represent your wishes to His Holiness," he replied, +"But I doubt whether they will meet with so much approval as surprise +and regret. I have the honour to wish your Eminence farewell!" + +"Farewell, my son!" said the Cardinal mildly, "Benedicite!" + +Moretti bent down, as custom forced him to do, under the gently uttered +blessing, and the extended thin white hand that signed the cross above +him. Then with a furtive under-glance at Manuel, whose quiet and +contemplative observation of him greatly vexed and disturbed his +composure, he left the room. + +There was a short silence. Then Abbe Vergniaud, somewhat hesitatingly, +approached Bonpre. + +"I much fear, my dear friend, that all this means unpleasantness for +you at the Vatican," he said, "And I sincerely grieve to be the means +of bringing you into any trouble." + +"Nay, there should be no trouble," said Bonpre quietly, "Nothing has +happened which should really cause me any perplexity--on the contrary, +events have arranged themselves so that there shall be no obstacle in +the way of speaking my mind. I have journeyed far from my diocese to +study and to discover for myself the various phases of opinion on +religious matters in these days, and I am steadily learning much as I +go. I regret nothing, and would have nothing altered,--for I am +perfectly confident that in all the things I meet, or may have to +consider, my Master is my Guide. All is well wherever we hear His +Voice;--all things work for the best when we are able to perceive His +command clearly, and have strength and resolution enough to forsake our +sins and follow Him." + +As he spoke, a tranquil smile brightened his venerable features, and +seeing the fine small hand of Manuel resting on his chair, he laid his +own wrinkled palm over it and clasped it tenderly. Cyrillon Vergniaud, +moved by a quick impulse, suddenly advanced towards him. + +"Monseigneur," he said, with unaffected deference, "You are much more +than a Cardinal,--you are a good and honest man! And that you serve +Christ purely is plainly evidenced in your look and bearing. Do me one +favour! Extend your pardon to me for my almost committed crime of +to-day,--and give me your blessing! I will try to be worthy of it!" + +The Cardinal was silent for a few minutes looking at him earnestly. + +"My blessing is of small value," he said, "And yet I do not think you +would ask it for mere mockery of an old man's faith. I should like,--" +here he paused--then slowly went on again, "I should like to say a few +words to you if I might--to ask you one or two questions concerning +yourself--" + +"Ask anything you please, Monseigneur," replied Cyrillon, "I will +answer you frankly and fully. I have never had any mysteries in my life +save one,--that of my birth, which up till to day was a stigma and a +drawback;--but now, I feel I may be proud of my father. A man who +sacrifices his entire social reputation and position to make amends for +a wrong done to the innocent is worthy of honour." + +"I grant it!" said the Cardinal, "But you yourself--why have you made a +name which is like a firebrand to start a conflagration of discord in +Europe?--why do you use your gifts of language and expression to awaken +a national danger which even the strongest Government may find itself +unable to stand against? I do not blame you till I hear,--till I +know;--but your writings,--your appeals for truth in all things,--are +like loud clarion blasts which may awaken more evil than good." + +"Monseigneur, the evil is not of my making,--it exists!" replied +Cyrillon, "My name, my writings,--are only as a spark from the huge +smouldering fire of religious discontent in the world. If it were not +MY name it would be another's. If _I_ did not write or speak, someone +else would write and speak--perhaps better--perhaps not so well. At any +rate I am sincere in my convictions, and write from the fulness of the +heart. I do not care for money--I make none at all by literature,--but +I earn enough by my labour in the fields to keep me in food and +lodging. I have no desire for fame,--except in so far as my name may +serve as an encouragement and help to others. If you care to hear my +story--" + +"I should appreciate your confidence greatly," said the Cardinal +earnestly, "The Fates have made you a leading spirit of the time,--it +would interest me to know your thoughts and theories. But if you would +prefer not to speak--" + +"I generally prefer not to speak," replied Cyrillon, "But to-day is one +of open confession,--and I think too that it is sometimes advisable for +men of the Church to understand and enter into the minds of those who +are outside the Church,--who will have no Church,--not from +disobedience or insubordination, but simply because they do not find +God or Christ in that institution as it at present exists. And nowadays +we are seeking for God strenuously and passionately! We have found Him +too in places where the Church assured us He was not and could not be." + +"Is there any portion of life where God is not?" asked Manuel gently. + +Cyrillon's dark eyes softened as he met the boy's glance. + +"No, dear child!--truly there is not,--but the priests do nothing to +maintain or to prove that," he replied; "and the more the world lifts +itself higher and higher into the light, the more we shall perceive +God, and the less we will permit anything to intervene between +ourselves and Him. But you are too young to understand--" + +"No, not at all too young to understand!" answered Manuel, "Not at all +too young to understand that God is love, and pardon, and +patience;--and that wheresoever men are intolerant, uncharitable, and +bigoted, there they straightway depart from God and know Him not at +all." + +"Truly that is how I understand Christianity," said Cyrillon, "But for +so simple and plain a perception of duty one is called atheist and +socialist, and one's opinions are branded as dangerous to the +community. Truth is dangerous, I know--but why?" + +"Would that not take a century to explain?" said the silvery voice of +the Princesse D'Agramont, who entered with Angela at that moment, and +made her deep obeisance before the Cardinal, glancing inquisitively as +she did so at Manuel who still stood resting against the prelate's +chair, "Pardon our abrupt appearance, Monseigneur, but Angela and I are +moved by the spirit of curiosity!--and if we are swept out of the +Church like straws before the wind for our impertinence, we care not! +Monsignor Moretti has just left the house, wrapt up in his wrath like a +bird of prey in a thunder-cloud, muttering menaces against 'Gys +Grandit' the Socialist writer. Now what in the world has Gys Grandit to +do with him or with us? Salut, cher Abbe!"--and she gave Vergniaud her +hand with charming friendliness; "I came here really to see you, and +place the Chateau D'Agramont at your disposal, while I am away passing +the winter in Italy. Pray make yourself at home there--and your son +also . . ." + +"Madame," said the Abbe, profoundly touched by the sincerity of her +manner, and by the evident cordiality of her intention, "I thank you +from my heart for your friendship at this moment when friendship is +most needed! But I feel I ought not to cast the shadow of my presence +on your house under such circumstances--and as for my son--it would +certainly be unwise for you to extend your gracious hospitality to him +. . . he is my son--yes truly!--and I acknowledge him as such; but he +is also another person of his own making--Gys Grandit!" + +Angela Sovrani gave a slight cry, and a wave of colour flushed her +face,--the Princesse stood amazed. + +"Gys Grandit!" she echoed in a low tone, "And Vergniaud's son! Grand +Dieu! Is it possible!" Then advancing, she extended both her hands to +Cyrillon, "Monsieur, accept my homage! You have a supreme genius,--and +with it you command more than one-half of the thoughts of France!" + +Cyrillon took her hands,--lightly pressed, and released them. + +"Madame, you are too generous!" + +But even while he exchanged these courtesies with her, his eyes were +fixed on Angela Sovrani, who, moving close to her uncle's chair, had +folded her hands upon its sculptured edge and now stood beside it, a +graceful nymph-like figure of statuesque repose. But her breath came +and went quickly, and her face was very pale. + +"No wonder Monsignor Moretti was so exceedingly angry," resumed the +Princesse D'Agramont with a smile, "I understand the position now. It +is a truly remarkable one. Monseigneur," this with a profound reverence +to the Cardinal, "you have found it difficult to be umpire in the +discussion." + +"The discussion was not mine," said the Cardinal slowly, "But the cause +of the trouble is a point which affects many,--and I am one of those +who desire to hear all before I presume to judge one. I have asked the +son of my old friend Vergniaud to tell me what led him to make his +assumed name one of such terror and confusion in the world; he is but +six-and-twenty, and yet . . ." + +"And yet people talk much of me you would say, Monseigneur," said +Cyrillon, a touch of scorn lighting up his fine eyes, "True, and it is +easy to be talked of. That is nothing, I do not wish for that, except +in so far as it helps me to attain my ambition." + +"And that ambition is?" queried the Princesse. + +"To lead!" answered Cyrillon with a passionate gesture, "To gather the +straying thoughts of men into one burning focus--and turn THAT fire on +the world!" + +They were all silent for a minute--then the Princesse D'Agramont spoke +again-- + +"But--Pardon me! Then you were about to destroy all your own chances of +the future in your wild impulse of this morning?" + +"Oh, Madame, it was no wild impulse! When a man takes an oath by the +side of a dead woman, and that woman his mother, he generally means to +keep it! And I most resolutely meant to kill my father and make of +myself a parricide. But I considered my mother had been murdered +too--socially and morally--and I judged my vengeance just. If it had +not been for the boy there--" and he glanced at Manuel, "I should +certainly have fulfilled my intention." + +"And then there would have been no Abbe Vergniaud, and no 'Gys +Grandit,'" said the Princesse lightly, endeavouring to change the +sombre tone of the conversation,--"and the 'Christian Democratic' party +would have been in sackcloth and ashes!" + +"The Christian Democratic party!" echoed the Cardinal, "What do they +mean? What do they want?" + +"Christianity, Monseigneur! That is all!" replied Cyrillon, "All--but +so much! You asked me for my history--will you hear it now?" + +There was an immediate murmur of assent, and the group around Cardinal +Bonpre were soon seated--all save Manuel, who remained standing. Angela +sat on a cushion at her uncle's feet, and her deep violet eyes were +full of an eager, almost feverish interest which she could scarcely +conceal; and the Abbe Vergniaud, vitally and painfully concerned as he +was in the narrative about to be told, could not help looking at her, +and wondering at the extraordinary light and beauty of her face thus +transfigured by an excitation of thought. Was she a secret follower of +his son's theories, he wondered? Composing himself in his chair, he sat +with bent head, marvelling as he heard the story of the bold and +fearless and philosophic life that had sprung into the world all out of +his summer's romance with a little innocent girl, whom he had found +praying to her guardian angel. + +"It is not always ourselves," began Cyrillon in his slow, emphatic, yet +musical voice, "who are responsible for the good or the evil we may do +in our lives. Much of our character is formed by the earliest +impressions of childhood--and my earliest impressions were those of +sorrow. I started life with the pulse of my mother's broken heart +beating in me,--hence my thoughts were sombre, and of an altogether +unnatural character to a child of tender years. We lived--my mother and +I--in a small cottage on the edge of a meadow outside the quaint old +city of Tours--a meadow, full at all seasons, of the loveliest wild +flowers, but sweetest in the springtime when the narcissi bloomed, +lifting their thousand cups of sweet perfume like incense to the sky. I +used to sit among their cool green stems,--thinking many thoughts, +chief among which was a wonder why God had made my little mother so +unhappy. I heard afterwards that God was not to blame,--only man, +breaking God's laws of equity. She was a good brave woman, for despite +her loneliness and tears, she worked hard;--worked to send me to +school, and to teach me all she herself knew--which was little enough, +poor soul,--but she studied in order to instruct me,--and often when I +slept the unconscious sleep of healthy childhood, she was up through +half the night spelling out abstruse books, difficult enough for an +educated woman to master, but for a peasant--(she was nothing +more)--presenting almost superhuman obstacles. I was very quick to +learn, and her loving patience was not wasted upon me;--but when I was +about eleven years old I resolved that I could no longer burden her +with the expenses of my life--so without asking her consent, I hired +myself out to a farmer, to clear weeds from his fields, and so began to +earn my bread, which is the best and noblest form of knowledge existing +in the world for all of us. With the earning of my body's keep came +spiritual independence, and young as I was I began to read and consider +for myself--till when I was about fifteen chance brought me across the +path of a man whose example inspired me and decided my fate, named +Aubrey Leigh." + +Angela gave a slight exclamation of surprise, and Cyrillon turned his +dark eyes upon her. + +"Yes, mademoiselle!--I am aware that he has been in Paris lately. No +doubt you know him. Certainly he is born to be a leader of men, and if +a noble life and unsullied character, together with eloquence, +determination, and steadfastness of purpose can help him to fulfil his +mission, he will assuredly succeed. He is from America, though born of +British parents, and the first thing I gathered from him was an +overwhelming desire to study and to master the English language--not +because it was English, but because it was the universal language +spoken by America. I felt from what he said then,--and I feel still +from what I have learnt and know now,--that America has all the future +in the hollow of her hand. My intention, had I succeeded in my +revengeful attempt this morning, was to escape to America immediately, +and from there write under the nom de plume which I have already made +known. I can write as easily in English as in French,--for my friend +Aubrey Leigh was very kind and took a great liking to me, and stayed in +Touraine for a year and a half, simply for the pleasure of instructing +me and grafting his theories upon my young and aspiring mind. And now +we are as one in our hopes and endeavours, and the years make little +disparity between us. He was twenty-two when I was but fifteen,--but +now that I am twenty-six and he thirty-three we are far better matched +associates. From him I learnt much of the discontents,--ethical and +religious,--of the world; from him I learnt how to speak in public. He +was then an actor, a sort of wandering 'Bohemian,'--but he soon tired +of the sordidness of the stage and aspired to higher platforms of work, +and he had already begun to lead the people by his powers of oratory, +as he leads them now. I heard him speak in French as fluently as in +English; and I resolved on my part to speak likewise in English as +easily as he did in French. And when we parted it was with a mutual +resolve TO LEAD!--to lead--and ever still to lead!--we would starve on +our theories, we said, but we would speak out if it cost us our very +lives. To earn daily bread I managed to obtain steady employment as a +labourer in the fields,--and I soon gained sufficient to keep my mother +and myself. My friend Aubrey had imbued me thoroughly with the love of +incessant hard work; there was no disgrace, he said, in digging the +soil, if the brain were kept working as well as the hands. And I did +keep my brain working; I allowed it also to lie fallow, and to absorb +everything of nature that was complex, grand and beautiful,--and from +such studies I learnt the goodness and the majesty of the Creator as +they are never found in human expositions of Him made by the preachers +of creeds. At eighteen I made my first public address,--and the next +year published my first book in Tours. But though I won an instant +success my soul was hampered and heavy with the burning thought of +vengeance; and this thought greatly hindered the true conceptions of +life that I desired to entertain. When my mother died, and her failing +voice crooned for the last time, 'Ah, la tristesse d'avoir aime!' the +spark of hatred I had cherished all the years of my life for my father +burst into a flame, and leapt up to its final height this morning as +you saw. Now it has gone out into dust and ashes--the way of all such +flames! I have been spared for better things I hope. What I have +written and done, France knows,--but my thoughts are not limited to +France, they seek a wider horizon. France is a decaying nation--her +doom is sealed. I work and write for the To-Be, not the Has-Been. Such +as my life is, it has never been darkened or brightened by love of any +sort, save that which my mother gave me. Your Eminence," and he turned +towards the Cardinal, "asks me why I inculcate theories which suggest +change, terror and confusion;--Monseigneur, terror and confusion can +never be caused save among the ranks of those who have secret reason to +be terrorised! There is nothing terrifying in Truth to those who are +true! If I distract and alarm unworthy societies, revolting hypocrism, +established shams and miserable conventions, I am only the wielder of +the broom that sweeps out the cobwebs and the dust from a dirty house. +My one desire is to make the habitation of Christian souls clean! +Terror and confusion there will be,--there must be;--the time is ripe +for it--none of us can escape it--it is the prophesied period of 'men's +hearts failing them for fear, and looking after those things which are +coming on the earth.' I have not made the time. I am born OF it--one +WITH it;--God arranges these things. I am not working for self or for +money,--I can live on bread and herbs and water. I want no luxurious +surroundings,--no softnesses--no delicacies--no tendernesses--no +sympathies! I set my face forward in the teeth of a thousand winds of +opposition, forward still forward! I seek nothing for my own personal +needs! I know that nothing can hinder me or keep me back! Nothing! +Monseigneur, I voice the cry of multitudes!--they have, as it were, +been wandering in the wilderness listening to the Gospel for many +days,--days which have accumulated to more than eighteen hundred years; +just as they did of old,--only the Master did not send them away +hungry--He fed them lest they should 'faint by the way.' He thought of +that possibility!--we seldom care how many faint by the way, or die in +the effort to live! Monseigneur, I must--I will speak for the dumb +mouths of the nations! And every unit that can so speak, or can so +write, should hasten to turn itself into a Pentecostal flame of fire to +blaze and burn a warning upon the verge of this new century,--causing +men to prophesy with divers tongues, of the Truth of God,--not of the +lies that have been made to represent Him!" + +Felix Bonpre raised one hand with a slight gesture enjoining silence, +and seemed wrapped for a moment in painful meditation. Angela looking +anxiously up at him caught, not his glance, but that of Manuel, who +smiled at her encouragingly. Presently the Cardinal spoke,--gently and +with a kind of austere patience. + +"Am I to understand from your speech, my son, and the work of your +life, that you consider the Church a lie? I put the question plainly; +but I do not ask it either to reproach or intimidate you. I am well +aware I can do neither. Thought is free to the individual as well as to +the nations; and whereas, in past time we had one man who could think +and speak, we have now a thousand! We are unfortunately apt to forget +the spread of education;--but a man who thinks as you do, and dares all +things for the right to act upon his thought, should surely be able to +clearly explain his reasons for arming himself against any outwardly +expressed form of faith, which has received the acceptance and +submission of the world?" + +"Monseigneur, I do not attack any faith! Faith is necessary,--faith is +superb! I honour this uplifting virtue,--whether I find it in the +followers of the Talmud or the Koran, or the New Testament, and, +personally speaking, I would die for my belief in the great name and +ethical teaching of Christ. I attack the Church--yes,--and why? Because +it has departed from the Faith! Because it is a mere system +now,--corrupt in many parts, as all systems must naturally become when +worn out by long usage. In many ways it favours stupid idolatries, and +in others it remains deaf and blind and impervious to the approach of +great spiritual and religious facts, which are being made splendidly +manifest by Science. Why, there is not a miracle in the Testament that +science will not make possible!--there is not a word Christ ever spoke +that shall not be proved true! And may I not be called a Christian? I +may,--I must,--I will be,--for I am! But hypocrisy, false measures, +perverted aims, and low pandering to ignorance and brutality, vile +superstition and intimidation--these things must be destroyed if the +Church is to last with honour to itself and with usefulness to others. +To-day, over in England, they are quarrelling with bitter acrimony +concerning forms and outward symbols of religion, thus fulfilling the +words of the Lord, 'Ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the +platter but within ye are full of extortion and excess.' Now, if the +Spirit of Christ were at all in these men who thus argue, there would +be no trouble about forms or symbols of faith,--there would be too much +of the faith itself for any such petty disputation. Monseigneur, I +swear to you, I say nothing, teach nothing but what is the straight and +true command of Christ! . . . no more, but also no less!" + +Moved by the young man's eloquence, the Cardinal looked at him +straightly in the eyes. + +"You speak well," he said, "Some people would tell you that you have +that fluency of tongue which is judged dangerous. But danger is after +all only for those who have something to fear. If we of the Church are +pure in our intent nothing should disturb our peace,--nothing should +move us from our anchorage. Your ideas, you say, are founded on the +Master's Word?" + +"Entirely," replied Cyrillon, "I am working,--Aubrey Leigh is +working,--we are all working for a House of Praise more than a Place of +Prayer. We want to give thanks for what we are, and what, if we follow +the sane and healthy laws of life, we may be,--rather than continue the +clamour for more benefits when we have already received, and are +receiving so much." + +"Would you not pray at all then?" asked Bonpre. + +"Yes--for others, not for ourselves! And then not as the Church prays. +Her form of service is direct disobedience!" + +"In what way?" + +"Monseigneur, I always preface my remarks on these subjects with the +words 'IF we believe in Christ.' I say IF we believe, we must accept +His commands; and they are plain enough. 'WHEN YE PRAY, USE NOT VAIN +REPETITIONS AS THE HEATHEN DO, FOR THEY THINK THEY SHALL BE HEARD FOR +THEIR MUCH SPEAKING. BE NOT YE THEREFORE LIKE UNTO THEM, FOR YOUR +FATHER KNOWETH WHAT THINGS YE HAVE NEED OF BEFORE YE ASK HIM.' Now if +this is to be understood as the command of Christ, the Messenger of +God, do we not deliberately act against it in all directions? Vain +repetitions! The Church is full of them,--choked with them! The priests +who order us to say ten or twenty 'Paternosters' by way of penance, are +telling us to do exactly what Christ commanded us not to do! The +terrible Litany of the Protestant Church, with its everlasting 'Good +Lord deliver us,' is another example of vain repetition. Again--think +of these words--'When thou prayest, thou shalt NOT BE AS THE HYPOCRITES +ARE, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues, and at the +corners of the streets THAT THEY MAY BE SEEN OF MEN.' Is not all our +churchgoing that we may be seen of men?" + +"Then, my son, it seems that you would do away with the Church +altogether in the extremity of your zeal!" said the Cardinal gently, +"There must surely be some outward seeming--some city set on a hill +whose light cannot be hid--some visible sign of Christ among us--" + +"True, Monseigneur, but such a sign must be of so brilliant and pure a +nature,--so grand an uplifted Cross of unsullied light that it shall be +as the sun rising out of darkness! Oh, I would have churches built +gloriously, with every possible line of beauty and curve of perfect +architecture in their fabrication;--but I would have no idolatrous +emblems,--no superstitious ceremonies within them,--no tawdry +reliquaries of gems--no boast of the world's wealth at all; but great +Art,--the result of man's great Thought rendered and given with pure +simplicity! I would have great music,--and more than all I would have +thanksgiving always! And if valuables were brought to the altar for +gifts, the gifts should be given out again to those in need-not +kept,--not left untouched like a miser's useless hoard, while one poor +soul was starving!" + +"My son, such a scheme of purification as yours will take centuries to +accomplish," murmured Bonpre slowly, "Almost it would need Christ to +come again!" + +"And who shall say He will not come!" exclaimed Cyrillon fervently, +"Who shall swear He is not even now among us! Has he not told us all to +'watch,' because we know not the hour at which He cometh? No, +Monseigneur!--centuries are not needed for Truth to make itself +manifest nowadays! We hold Science by the hand,--she is becoming our +familiar friend and companion, and through her guidance we have learned +that the Laws of the Universe are Truth,--Truth which cannot be +contradicted; and that only the things which move and work in harmony +with those laws can last. All else must perish! 'WHOSOEVER IS NOT WITH +ME IS AGAINST ME'--or in other words, whosoever opposes himself to +Eternal Laws must be against the whole system of the Universe. and is +therefore a discord which is bound to be silenced. Monseigneur, Christ +was a Divine Preacher of Truth;--and I, in my humble man's way +endeavour to follow Truth. And if I ever fail now, after to-day's +attempted crime, to honour the commands of Christ, and obey them as +closely as I can, then pass your condemnation upon me, but not till +then! Meanwhile, give me a good man's blessing!" + +Deeply interested as he was, the Cardinal nevertheless still hesitated. +To him, though the sayings and opinions of the famous "Gys Grandit" +were not exactly new, there was something terrible in hearing him utter +them with such bold and trenchant meaning. He sighed, and appeared lost +in thought; till Manuel touched him gently on the arm. + +"Dear friend, are you afraid to bless this man who loves our Father?" + +"Afraid? My child, I am afraid of nothing--but there is grave trouble +in my heart--" + +"Nay, trouble should never enter there!" said Manuel softly, "Stretch +out your hand!--let no human soul wait for a benediction!" + +Profoundly moved, the Cardinal obeyed, and laid his white trembling +hand on Cyrillon's bent head. + +"May God forgive thee the intention of thy sin today!" he said, in a +low and solemn tone--"May Christ guide thee out of all evil, and lead +thee through the wildness of the world to Heaven's own peace, which +passeth understanding!" + +So gentle, so brave, so sweet and tender were the accents in which he +spoke these few simple works, that the tears filled Angela's eyes, and +Abbe Vergniaud, resting his head on one hand, felt a strange +contraction in his throat, and began to think of possible happy days +yet to be passed perchance in seclusion with this long-denied son of +his, who had sprung out of the secret ways of love, first to slay and +then to redeem him. Could there be a more plain and exact measuring out +of law? If he had not confessed his sin he would have probably died in +it suddenly without a chance of amendment or repentance--but lo!--on +confession, his life had been saved as if by a miracle, and the very +result of evil had been transformed into consolation! So he sat +absorbed, wondering--musing--and while the Cardinal spoke his blessing +with closed eyes, all heads were bent, and faces hidden. And in the +reverent silence that followed, the gentle prelate gave a sign of kind +dismissal and farewell to all, which they, understanding, accepted, and +at once made their brief adieuxthe Abbe Vergniaud only lingering a +moment longer than the rest, to bend humbly down and kiss his Apostolic +ring. Then they left him, alone with Manual. + +On their way out of the house, through Angela's studio, the Princesse +D'Agramont paused for a few minutes to say further kind words to the +Abbe respecting the invitation she had given him to her Chateau--, and +while she was thus engaged, Angela turned hurriedly to Cyrillon. + +"As 'Gys Grandit' you receive many letters from strangers, do you not?" + +The young man regarded her earnestly, with unconcealed admiration +glowing in his fine eyes. + +"Assuredly, Mademoiselle! And some of these letters are very dear to +me, because they make me aware of friends I might otherwise never have +known." + +"You have one correspondent who is deeply interested in your theories, +and who sympathises keenly in all your religious views--" she went on, +lowering her eyes--"a certain Madame Angele--" + +He uttered a quick exclamation of pleasure. + +"You know her?" + +She looked up,--her eyes sparkled--and she laid a finger on her lips. + +"Keep my secret!" she said--"I am so glad to meet you personally at +last!" + +He stared, bewildered. + +"You--you . . . !" + +"Yes. I!" and she smiled--"The mysterious and Christian-Democratic +'Angele' is Angela Sovrani. So you see we have been unconscious friends +for some time!" + +His face grew radiant, and he made a quick movement towards her. + +"Then I owe you a great debt of gratitude!" he said--"For +encouragement--for sympathy--for help in dark hours!--and how unworthy +I have proved of your goodness . . . what must you think of me--you--so +beautiful--so good--" + +She moved back a little with a warning gesture--and his words were +interrupted by the Abbe, who glancing from one to the other in a little +surprise, said, as he bent reverently over her hand and kissed it,-- + +"We must be going, Cyrillon!" + +Another few moments and Angela was left alone to think over, and try to +realise the strange and rapidly-occurring events of the day. Whatever +her thoughts were they seemed for a long time to be of a somewhat +April-like character, for her eyes brimmed over with tears even while +she smiled. + + + + +XVII. + +In one of the few remaining streets of Rome which the vandal hand of +the modern builder and restorer has not meddled with, stands the "Casa +D'Angeli", a sixteenth-century building fronted with wonderfully carved +and widely projecting balconies--each balcony more or less different in +design, yet forming altogether in their entirety the effect of complete +sculptural harmony. The central one looks more like a cathedral shrine +than the embrasure of a window, for above it angels' heads look out +from the enfolding curves of their own tall wings, and a huge shield +which might serve as a copy of that which Elaine kept bright for +Lancelot, is poised between, bearing a lily, a cross, and a heart +engraven in its quarterings. Here, leaning far forward to watch the +intense gold of the Roman moon strike brightness and shadow out of the +dark uplifted pinions of her winged stone guardians, stood Sylvie +Hermenstein, who, in her delicate white attire, with the moonbeams +resting like a halo on her soft hair, might have easily passed for some +favoured saint whom the sculptured angels were protecting. And yet she +was only one whom the world called "a frivolous woman of society, who +lived on the admiration of men". So little did they know her,--so +little indeed does the world know about any of us. It was true that +Sylvie, rich, lovely, independent, and therefore indifferent to +opinions, lived her own life very much according to her own ideas,--but +then those ideas were far more simple and unworldly than anybody gave +her credit for. She to whom all the courts of Europe were open, +preferred to wander in the woods alone, reading some favourite book, to +almost any other pleasure,--and as for the admiration which she won by +a look or turn of her head wherever she went, nothing in all the world +so utterly bored her as this influence of her own charm. For she had +tried men and found them wanting. With all the pent-up passion of her +woman's soul she longed to be loved,--but what she understood by love +was a much purer and more exalted emotion than is common among men and +women. She was suffering just now from an intense and overpowering +ennui. Rome was beautiful, she averred, but dull. Stretching her fair +white arms out over the impervious stone-angels she said this, and more +than this, to someone within the room, who answered her in one of the +most delightfully toned voices in the world--a voice that charmed the +ear by its first cadences, and left the listener fascinated into +believing that its music was the expression of a perfectly harmonious +mind. + +"You seem very discontented," said the voice, speaking in English, "But +really your pathway is one of roses!" + +"You think so?" and Sylvie turned her head quickly round and looked at +her companion, a handsome little man of some thirty-five years of age, +who stretching himself lazily full length in an arm-chair was toying +with the silky ears of an exceedingly minute Japanese spaniel, Sylvie's +great pet and constant companion. "Oh, mon Dieu! You, artist and +idealist though you are--or shall I say as you are supposed to be," and +she laughed a little, "you are like all the rest of your sex! Just +because you see a woman able to smile and make herself agreeable to her +friends, and wear pretty clothes, and exchange all the bon mots of +badinage and every-day flirtation, you imagine it impossible for her to +have any sorrow!" + +"There is only one sorrow possible to a woman," replied the gentleman, +who was no other than Florian Varillo, the ideal of Angela Sovrani's +life, smiling as he spoke with a look in his eyes which conveyed an +almost amorous meaning. + +Sylvie left the balcony abruptly, and swept back into the room, looking +a charming figure of sylph-like slenderness and elegance in her +clinging gown of soft white satin showered over with lace and pearls. + +"Only one sorrow!" she echoed, "And that is--?" + +"Inability to win love, or to awaken desire!" replied Varillo, still +smiling. + +The pretty Comtesse raised her golden head a little more proudly, with +the air of a lily lifting itself to the light on its stem--her deep +blue eyes flashed. + +"I certainly cannot complain on that score!" she said, with a touch of +malice as well as coldness--"But the fact that men lose their heads +about me does not make me in the least happy." + +"It should do so!" and Varillo set the little Japanese dog carefully +down on the floor, whereupon it ran straight to its mistress, uttering +tiny cries of joy, "There is no sweeter triumph for a woman than to see +men subjugated by her smile, and intimidated by her frown;--to watch +them burning themselves like moths in her clear flame, and dying at her +feet for love of her! The woman who can do these things is gifted with +the charm which makes or ruins life,--few can resist her,--she draws +sensitive souls as a magnet draws the needle,--and the odd part of it +all is that she need not have any heart herself--she need not feel one +pulse of the passion with which she inspires others--indeed it is +better that she should not. The less she is moved herself, the greater +is her fascination. Love clamours far more incessantly and passionately +at a closed gate than an open one!" + +Sylvie was silent for a minute or two looking at him with something of +doubt and disdain. The room they were in was one of those wide and +lofty apartments which in old days might have been used for a prince's +audience chamber, or a dining hall for the revelry of the golden youth +of Imperial Rome. The ceiling, supported by eight slender marble +columns, was richly frescoed with scenes from Ariosto's poems, some of +the figures being still warm with colour and instinct with life--and on +the walls were the fading remains of other pictures, the freshest among +them being a laughing Cupid poised on a knot of honeysuckle, and +shooting his arrow at random into the sky. Ordinarily speaking, the +huge room was bare and comfortless to a degree,--but the Comtesse +Sylvie's wealth, combined with her good taste, had filled it with +things that made it homelike as well as beautiful. The thickest velvet +pile carpets laid over the thickest of folded mattings, covered the +marble floors, and deprived them of their usual chill,--great logs of +wood burned cheerfully in the wide chimney, and flowers, in every sort +of quaint vase or bowl, made bright with colour and blossom all dark +and gloomy corners, and softened every touch of melancholy away. A +grand piano stood open,--a mandoline tied with bright ribbons, lay on a +little table near a cluster of roses and violets,--books, music, +drawings, bits of old drapery and lace were so disposed as to hide all +sharp corners and forbidding angles,--and where the frescoes on the +wall were too damaged to be worth showing even in outline, some fine +old Flemish tapestry covered the defect. Sylvie herself, in the +exquisite clothing which she always made it her business to wear, was +the brilliant completion of the general picturesqueness,--and Florian +Varillo seemed to think so as he looked at her with the practised +underglance of admiration which is a trick common to Italians, and +which some women accept as a compliment and others resent as an insult. + +"Do you not agree with me?" he said persuasively, with a smile which +showed his fine and even teeth to perfection, "When the chase is over +the hunters go home tired! What a man cannot have, that very thing is +what he tries most to obtain!" + +"You speak from experience, I suppose," said Sylvie, moving slowly +across the room towards the fire, and caressing her little dog which +she held nestled under her rounded chin like a ball of silk, "And yet +you, more than most men, have everything you can want in this +world--but I suppose you are not satisfied--not even with Angela!" + +"Angela is a dear little woman!" said Florian, with an air of emotional +condescension, "The dearest little woman in the world! And she is +really clever." + +"Clever!" echoed Sylvie, "Is that all?" + +"Cara Contessa, is not that enough?" + +"Angela is a genius," averred Sylvie, with warmth and energy, "a true +genius!--a great,--a sublime artist!" + +"Che Che!" and Varillo smiled, "How delightful it is to hear one woman +praise another! Women are so often like cats spitting and hissing at +each other, tearing at each other's clothes and reputations,--clothes +even more than reputations,--that it is really quite beautiful to me to +hear you admire my Angela! It is very generous of you!" + +"Generous of me!" and the Comtesse Hermenstein looked him full in the +eyes, "Why I think it an honour to know her--a privilege to touch her +hand! All Europe admires her--she is one of the world's greatest +artists." + +"She paints wonderfully well,--for a woman," said Varillo lazily, "But +there is so much in that phrase, cara Contessa, 'for a woman'. Your +charming sex often succeeds in doing very clever and pretty things; but +in a man they would not be considered surprising. You fairy creatures +are not made for fame--but for love!" + +The Comtesse glanced him up and down for a moment, then laughed +musically. + +"And for desertion, and neglect as well!" she said, "And sometimes for +bestowing upon YOUR charming sex every fortune and every good blessing, +and getting kicked for our pains! And sometimes it happens that we are +permitted the amazing honour of toiling to keep you in food and +clothing, while you jest at your clubs about the uselessness of woman's +work in the world! Yes, I know! Have you seen Angela's great picture?" + +Again Florian smiled. + +"Great? No! I know that the dear little girl has fixed an enormous +canvas up in her studio, and that she actually gets on a ladder to +paint something upon it;--but it is always covered,--she does not wish +me to see it till it is finished. She is like a child in some things, +and I always humour her. I have not the least desire to look at her +work till she herself is willing to show it to me. But in myself I am +convinced she is trying to do too much--it is altogether too large an +attempt." + +"What are YOU doing?" asked Sylvie abruptly. + +"Merely delicate trifles,--little mosaics of art!" said Varillo with +languid satisfaction, "They may possibly please a connoisseur,--but +they are quite small studies." + +"You have the same model you had last year?" queried Sylvie. + +Their eyes met, and Varillo shifted uneasily in his chair. + +"The same," he replied curtly. + +Again Sylvie laughed. + +"Immaculate creature!" she murmured, "The noblest of her sex, of +course! Men always call the women who pander to their vices 'noble'." + +Varillo flushed an angry red. + +"You are pleased to be sarcastic, fair lady." he said carelessly, "I do +not understand--" + +"No? You are not usually so dense with me, though to those who do not +know you as well as I do, you sometimes appear to be the very stupidest +of men! Now be frank!--tell me, is not Pon-Pon one of the 'noble' +women?" + +"She is a very good creature," averred Varillo gently, and with an air +that was almost pious,--"She supports her family entirely on her +earnings." + +"How charming of her!" laughed Sylvie, "And so exceptional a thing to +do, is it not? My dressmaker does the same thing,--she 'supports' her +family; but respectably! And just think!--if ever your right hand loses +its cunning as a painter, Angela will be able to 'support' YOU!" + +"Always Angela!" muttered Varillo, beginning to sulk, "Cannot you talk +of something else?" + +"No,--not for the moment! She is an interesting subject,--to ME! She +will arrive in Rome to-morrow night, and her uncle Cardinal Bonpre, +will be with her, and they will all stay at the Sovrani Palace, which +seems to me like a bit of the Vatican and an old torture-chamber rolled +into one! And, talking of this same excellent Cardinal, they have +almost canonized him at the Vatican,--almost, but not quite." + +"For what reason?" + +"Oh, have you not heard? It appears he performed a miracle in Rouen, +curing a child who had been a cripple ever since babyhood, and making +him run about as well and strong as possible. One prayer did it, so it +is said,--the news reached the Vatican some days ago; our charming +Monsignor Gherardi told me of it. The secretary of the Archbishop of +Rouen brought the news personally to the Holy Father." + +"I do not believe it," said Varillo indifferently, "The days of +miracles are past. And from what I know, and from what Angela has told +me of her uncle, Cardinal Bonpre, he would never lend himself to such +nonsense." + +"Well, I only tell you what is just now the talk at the Vatican," said +Sylvie, "Your worthy uncle-in-law that is to be, may be Pope yet! Have +you heard from Angela?" + +"Every day. But she has said nothing about this miracle." + +"Perhaps she does not know,"--and Sylvie began to yawn, and stretch her +white arms above her head lazily, "Oh, DIO MIO! How terribly dull is +Rome!" + +"How long have you been here, Contessa?" + +"Nearly a week! If I am not more amused I shall go away home to +Budapest." + +"But how is one to amuse you?" asked Varillo, sitting down beside her +and endeavouring to take her hand. She drew it quickly from him. + +"Not in that way!" she said scornfully, "Is it possible that you can be +so conceited! A woman says she is dull and bored, and straightway the +nearest man imagines his uncouth caresses will amuse her! TIENS TIENS! +When will you understand that all women are not like Pon-Pon?" + +Varillo drew back, chafed and sullen. His AMOUR PROPRE was wounded, and +he began to feel exceedingly cross. The pretty laugh of Sylvie rang out +like a little peal of bells. + +"Suppose Angela knew that you wished to 'amuse' me in that particularly +unamusing way?" she went on, "You--who, to her, are CHEVALIER SANS PEUR +ET SANS REPROCHE!" + +"Angela is different to all other women," said Varillo quickly, with a +kind of nervous irritation in his manner as he spoke, "and she has to +be humoured accordingly. She is extremely fantastic--full of strange +ideas and unnatural conceptions of life. Her temperament is studious +and dreamy--self-absorbed too at times--and she is absolutely +passionless. That is why she will make a model wife." + +The Comtesse drew her breath quickly,--her blood began to tingle and +her heart to beat--but she repressed these feelings and said, + +"You mean that her passionless nature will be her safety in all +temptation?" + +"Exactly!" and Varillo, smiling, became good natured again--"For Angela +to be untrue would be a grotesque impossibility! She has no idea of the +stronger sentiment of love which strikes the heart like a lightning +flash and consumes it. Her powers of affection are intellectually and +evenly balanced,--and she could not be otherwise than faithful because +her whole nature is opposed to infidelity. But it is not a nature +which, being tempted, overcomes--inasmuch as there is no temptation +which is attractive to her!" + +"You think so?" and a sparkle of satire danced in Sylvie's bright eyes, +"Really? And because she is self-respecting and proud, you would almost +make her out to be sexless?--not a woman at all,--without +heart?--without passion? Then you do not love her!" + +"She is the dearest creature to me in all the world!" declared Florian, +with emotional ardour, "There is no one at all like her! Even her +beauty, which comes and goes with her mood, is to an artist's eye like +mine, exquisite,--and more dazzling to the senses than the stereotyped +calm of admitted perfection in form and feature. But, CARA CONTESSA, I +am something of an analyst in character--and I know that the delicacy +of Angela's charm lies in that extraordinary tranquillity of soul, +which, (YOU suggested the word!) may indeed be almost termed sexless. +She is purer than snow--and very much colder." + +"You are fortunate to be the only man selected to melt that coldness," +said Sylvie with a touch of disdain, "Myself, I think you make a great +mistake in calling Angela passionless. She is all passion--and +ardour--but it is kept down,--held firmly within bounds, and devoutly +consecrated to you. Pardon me, if I say that you should be more +grateful for the love and trust she gives you. You are not without +rivals in the field." + +Florian Varillo raised his eyebrows smilingly. + +"Rivals? VERAMENTE! I am not aware of them!" + +"No, I should say you had too good an opinion of yourself to imagine +any rival possible!" said the Comtesse, "But such a person may exist!" + +Varillo yawned, and flicked a grain of dust off his waistcoat with a +fastidious thumb and finger. + +"Impossible! No one could possibly fall in love with Angela now! She is +an icicle,--no man save myself has the ghost of a chance with her!" + +"Of course not," said Sylvie impatiently, "Because she is betrothed to +you. But if things were not as they are--" + +"It would make no difference, I assure you," laughed Varillo gaily, +"Angela does not like men as a rule. She is fondest of romance--of +dreams--of visions, out of which come the ideas for her pictures--" + +"And she is quite passionless with all this, you think?" said Sylvie, +"The 'stronger sentiment which strikes the heart like a flash of +lightning, and consumes it', as you so poetically describe it--could +never possibly disturb her peace?" + +"I think not," replied Varillo, with a meditative air, "Angela and I +glided into love like two children wandering by chance into a meadow +full of flowers,--no storm struck us--no sudden danger signal flashed +from our eyes--no trembling hurry of the blood bade us rush into each +other's arms and cling!--nothing of this marvel touched us!--we loved +with all the calm--but without the glory!" + +His voice,--the most fascinating quality attached to his +personality,--rose and fell in this little speech with an exquisite +cadence, half sad, half sweet,--and Sylvie, impressionable creature as +she was, with her innate love of romance and poetry, was unconsciously +moved by it to a faint sigh. There was nothing to sigh for, really,--it +was just a mere melodious noise of words, in the making of which +Florian Varillo was an adept. He had not an atom of serious thought in +his remark, any more than in the dainty verses he was wont to append to +his pictures--verses which he turned out with the lightest and swiftest +ease, and which read like his spoken sentences, as if there were a +meaning in them, when truly there was none. But Sylvie was just then in +a curious state of mind, and slight things easily impressed her. She +was in love--and yet she was not in love. The handsome face and figure +of the Marquis Fontenelle, together with many of his undoubted good and +even fine qualities, attracted her and held her in thrall, much more +than the consciousness of his admiration and pursuit of her,--but--and +this was a very interfering "but" indeed,--she was reluctantly +compelled to admit to herself that there was no glozing over the fact +that he was an incorrigibly "fast", otherwise bad man. His life was a +long record of LIAISONS with women,--an exact counterpart of the life +of the famous actor Miraudin. And though there is a saying that a +reformed rake makes the best husband, Sylvie was scarcely sure of being +willing to try this test,--besides, the Marquis had not offered himself +in that capacity, but only as a lover. In Paris,--within reach of him, +surrounded by his gracious and graceful courtesies everywhere, the +pretty and sensitive Comtesse had sometimes felt her courage oozing out +at her finger's ends,--and the longing to be loved became so strong and +overwhelming in her soul that she had felt she must perforce one day +yield to her persistent admirer's amorous solicitations, come what +would of it in the end. Her safety had been in flight; and here in +Rome, she had found herself, like a long-tossed little ship, suddenly +brought up to firm anchorage. The vast peace and melancholy grandeur of +the slowly dying "Mother of Nations", enveloped her as with a +sheltering cloak from the tempest of her own heart and senses, and +being of an exquisitely refined and dainty nature in herself, she had, +while employing her time in beautifying, furnishing and arranging her +apartments in the casa D'Angeli, righted her mind, so to speak, and +cleared it from the mists of illusion which had begun to envelop it, so +that she could now think of Fontenelle quietly and with something of a +tender compassion,--she could pray for him and wish him all things +good,--but she could not be quite sure that she loved him. And this was +well. For we should all be very sure indeed that we do love, before we +crucify ourselves to the cross of sacrifice. Inasmuch as if the love in +us be truly Love, we shall not feel the nails, we shall be unconscious +of the blood that flows, and the thorns that prick and sting,--we shall +but see the great light of Resurrection springing glorious out of +death! But if we only THINK we love,--when our feeling is the mere +attraction of the senses and the lighter impulses--then our crucifixion +is in vain, and our death is death indeed. Some such thoughts as these +had given Sylvie a new charm of manner since her arrival in Rome--she +was less mirthful, but more sympathetic--less RIANTE, but infinitely +prettier and more fascinating. Florian Varillo studied her +appreciatively in this regard after he had uttered his little +meaningless melody of sentiment, and thought within himself--"A week or +two and I could completely conquer that woman!" He was mistaken--men +who think these sort of things often are. But the thought satisfied +him, and gave bold lustre to his eyes and brightness to his smile when +he rose to take his leave. He had been one of the guests at a small and +early dinner-party given by the Comtesse that evening,--and with the +privilege of an old acquaintance, he had lingered thus long after all +the others had gone to their respective homes. + +"I will bid you now the felicissima notte, cara e bella contessa!" he +said caressingly, raising her small white hand to his lips, and kissing +it with a lingering pressure of what he considered a peculiarly +becoming moustache--"When Angela arrives to-morrow night I shall be +often at the Palazzo Sovrani--shall I see you there?" + +"Of course you will see me there," replied Sylvie, a little +impatiently, "Am I not one of Angela's closest friends?" + +"True! And for the sake of la mia dolcezza, you will also be a friend +to me?" + +"'la mia dolcezza'", repeated Sylvie, "Is that what you call her?" + +"Yes--but I fear it is not original!" said Varillo smiling, "One +Ariosto called his lady thus." + +"Yes?" and Sylvie's eyes darkened and grew humid with a sudden +tenderness of thought, "It is a pretty phrase!" + +"It should be used to YOU always, by every man who has my present +privilege!" said Varillo, gallantly, kissing her hand once more, "You +will be my friend?" + +Sylvie disengaged her hand from his. + +"You must not depend upon me, Signor," she said with sudden coldness, +"To be perfectly frank with you I am not sure that I like you. You are +very charming and very clever--but I doubt your sincerity." + +"Ah, che sono infelice!" murmured varillo softly, "you are right, +bellissima madama! I am not myself with many people--but with you--you +are one of the few who understand me . . . I am the very soul of +candour!" + +He fixed his eyes full upon her with an open and straight regard, +adding, "Can you doubt me?" in a touching tone of wounded feeling. + +The Comtesse laughed, and her face flushed. + +"Well, I do not know!" she said, with a light gesture of her hands as +though she threw something unpleasant away from her, "I shall fudge of +you by the happiness--or sorrow--of Angela!" + +A slight frown contracted his brows--but it passed quickly, and the +candid smile illumined his mobile face once more. + +"Ebben! Buona notte, bela capricciosa!" and bowing low he turned +towards the door, "Thank you a thousand times for a very happy evening! +Even when you are unkind to me you are still charming! Addio!" + +She murmured an "addio" in response, and when he had gone, and the echo +of his footfall down the great marble stairs had completely died away, +she went out once more to the balcony and leaned among the sculptured +angels, a dainty, slender, white figure, with her soft flower-like face +turned up to the solemn sky, where the large moon marched like an +Amazon through space, attended by her legions and battalions of stars. +So slight, so fragile and sweet a woman!--with a precious world of love +pent up in her heart . . . yet alone--quite alone on this night of +splendid luminousness and majestic suggestions of infinity,--an +infinity so monstrous and solitary to the one delicate creature, whose +whole soul craved for a perfect love. Alas, for this "perfect love," of +which all the dearest women dream! Where shall they find it?--and how +shall they win it? Too often it comes when they may not have it; the +cup of nectar is offered to lips that are forbidden to drink of it, +because the world's convention stands between and turns the honey to +gall. One of the many vague problems of a future life, offered for our +consideration, is the one concerning the righteous satisfaction of +love. Will not those who have been bound fast as prisoners in the bonds +of matrimony without love, find those whose spirits are naturally one +with theirs, but whom they have somehow missed in this life? For +Byron's fine lines are eternally true,-- + + "Few--none--find what they love or could have loved,-- + Though accident, blind contact, and the strong + Necessity of loving, have removed + Antipathies--but to recur ere long + Envenom'd with irrevocable wrong." + +And the "blind contact" is the worst of all influences brought to bear +upon the mind and heart,--the most pernicious, and the most deeply +weighted with responsibility. In this regard, Sylvie Hermenstein had +acted wisely by removing herself from association, or "blind contact" +with her would-be lover,--and yet, though she was aware that her doing +so had caused a certain dispersal of the atmosphere which almost veered +towards complete disillusion, she found nevertheless, that Rome as she +had said, was "dull"; her heart was empty, and longing for she knew not +what. And that deep longing she felt could not have been completely +gratified by the brief ardours of Fontenelle. And so she sat thinking +wearily,--wondering what was to become of her life. She had riches in +plenty, a fine estate and castle in Hungary,--servants at her beck and +call--and yet with all her wealth and beauty and brilliancy, she felt +that she was only loved by two persons in the world, her old butler, +and Madame Bozier, who had been her first governess, and who now lived +with her, as a sort of dame d'honneur surrounded with every comfort and +luxury, and who certainly served her former pupil with a faithful +worship that would not have changed, even if the direst poverty instead +of riches had been the portion of her beloved patroness. This elderly +lady it was who entered now with a soft and hesitating step, and +raising her glasses to her eyes, peered anxiously through the lighted +room towards the dark balcony where Sylvie stood, like a fairy fallen +out of the moon, and who presently ventured to advance and call softly, + +"Sylvie!" + +The pretty Comtesse turned and smiled. + +"Is it you, Katrine? Will you come out here? It is not cold, and there +is a lace wrap on the chair,--put it round your dear old head and come +and be romantic with me!" and she laughed as the worthy Bozier obeyed +her, and came cautiously out among the angels' sculptured wings. "Ah, +dear Katrine! The happy days are gone when a dark-eyed Roman lover +would come strolling down a street like this to strike the chords of +his mandoline, and sing the dear old song, + + "'Ti voglio bene assai, E tu non pensi a me!'" + +Without thinking about it, she sang this refrain suddenly in her sweet +mezzo-soprano, every note ringing clear on the silence of the night, +and as she did so a man of slim figure and medium height, stepped out +of the dark shadows and looked up. His half laughing eyes, piercing in +their regard, met the dreamy soft ones of the pretty woman sitting +among the angels' heads above him--and pausing a moment he +hesitated--then lifted his hat. His face was excessively delicate in +outline and very pale, but a half mischievous smile softened and +sweetened the firm lines of his mouth and chin, and as the moonbeams +played caressingly on his close curling crop of fair hair, he looked +different enough to most of the men in Rome to be considered singular +as well as handsome. Sylvie, hidden as she was among the shadows, +blushed and drew back, a little vexed with herself,--the worthy Madame +Bozier was very properly scandalised. + +"My dear child!" she murmured, "Remember--we are in Rome. People judge +things so strangely! What an unfortunate error!--" + +But Sylvie became suddenly unmanageable. Her love of coquetry and +mischief got the better of her, and she thrust out her pretty head over +the balcony once more. + +"Be quiet, Katrine!" she whispered, "I was longing for a romance, and +here is one!" And detaching a rose from her dress she tossed it lightly +to the stranger below. He caught it--then looked up once more. + +"Till we meet," he said softly in English,--and moving on among the +shadows, disappeared. + +"Now, who do you suppose HE was?" enquired Sylvie, leaning back against +the edge of the balcony, with an arch glance at her gouvernante, "It +was someone unlike anyone else here, I am sure! It was somebody with +very bright eyes,--laughing eyes,--audacious eyes, because they laughed +at me! They sparkled at me like stars on a frosty night! Katrine, have +you ever been for a sleigh-ride in America? No, I did not take you +there,--I forgot! You would have had the rheumatism, poor dear! Well, +when you are in America during the winter, you go for rides over the +snow in a big sleigh, with tinkling bells fastened to the horses, and +you see the stars flash as you pass--like the eyes of that interesting +gentleman just now. His face was like a cameo--I wonder who he is! I +shall find out! I must do something desperate for Rome is so terribly +dull! But I feel better now! I like that man's eyes. They are SUCH a +contrast to the sleepy tiger eyes of the Marquis Fontenelle!" + +"My dear Sylvie!" remonstrated Madame Bozier, "How can you run on in +this way? Do you want to break any more hearts? You are like a lamp for +unfortunate moths to burn themselves in!" + +"Oh no, not I," said Sylvie, shaking her head with a touch of half +melancholy scorn, "I am not a 'professional' beauty! The Prince of +Wales does not select me for his admiration,--hence it follows that I +cannot possibly be an attraction in Europe. I have not the large frame, +the large hands, and the still larger feet of the beautiful English +ladies, who rule royal hearts and millionaires' pockets! Men scarcely +notice me till they come to know me--and then, pouf!--away go their +brains!--and they grovel at my small feet instead of the large ones of +the English ladies!" She laughed. "Now how is that, Katrine?" + +"C'est du charme--toujurs du charme!" murmured Madame Bozier, studying +with a wistful affection the dainty lines of Sylvie's slight figure, +"And that is an even more fatal gift than beauty, chere petite!" + +"Du charme! You think that is it? Yes?--and so the men grow stupid and +wild!--some want me, and some want my fortune--and some do not know +what they want!--but one thing is certain, that they all quarrel +together about me, and bore me to extinction!--Even the stranger with +the bright stars of an American winter for eyes, might possibly bore me +if I knew him!" + +She gave a short sigh of complete dissatisfaction. + +"To be loved, Katrine--really loved! What a delicious thing that would +be! Have you ever felt it?" + +The poor lady trembled a little, and gave a somewhat mournful smile. + +"No, you dear romantic child! I cannot say with truth that I have! I +married when I was very young, and my husband was many years older than +myself. He was afflicted with chronic rheumatism and gout, and to be +quite honest, I could never flatter myself that he thought of me more +than the gout. There! I knew that would amuse you!"--this, as Sylvie's +pretty tender laugh rippled out again on the air, "And though it sounds +as if it were a jest, it is perfectly true. Poor Monsieur Bozier! He +was the drawing master at the school where I was assistant +governess,--and he was very lonely; he wanted someone to attend to him +when the gouty paroxysms came on, and he thought I should do as well, +perhaps better than anyone else. And I--I had no time to think about +myself at all, or to fall in love--I was very glad to be free of the +school, and to have a home of my own. So I married him, and did my best +to be a good nurse to him,--but he did not live long, poor man--you see +he always would eat things that did not agree with him, and if he could +not get them at home he went out and bought them on the sly. There was +no romance there, my dear! And of course he died. And he left me +nothing at all,--even our little home was sold up to pay our debts. +Then I had to work again for my living,--and it was by answering an +advertisement in the Times, which applied for an English governess to +go to a family in Budapest, that I first came to know you." + +"And that is all your history!" said Sylvie, "Poor dear Bozier! How +uneventful!" + +"Yes, it is," and the worthy lady sighed also, but hers, was a sigh of +placid arid philosophical comfort. "Still, my dear, I am not at all +sorry to be uninteresting! I have rather a terror of lives that arrange +themselves into grand dramas, with terrible love affairs as the central +motives." + +"Have you? I have not!" said Sylvie thoughtfully,--"With all my heart I +admire a 'grande passion.' Sometimes I think it is the only thing that +makes history. One does not hear nearly so much of the feuds in which +Dante was concerned, as of his love for Beatrice. It is always so, only +few people are capable of the strength and patience and devotion needed +for this great consummation of life. Now I--" + +Madame Bozier smiled, and with tender fingers arranged one of the stray +knots of pearls with which Sylvie's white gown was adorned. + +"You dear child! You were made for sweetness and caresses,--not +suffering . . ." + +"You mistake!" said Sylvie, with sudden decision, "You, in your +fondness for me, and because you have seen me grow up from childhood, +sometimes still view me as a child, and think that I am best amused +with frivolities, and have not the soul in me that would endure +disaster. But for love's sake I would do anything--yes! + . . . anything!" + +"My child!" + +"Yes," repeated Sylvie, her eyes darkening and lightening quickly in +their own fascinating way, "I would consent to shock the stupid old +world!--though one can scarcely ever shock it nowadays, because it has +itself become so shocking! But then the man for whom I would sacrifice +myself, must love ME as ardently as I would love HIM! That is the +difficulty, Katrine. For men do not love--they only desire." + +She raised her face to the sky, and the moonbeams shed a golden halo +round her. + +"That," she said slowly, "is the reason why I have come here to avoid +the Marquis Fontenelle. He does not love me!" + +"He is a villain!" said Madame Bozier with asperity. + +"Helas! There are so many villains!" sighed Sylvie, still looking up at +the brilliant heavens, "And sometimes if a villain really loves anybody +he half redeems his villainy. But the Marquis loves himself best of +anyone in the world . . . and I--I do not intend to be second in +anyone's affections! So . . ." she paused, "Do you see that star, +Katrine? It is as bright as if it were shining on a frosty night in +America. And do you not notice the resemblance to the eyes of the +stranger who has my rose? I daresay he will put it under his pillow +to-night, and dream!" She laughed,--"Let us go in!" + +Madame Bozier followed her as she stepped back into the lighted salon, +where she was suddenly met by her little Arab page, carrying a large +cluster of exquisite red and white roses. A card was attached to the +flowers, bearing the words, "These many unworthy blossoms in return for +one beyond all worth." + +The Comtesse read and passed it in silence to Madame Bozier. A smile +was on her face, and a light in her eyes. + +"I think Rome is not so dull after all!" she said, as she set the +flowers carefully in a tall vase of Etruscan ware, "Do you know, I am +beginning to find it interesting!" + + + + +XVIII. + +Aubrey Leigh was a man who had chosen his own way of life, and, as a +natural consequence of this, had made for himself an independent and +original career. Born in the New World of America he had been very +highly educated,--not only under the care of a strict father, and an +idolising mother, but also with all the advantages one of the finest +colleges in the States could give him. Always a brilliant scholar, and +attaining his successes by leaps and bounds rather than by close and +painstaking study, the day came,--as it comes to all finely-tempered +spirits,--when an overpowering weariness or body and soul took +possession of him,--when the very attainment of knowledge seemed +absurd,--and all things, both in nature and art, took on a sombre +colouring, and the majestic pageant of the world's progress appeared no +more than a shadow too vain and futile to be worth while watching as it +passed. Into a Slough of Despond, such as Solomon experienced when he +wrote his famous "Ecclesiastes," Aubrey sank unconsciously, and,--to do +him justice,--most unwillingly. His was naturally a bright, vivacious, +healthy nature--but he was over-sensitively organised,--his nerves did +not resemble iron so much as finely-tempered steel, which could not but +suffer from the damp and rust in the world's conventionalities. And +some "little rift within the lute" chanced to him, as it often chances +to many, so that the subtle music of his soul jarred into discord with +the things of life, making harsh sounds in place of melody. There was +no adequate cause for this,--neither disappointed love nor balked +ambition shadowed his days;--it was something altogether indefinable--a +delicate, vague discontent which, had he known it, was merely the first +stirring of an embryo genius destined one day to move the world. He did +not know what ailed him,--but he grew tired--tired of books--tired of +music--tired of sifting the perplexing yet enchanting riddles of +science--tired of even his home and his mother's anxious eyes of love +that watched his moods too closely for his peace,--and one day, out of +the merest boyish impulse, he joined a company of travelling actors and +left America. Why he did this he could never tell, save that he was a +student and lover of Shakespeare. Much to his own surprise, and +somewhat to his disgust, he distinguished himself with exceptional +brilliancy on the stage,--his voice, his manner, his physique and his +bearing were all exceptional, and told highly in his favour,--but +unfortunately his scholarly acumen and knowledge of literature went +against him with his manager. This personage, who was densely ignorant, +and who yet had all the ineffable conceit of ignorance, took him +severely to task for knowing Shakespeare's meanings better than he +did,--and high words resulted in mutual severance. Aubrey was hardly +sorry when his theatrical career came thus untimely to an end. At first +he had imagined it possible to become supreme in histrionic art,--one +who should sway the emotions of thousands by a word, a look or a +gesture,--he had meant to be the greatest Shakespearean actor of his +day; and with his knowledge of French, which was as perfect as his +knowledge of English, he had even foreseen the possibility of taking +the French stage as well as the English by storm. But when he gradually +came to discover the mean tricks and miserable treacheries used by his +fellow-actors to keep a rising comrade down,--when he felt to the core +of his soul the sordidness and uncleanness of his surroundings,--when +he shudderingly repulsed the would-be attentions of the painted drabs +called "ladies of the stage",--and above all, when he thought of the +peace and refinement of the home he had, for a mere freak, +forsaken,--the high tone of thought and feeling maintained there, the +exquisite gracefulness and charm of womanhood, of which his mother had +been, and was still a perfect embodiment, some new and far stronger +spirit rose up within him, crying--"What is this folly? Am I to sink to +the level of those whom I know and see are beneath me? With what I have +of brain and heart and feeling, are these unworthy souls to drag me +down? Shall I not try to feel my wings, and make one bold dash for +higher liberty? And if I do so, whither shall I fly?" + +He had come to England at this period,--and in the small provincial +town where his final rupture with the illiterate theatrical manager had +taken place, there was a curious, silent contest going on between the +inhabitants and their vicar. The vicar was an extremely unpopular +person,--and the people were striving against him, and fighting him at +every possible point of discussion. For so small a community the +struggle was grim,--and Aubrey for some time could not understand it, +till one day an explanation was offered him by a man engaged in +stitching leather, in a dirty evil-smelling little hole of a shop under +a dark archway. + +"You see, sir, it's this way," he said, "Bessie Morton,--she wor as +good a girl as ever stepped--bright and buxom and kind hearted--yes, +that was Bessie, till some black scoundrel got her love at a soft +moment, and took the better of her. Well!--I suppose some good +Christian folk would say she wor a bad 'un--but I'll warrant she worn't +bad at heart, but only just soft-like--and she an orphan, with no one +to look after her, or say she done ill or well. And there was a little +child born--the prettiest little creature ye ever saw--Bessie's own +copy--all blue eyes and chestnut hair--and it just lived a matter of +fower year, and then it took sick and died. Bessie went nigh raving +mad; that she did. And now, what do you think, sir? The passon refused +to bury that there little child in consecrated ground, cos'twas born +out of wedlock! What d'ye think of that for a follower of Jesus with +the loving heart? What d'ye think of that?" + +"Think!" said Aubrey indignantly, with an involuntary clenching of his +hand, "Why, that it is abominable--disgraceful! I should like to thrash +the brute!" + +"So would a many," said his informant with an approving chuckle, "So +would a many! But that's not all--there's more behind--and worse too--" + +"Why, what can be worse?" + +"Well, sir, we thinks--we ain't got proofs to go on--for Bessie keeps +her own counsel--but we thinks the passon hisself is the father of that +there little thing he winnot lay in a holy grave!" + +"Good God!" cried Aubrey. + +"Ay, ay--you may say 'Good God!' with a meaning, sir," said the +leather-seller--"And that's why, as we ain't got no facts and no power +with bishops, and we ain't able to get at the passon anyhow, we're just +making it as unpleasant for him in our way as we can. That's all the +people can do, sir, but what they does, they means!" + +This incident deeply impressed Aubrey Leigh, and proved to be the +turning point in his career. Like a flash of light illumining some +divinely written scroll of duty, he suddenly perceived a way in which +to shape his own life and make it of assistance to others. He began his +plan of campaign by going about among the poorer classes, working as +they worked, living as they lived, and enduring what they endured. +Disguised as a tramp, he wandered with tramps. He became for a time one +of the "hands" in a huge Birmingham factory. After that he worked for +several months at the coal pits among the lowest of the men employed +there. Then he got a "job" in a dock-yard and studied the ways of +shipping and humanity together. During this time of self-imposed +probation, he never failed to write letters home to Canada, saying he +was "doing well" in England, but how this "doing well" was brought +about he never explained. And the actual motive and end of all his +experiences was as yet a secret locked within his own heart. Yet when +it was put into words it sounded simple enough,--it was merely to find +out how much or how little the clergy, or so-called "servants of +Christ", obeyed their Master. Did they comfort the comfortless? Were +they "wise as serpents, and harmless as doves"? Were they +long-suffering, slow to wrath, and forbearing one to the other? Did +they truly "feed the sheep"? Did they sacrifice themselves, their +feelings, and their ambitions to rescue what was lost? All these and +sundry other questions Aubrey Leigh set himself to answer,--and by and +by he found himself on an endless path of discovery, where at every +step some new truth confronted him;--some amazing hypocrisy burned +itself in letters of flame against the splendour of church +altars;--some deed of darkness and bigotry and cruelty smirched the +white robes of the "ordained to preach the Gospel". Gradually he became +so intently and vitally interested in his investigations, and his +sympathy for the uncomforted people who had somehow lost Christ instead +of finding Him, grew so keen that he resolved to give up his entire +life to the work of beginning to try and remedy the evil. He had no +independent means,--he lived from hand to mouth earning just what he +could by hard labour,--till one day, when the forces in his own soul +said "Ready!" he betook himself to one small room which he hired in a +fisherman's cottage on the coast of Cornwall, and there sat down to +write a book. Half the day he wrote, and half the day he earned his +bread as a common fisherman, going out with the others in storm and +shine, sailing through sleet and hail and snow, battling with the +waves, and playing with Death at every turn of the rocks, which, like +the teeth of great monsters, jagged the stormy shore. And he grew +strong, and lithe, and muscular--his outward life of hard and changeful +labour, accompanied by the inward life of intelligent and creative +thought, gradually worked off all depression of soul and effeminacy of +body,--his experience of the stage passed away, leaving no trace on his +mind but the art, the colour and the method,--particularly the method +of speech. With art, colour, and method he used the pen;--with the same +art, colour, and method he used his voice, and practised the powers of +oratory. He would walk for miles to any lonely place where he could be +sure of no interruption,--and there he would speak aloud to the roaring +waves and wide stretches of desolate land, and tell them the trenchant +things he meant one day to thunder into human ears. Always of a fine +figure, his bearing grew more dauntless and graceful,--the dangers of +the sea taught him self-control,--the swift changes of the sky gave him +the far-off rapt expression and keen flash of his eyes,--the pitiful +sorrows of the poor, in which, as he had elected to be one of them, he +was bound to share, had deepened the sympathetic lines round his +delicate mouth, and had bestowed upon his whole countenance that look +which is seldom seen save in the classic marbles--the look of being one +with, and yet above mankind. All the different classes of people with +whom he had managed to associate had called him "gentleman", a name he +had gently but firmly repudiated. "Call me a Man, and let me deserve +the title!" he would say smilingly, and his "mates" hearing this would +eye each other askance, and whisper among themselves "that he WAS a +gentleman for all that, though no doubt he had come down in the world +and had to work for his living. And no shame to him as he gave himself +no airs, and could turn a hand to anything." And so the time moved on, +and he remained in the Cornish fishing village till his book was +finished. Then he suddenly went up to London;--and after a few days' +absence came back again, and went contentedly on with the fishing once +more. + +A month or so later, one night when the blackness of the skies was so +dense that it could almost be felt, it chanced that he and his +companions were far out at sea in their little smack, which lay +becalmed between two darknesses--the darkness of the rolling water, and +the darkness of the still heaven. Little waves lapped heavily against +the boat's side, and the only glimpse of light at all was the yellow +flicker of the lamp that hung from the mast of the vessel, casting a +tremulous flicker on the sombrous tide, when all at once a great noise +like the crash of thunder, or the roll of cannon, echoed through the +air, and a meteor more brilliant than an imperial crown of diamonds, +flared through the sky from height to depth, and with a blazing +coruscation of flying stars and flame, dropped hissingly down into the +sea. The fishermen startled, all looked up--the heavy black nets +dropped from their brown arms just as they were about to pull in. + +"A sign of strife!" said one. + +"Ay, ay! We shall hev a war maybe!" + +Aubrey leaned far over the boat's side, and looked out into the dense +blackness, made blacker than ever by the sudden coming and going of the +flaming sky-phenomenon,--and half unconsciously he murmured, "Think not +that I am come to send peace on earth,--I come not to send peace, but a +sword!" And he lost himself in dreams of the past, present, and +future,--till he was roused to give a hand in the dragging up of the +nets, now full of glistening fish with silvery bodies and ruby +eyes,--and then his thoughts took a different turn and wandered off as +far back as the Sea of Galilee when the disciples, fishing thus, were +called by the Divine Voice, saying "Follow me, and I will make you +fishers of men!" And in silence he helped to row the laden boat +homewards, for there was no wind to fill the sail,--and the morning +gradually broke like a great rose blooming out of the east, and the sun +came peering through the rose like the calyx of the flower,--and still +in a dream, Aubrey walked through all that splendour of the early day +home to his lodging,--there to find himself,--like Byron,--famous. His +book was in everyone's hand--his name on everyone's tongue. Letters +from the publisher whom his visit to London had made his friend, +accompanied by a bundle of the chief newspapers of the day, informed +him that he had in one bound taken his place at the very head and front +of opinion,--and, finest proof of power, the critics were out like the +hounds in full cry, and were already baying the noble quarry. The +Church papers were up in arms--indignant articles were being added to +the "weeklies" by highly respectable clergymen with a large feminine +"following", and in the midst of all these written things, which in +their silent print seemed literally to make a loud clamour in the quiet +of his room, Aubrey, in his sea-stained fisherman's garb, with the +sparkle of the salt spray still glittering on his closely curling +bright hair, looked out at the clear horizon from which the sun had +risen up in all its majesty, and devoutly thanked God! + +"I have written part of my message," he said to himself, "And now +by-and-by I shall speak!" + +But he lived on yet for a time in the remote fishing village, +waiting,--without knowing quite what he waited for,--while the great +Gargantuan mouth of London roared his name in every imaginable key, +high and low, and gradually swept it across the seas to America and +Australia, and all the vast New World that is so swiftly rising up, +with the eternal balance of things, to overwhelm the Old. And presently +the rumour of his fame reached those whom he had left behind in the +quiet little town of his birth and boyhood,--and his mother, reading +the frantic eulogies, and still more frantic attacks of the different +sections of press opinion, wept with excitement and tenderness and +yearning; and his father, startled at the strange power and authority +with which this new Apostle of Truth appeared to be invested, trembled +as he read, but nevertheless held himself more erect with a pride in +his own old age that he had never felt before, as he said a hundred +times a day in response to eager questioners--"Yes,--Aubrey Leigh is my +son!" Then mother and father both wrote to Aubrey, and poured out their +affectionate hearts to him and blessed him, which blessing he received +with that strange heaving of the heart and contraction of the throat, +which in a strong man means tears. And still he waited on, earning his +bread in the humble village which knew nothing of him, save as one of +themselves,--for the inhabitants of the place were deaf and blind to +the ways of the world, and read little save old and belated newspapers, +so that they were ignorant of his newly celebrated personality,--till +one day the Fates gave him that chance for which, though he was +unconscious of it, he had been holding himself back, and counting the +slow strokes of time;--time which seems to beat with such a laggard +pulse when one sees some great thing needing to be done, and while +feeling all the force to do it, yet has to control and keep back that +force till the appointed hour strikes for action. + +There had been a terrific storm at sea, and a herring smack had gone +down within sight of land, sinking eight strong men with it, all +husbands and fathers. One after the other, the eight bodies were thrown +back from the surging deep in the sullen grey morning on the day after +the catastrophe,--one after the other they were borne reverently up +from the shore to the village, there to be claimed by shrieking women +and sobbing children,--women, who from more or less contented, +simple-hearted, hard-working souls, were transformed into the grandly +infuriated forms of Greek tragedy--their arms tossing, their hair +streaming, their faces haggard with pain, and their eyes blind with +tears. Throughout the heart-rending scene, Aubrey Leigh worked silently +with the rest--composing the stiff limbs of the dead, and reverently +closing the glared and staring eyes; gently he had lifted fainting +women from the corpses to which they clung,--tenderly he had carried +crying children home to their beds,--and with sorrowful eyes fixed on +the still heaving and angry billows, he had inwardly prayed for ways +and means to comfort these afflicted ones, and raised their thoughts +from the gloom of the grave to some higher consummation of life. For +they were inconsolable,--they could neither see nor understand any +adequate cause for such grief being inflicted on them,--and the entire +little population of the village wore a resentful attitude towards God, +and God's inexorable law of death. When the funeral day came, and the +bodies of the eight unfortunate victims were committed to the earth, it +happened, as fate would have it, that the rector of the parish, a +kindly, sympathetic, very simple old man, who really did his best for +his parishoners according to the faint perception of holy things that +indistinctly illumined his brain, happened to be away, and his place +was taken by the assistant curate, a man of irritable and hasty temper, +who had a horror of "scenes," and who always put away all suggestions +of death from him whenever it was possible. It was very disagreeable to +him to have to look at eight coffins,--and still more disagreeable to +see eight weeping widows surrounded by forlorn and fatherless +children--and he gabbled over the funeral service as quickly as he +could, keeping his eyes well on the book lest he should see some +sobbing child looking at him, or some woman dropping in a dead faint +before he had time to finish. He was afraid of unpleasant +incidents--and yet with all his brusque and nervous hurry to avoid +anything of the kind, an unpleasant incident insisted on manifesting +itself. Just as the fourth coffin was being lowered into the ground, a +wild-haired girl rushed forward and threw herself upon it. + +"Oh, my man, my man!" she wailed, "My own sweetheart!" + +There was a moment's silence. Then one of the widows stepped out, and +approaching the girl, laid her hand on her arm. + +"Are ye making a mock of me, Mary Bell?" she said, "Or is it God's +truth ye're speaking to my husband lying there?" + +The distraught creature called Mary Bell looked up with a sudden +passion glowing in her tear-wet eyes. + +"It's God's truth!" she cried, "And ye needn't look scorn on me!--for +both our hearts are broken, and no one can ever mend them. Yes! It's +God's truth! He was your husband, but my sweetheart! And we'll neither +of us see a finer man again!" + +The curate listened, amazed and aghast. Was nothing going to be done to +stop this scandalous scene? He looked protestingly from right to left, +but in all the group of fisher-folk not a man moved. Were these two +women going to fight over the dead? He hummed and hawed--and began in a +thin piercing voice--"My friends--" when he was again interrupted by +the passionate speech of Mary Bell. + +"I'm sorry for ye," she said, lifting herself from the coffin to which +she clung, and turning upon the widow of the drowned man, "and ye can +be just as sorry for me! He loved us both, and why should we quarrel! A +man is ever like that--just chancy and changeful--but he tried his +honest hardest not to love me--yes, he tried hard!--it was my fault! +for I never tried!--I loved him!--and I'll love him, till I go where he +is gone! And we'll see who God'll give his soul to!" + +This was too much for the curate. + +"Woman!" he thundered, "Be silent! How dare you boast of your sin at +such a time, and in such a place! Take her away from that coffin, some +of you!" + +So he commanded, but still not a man moved. The curate began to lose +temper in earnest. + +"Take her away, I tell you," and he advanced a step or two, "I cannot +permit such a scandalous interruption of this service!" + +"Patience, patience, measter," said one of the men standing by, "When a +woman's heart's broke in two ways it ain't no use worrying her. She'll +come right of herself in a minute." + +But the curate, never famous for forbearance at any time, was not to be +tampered with. Turning to his verger he said, + +"I refuse to go on! The woman is drunk!" + +But now the widow of the dead man suddenly took up the argument in a +shrill voice which almost tore the air to shreds. + +"She's no more drunk than you are!" she cried passionately, "Leave her +alone! You're a nice sort of God's serving man to comfort we, when +we're all nigh on losing our wits over this mornin' o' misery, shame on +ye! Mary Bell, come here! If so be as my husband was your sweetheart, +God forgive him, ye shall come home wi' me!--and we'll never have a +word agin the man who is lying dead there. Come wi' me, Mary!" + +With a wild cry of anguish, the girl rushed into her arms, and the two +women clung together like sisters united in the same passionate grief. +The curate turned a livid white. + +"I cannot countenance such immorality," he said, addressing the verger, +though his words were heard by all present, "Enough of the service has +been said! Lower the coffins into the earth!" and turning on his heel +he prepared to walk away. But Aubrey Leigh stopped him. + +"You will not finish the service, sir?" he asked civilly, but with +something of a warning in the flash of his eyes. + +"No! The principal part of it is over. I cannot go on. These women are +drunk!" + +"They are not drunk, save with their own tears!" said Aubrey, his rich +voice trembling with indignation. "They are not mad, except with grief! +Is it not your place to be patient with them?" + +"My place! My place!" echoed the curate indignantly, "Man, do you know +to whom you are talking?" + +"I think I do," answered Aubrey steadily, "I am talking to a professed +servant of Christ,--Christ who had patience and pardon for all men! I +am talking to one whose calling and vocation it is to love, to forgive, +and to forbear--whose absolute protestation has been made at the altar +of God that he will faithfully obey his Master. Even if these unhappy +women were drunk, which they are not, their fault in conduct would not +release you from the performance of your duty,--or the reverence you +are bound to show towards the dead!" + +Trembling with rage, the curate eyed him up and down scornfully. + +"How dare you speak to me about my duty! You common lout! Mind your own +business!" + +"I will," said Aubrey, fixing his eyes full upon him, "And it shall be +my business to see that you mind yours! Both your rector and bishop +shall hear of this!" + +He strode off, leaving the curate speechless with fury; and joining the +little crowd of mourners who had been startled and interrupted by this +unexpected scene, drew a prayer book from his pocket, and without +asking anyone's permission read with exquisite gravity and pathos the +concluding words of the funeral service,--and then with his own hands +assisted the grave-diggers to lay the coffined dead tenderly to rest. +Awestruck, and deeply impressed by his manner the fisher-folk +mechanically obeyed his instructions, and followed his movements till +all the sad business was over, and then they lingered about the +churchyard wistfully watching him, while he in turn, standing erect and +bare-headed near the open graves, looked at them with a strange pity, +love and yearning. + +"It'll be all right when our owld passon comes back," said one of the +men addressing him, "It's just this half eddicated wastrel of a chap as +doesn't know, and doesn't care for the troubles of common folk like we." + +Aubrey was silent for a space. "Common folk like we!" The words were +full of pathetic humility, and the man who spoke them was a hero of no +mean type, who had often buffeted the winds and waves to save a human +life at the risk of his own. "Common folk like we!" Aubrey laid his +hand gently on his "mate's" shoulder. + +"Ben, old boy, there are no common folk in God's sight," he said, "Look +there!" and he pointed to the graves that were just beginning to be +filled in, "Every creature lying there had as much of God in him as +many a king, and perhaps more. In this majestic universe there is +nothing common!" + +Ben shuffled one foot before the other uneasily. + +"Ay, ay, but there's few as argify the way o' life in they lines!" he +said, "There's a many that think--but there's a main few that speak." + +"That is true," said Aubrey, still keeping his hand on Ben's shoulder, +"there's a main few that speak! Now, _I_ want to speak, Ben,--I want to +have a talk to you and the rest of our mates about--well!--about the +dangers of the sea and other things. Will you meet me on the shore this +evening near the quay and listen to a word or two?" + +Ben looked surprised but interested, and a puzzled smile came into his +eyes. + +"Be ye a goin' to preach to us like the passon?" he said, "Or like the +fellers in the porter's caps as calls themselves Salvationists?" + +Aubrey smiled. + +"No! I only want to say a few parting words to you all." + +"Parting words!" echoed Ben with a stupefied air. + +"Yes--I am going away to-morrow--going for good. I have got some other +work to do. But I shall not forget you all . . . and you will hear of +me often,--yes, you will hear of me!--and some day I will come back. +But to-night . . . I should just like to say good-bye." + +Ben was secretly much distressed. "Gentleman Leigh" as he was sometimes +called, had greatly endeared himself to their little community, and +that he should leave them was not at all a desirable thing, and would, +as Ben well knew, cause universal regret. But there was no time just +now for either argument or protestation, so Ben accepted the blow as he +accepted all buffetings of fate, and merely said, + +"All right! We'll be there to-night for sure!" And then Aubrey, gravely +content, walked slowly out of the little churchyard still bare-headed, +his eyes dark with thought,--and the reluctant sun came out of the gray +sky and shone on his pale face and bright hair--and one or two of the +widowed women timidly touched his arm as he passed, and murmured, "God +bless you!" And Mary Bell, the sorrowful and sinning, clinging to the +waist of the woman she had wronged, looked up at him appealingly with +the strained and hunted gaze of a lost and desperate creature, and as +he met her eyes, turned shudderingly away and wept. And he, knowing +that words were useless, and that even the kindliest looks must wound +in such a case, passed on in silence, and when he reached his own +lodging took some of the newspapers which spoke of himself and his +book, and after marking certain passages, tied them up in a packet and +sent them to the curate with whom he had crossed swords that morning, +accompanied by a note which briefly ran thus:-- + +"You asked me how I 'dared' to speak to you about your duty. I +reply--By the force of truth and the power of the pen I dare!--and I +shall be ready to answer to God for it, as you must answer to him for +leaving any part of YOUR duty undone. + +"AUBREY LEIGH." + +And the day passed on, half in drifting clouds, half in glimpses of +sunshine, till late afternoon, when the sky cleared altogether, and the +waves sank to a dead calm;--and with the night a shield-like moon, all +glistening pearl and silver, rose up out of the east with a royal air +of white and wondering innocence, as though she proclaimed her entire +blamelessness for any havoc wrought by storm. And in the full radiance +of that silvery splendour Aubrey Leigh, leaning against the sea-weed +covered capstan of the quay, round which coils of wet rope glistened +like the body of a sleeping serpent, told to an audience of human +hearers for the first time the story of his life, and adventures, and +the varied experiences he had gone through in order to arrive at some +straight and clear comprehension of "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" +of the Gospel of Love and Mutual Labour. His practised voice, perfect +in all modulation, inflexion, and expression, carried each simple, +well-chosen word home to the hearts of his hearers,--not one so +ignorant as not to understand him--not one so blind as not to see the +beauty of work and creative effort as he depicted them,--not one so +insensate as not to feel the calm, the grandeur, and repose of the +strong soul of a man in complete sympathy with his fellow-men. They +listened to him almost breathlessly--their bronzed weather-beaten faces +all turned towards his; forgetting to smoke, they let their pipes die +out and drop from their hands--and no interruption broke the even flow +and cadence of his earnest language, save the slow ripple of the water +beating against the quay, and the faint, occasional sigh of a stirring +wind. Silhouetted black against the radiant sky were the masts of the +fishing fleet, and the roofs of the fishermen's cottages--dwellings so +often made desolate by death--and as Aubrey noted the fascinated +attention with which these rough men heard him, his heart grew strong. +"If a few listen, so will many," he said to himself, "The Master of our +creed first taught His divine ethics to a few fishermen,--to them the +message was first given . . . and by them again delivered,--and it is +through our having departed from the original simplicity of utterance +that all the evil has crept in. So let me be content with this night's +work and await the future with patience." Then lifting up his voice +once more he said,-- + +"You think your lot a hard one--you, friends and brothers, who set the +brown sails out to sea on a night of threatening storm, and bid +farewell to your homes built safe upon the shore. You must meet all the +horror of white foam and cloud-blackness, to drag from the sea its +living spoil, and earn the bread to keep yourselves and those who are +dependent upon you,--you MUST do this, or the Forces of Life will not +have you,--they will cast you out and refuse to nourish you. For so is +your fate in life, and work ordained. Then where is God?--you cry, as +the merciless billows rise to engulf your frail craft,--why should the +Maker of man so deliberately destroy him? Why should one human unit, +doing nothing, and often thinking nothing, enjoy hundreds of pounds a +day, while you face death to win as many pence? Is there a God of Love +who permits this injustice? Ah, stop there, friends! There is no such +thing as injustice! Strange as it sounds to this world of many +contradictions and perplexities, I repeat there is no such thing as +injustice. There is what SEEMS injustice--because we are all apt to +consider the material side of things only. That is where we make our +great mistake in life and conduct. We should all remember that this +world, and the things of this world, are but the outward expression of +an inward soul--the Matter evolved from Mind--and that unless we are +ourselves in harmony with the Mind, we shall never understand the +Matter. Your millionaire is surrounded with luxuries,--your fishermen +has dry bread and herring,--your millionaire dies, with a famous doctor +counting his pulse-beats, and a respectable clergyman promising him +heaven on account of the money he has left to the church in his will; +your fisherman goes down in a swirl of black water, without a +prayer--for he has no time to pray--without leaving a penny behind him, +inasmuch as he has no pence to leave; and for both these different +creatures we judge the end is come? No,--the end is NOT come! It is the +beginning only! If the millionaire has died with a thousand selfish +sores in his mind,--if his life's privileges have been wasted in high +feeding and self-indulgence,--if he has thought only of himself, his +riches, his pride, his position, or his particular form of +respectability, he will get the full result of that mental attitude! If +the fisherman has been content with his earnings, and thanked God for +them,--if he has been honest, brave, true, and unselfish, and has +shared with others their joys and sorrows, and if at the last he goes +down in the waves trying to save some other life while losing his +own,--depend upon it he will rise to the full splendour of THAT mental +attitude! For both millionaire and fisherman are but men, made on the +same lines, of the same clay, and are each one, personally and +separately responsible to God for the soul in them,--and when both of +them pass from this phase of being to the next, they will behold all +things with spiritual eyes, not material ones. And then it may be that +the dark will be discovered to be the bright, and the fortunate prove +to be the deplorable, for at present we 'see through a glass darkly, +but then, face to face.' The friends whom we have buried to-day are not +dead,--for death is not Death, but Life. And for those who are left +behind it is merely a time of waiting, for as the Master said, 'There +shall not a hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your +souls.'" + +He paused a moment,--the moon rays illumined his delicate features, and +a half sorrowful smile rested on his lips. + +"I am no clergyman, my friends! I have not been 'ordained'. I am not +preaching to you. I will not ask you to be good men, for there is +something effeminate in the sound of such a request made to brawny, +strong fellows such as you are, with an oath ready to leap from your +lips, and a blow prepared to fly from your fists on provocation. I will +merely say to you that it is a great thing to be a Man!--a Man as God +meant him to be, brave, truthful, and self-reliant, with a firm faith +in the Divine Ordainment of Life as Life should be lived. There is no +disgrace in work;--no commonness,--no meanness. Disgrace, commonness, +and meanness are with those who pretend to work and never do anything +useful for the world they live in. The king who amuses himself at the +expense and ruin of his subjects is the contemptible person,--not the +labourer who digs the soil for the planting of corn which shall help to +feed his fellows. And the most despicable creature of our time and +century, is not the man who doubts Christ, or questions God--for Christ +was patient with the doubter, and God answers, through the medium of +science, every honest question--it is the man who pretends to believe +and lives on the pretence, while his conduct gives the lie to his +profession! That is why you--and why thousands of others like you, are +beginning to look upon many of the clergy with contempt, and to treat +their admonitions with indifference. That is why thousands of the +rising generation of men and women will not go to church. 'The parson +does not do anything for me,' is a common every-day statement. And that +the parson SHOULD do something is a necessary part of his business. His +'doing' should not consist in talking platitudes from the pulpit, or in +sending round a collection plate. And if he has no money, and will not +'sell half that he has and give to the poor' as commanded, he can at +any rate give sympathy. But this is precisely what he chiefly lacks. +The parson's general attitude is one of either superiority or +servility,--a 'looking down' upon his poor parishoners--a 'looking up' +to his rich ones. A disinterested, loving observation of the troubles +and difficulties of others never occurs to him as necessary. But this +was precisely the example Christ gave us--an unselfish example of +devotion to others--a supreme descent of the Divine into man to rescue +and bless humanity. Now I know all your difficulties and sorrows,--I +have worked among you, and lived among you--and I feel the pulse of +your existence beating in my own heart. I know that when a great +calamity overwhelms you all as it has done this week, you have no one +to comfort you,--no one to assure you that no matter how strange and +impossible it seems, you have been deprived of your associates for some +GOOD cause which will be made manifest in due season,--that they have +probably been taken to save them from a worse fate than the loss of +earth-consciousness in the sea. For that, scientifically speaking, is +all that death means--the loss of earth-consciousness,--but the gain of +another consciousness, whether of another earth or a heaven none can +say. But there is no real death--inasmuch as even a grain of dust in +the air will generate life. We must hold fast to the Soul of +things--the Soul which is immortal, not the body which is mortal. 'What +shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own +soul!' That is what each man of us must find, and hold, and keep,--his +own soul! Apart from all creeds, and clergy, forms and rituals--that is +the vital matter. Stand clear of all things,--all alone if need be, +surrounded by the stupendous forces of this great universe,--let us +find,--each man of us--his own soul; find and keep it brave, truthful, +upright, and bound straight on for the highest,--the highest always! +And the very stars in their courses will help us--storms will but +strengthen us--difficulties but encourage us--and death itself shall +but give us larger liberty." + +He ceased, and one by one the men drew closer to him, and thanked him, +in voices that were tremulous with the emotion he had raised in them. +The instinct which had led them to call him "Gentleman Leigh" had +proved correct,--and there was not a man among them all who did not +feel a thrill of almost fraternal pride in the knowledge that the +dauntless, hard-working "mate" who had fronted tempests with them, and +worked with them in all weathers, had without any boast or loquacious +preparation, made his name famous and fit for discussion in the great +world of London far away, a world to which none of them had ever +journeyed. And they pressed round him and shook his hand, and gave him +simple yet hearty words of cheer and goodwill, together with unaffected +expressions of regret that he was leaving them,--"though for that +matter," said one of them, "we allus felt you was a scholard-like, for +all that you was so handy at the nets. For never did a bit of shell or +weed come up from the sea but ye was a lookin' at it as if God had +throwed it to yer for particular notice. And when a man takes to +obsarvin' common things as if they were special birthday presents from +the Almighty, ye may be pretty sure there's something out of the +ordinary in him!" + +Aubrey smiled, and pressed the hand of this roughly eloquent +speaker,--and then they all walked with him up from the shore to the +little cottage where he had lived for so many months, and at the gate +of which he bade them farewell. + +"But only for a time," he said, "I shall see you all again. And you +will hear of me!" + +"Ay, ay, we'll hear of ye--for we'll take the papers in just for news +of yer!" said Ben, with a rough laugh which covered his deeper +feelings, "And mebbe ye'll come back afore we's all drownded!" + +And so with a few more kindly words they left him, and he stood at the +gate watching their stalwart figures disappear down the different +windings of the crooked and picturesque little street. + +"God bless them all!" he murmured, "They have taught me many a grand +lesson!" + +The next day he took his quiet departure in the early morning before +the village folks were up and stirring,--and a month later he addressed +a large meeting in one of the poorest and most densely populated +districts of London on "The Ethics of Christ versus the Clergy", which +attracted universal attention and created an enormous sensation. His +book began to sell in thousands where it had previously sold in +hundreds, and he earned sufficient from the profits of the sale to keep +him going in the simple fashion of clothes and food to which he had +strictly disciplined himself, so that he felt free to plunge into the +thick of the fight. And he straightway did so. His name became a terror +to liars, and a clarion sound of alarm in the ears of social +hypocrites. He wrote another book which obtained even a larger hearing +than the first--and he spoke to the people on an average once a week, +wherever he could assemble them together. All his addresses were made +gratuitously, and he soon resembled a sort of blazing torch in the +darkness, to which the crowds rushed for light and leading. In the +midst of the sensation his writings and orations were creating, a noble +lord, with several Church livings in his gift, asked him to stand for +Parliament, and offered to pay the expenses of his election. At first +Aubrey was sufficiently tempted by the offer to pause hesitatingly on +the verge of acceptance, but twenty-four hours' hard thinking promptly +pulled him together. "No," he said--"I see what you mean! You and your +party wish to tie my hands--to gag my mouth, and make me as one of +yourselves--no, I will not consent to it. I will serve the people with +all my life and soul!--but not in YOUR way!" + +And to avoid further discussion he went straight out of England for a +time, and travelled through Europe, making friends everywhere, and +learning new phases of the "Christian Dispensation" at every turn in +his road. Paris had held him fascinated for a long while, not only +because he saw her doom written like that of Babylon in letters of +fire, and Ruin, like a giant bird of prey hovering over her with beak +and claw prepared to pick the very flesh from her bones,--but also +because he had met Angela Sovrani, one of the most rarely-gifted types +of womanhood he had ever seen. He recognised her genius at once, and +marvelled at it. And still more did he marvel at her engagement of +marriage with Florian Varillo. That such a fair, proud creature so +splendidly endowed, could consent to unite herself to a man so vastly +inferior, was an interesting puzzle to him. He had met Varillo by +chance in Naples one winter before he ever saw Angela, and knew that +half his claim to the notice of the social world there was the fact of +his betrothal to the famous "Sovrani." And moved by a strange desire to +follow out this romance, and also because he was completing his studies +of the Roman Church viewed as a "moral support to the education and +elevation of man," he, after leaving Paris, and paying a brief visit to +Florence on a matter of business which could not be attended to +otherwise than personally, went on as though drawn by some invisible +magnet to Rome. He had only been twenty-four hours in the city, when +chance had led him under the balcony where the sculptured angels +fronted the moon, and from whence the sweet voice of Sylvie Hermenstein +had floated towards him with the words,-- + +"Ti voglio ben assai, E tu non pensi a me." + +And he who had faced crowds without a tremor, and had flung +thunderbolts of splendid defiance at shams, with the manner of a young +Ajax defying the lightning, now found himself strangely put out and +disturbed in his usual composure by the innocent aspect, and harmless +perfume of a rose,--a mere little pink petalled thing, with not even a +thorn on its polished green stalk! He had placed it in a glass of water +on his writing table, and his eyes rested upon it the morning after he +had received it with almost a reproachful air. What was its +golden-hearted secret? Why, when he studied it, did he see the soft hue +of a fair cheek, the flash of a bright eye, the drooping wave of a +golden web of hair, the dainty curve of a white arm on which the +sparkle of diamonds gleamed? How was it that he managed to perceive all +this in the leaves of a rose? He could not tell; and he was angry with +himself for his inability to explain the puzzle. He reminded himself +that he had business in Rome--"business," he repeated sternly to his +own conscience,--the chief part of which was to ascertain from some one +of the leading spirits at the Vatican the view taken by the Papacy of +the Ritualistic movement in England. + +"If you can gauge correctly the real feeling, and render it in plain +terms, apart from all conventional or social considerations," wrote his +publisher in a letter which had just reached him--"that is, if you dare +to do so much--and I think you will scarcely hesitate--you will +undoubtedly give great and lasting help to Christian England." As he +read this over for the second or third time he remembered that he had +an appointment with a certain powerful personage, known as Monsignor +Gherardi, that morning at eleven. + +"And you," he said, apostrophising the rose with a protesting shake of +his head, "were nearly making me forget it!" He lifted the flower out +of the water and touched it with his lips. "She was a fair +creature,--the woman who wore you last night!"--he said with a smile as +he put it carefully back again in its glass, "In fact, she was very +much like you! But though I notice you have no thorns, I dare say she +has!" He paused a moment, lost in thought, the smile still giving +warmth and light to his features; then with a quick movement of +impatience at his own delaying, threw on his coat and hat and left the +room, saying, "Now for Gherardi!" + + + + +XIX. + +Set square and dark against the pale blue of the Italian sky the +Palazzo Sovrani, seen for the first time, suggests a prison rather than +a dwelling house,--a forbidding structure, which though of unsentient +marble, seems visibly to frown into the light, and exhale from itself a +cloud on the clearest day. Its lowest windows, raised several feet from +the ground, and barred across with huge iron clamps, altogether deprive +the would-be inquisitive stranger from the possibility of peering +within,--the monstrous iron gate, richly wrought with fantastic +scroll-work and heraldic emblems raised in brass, presents so cold and +forbidding a front that some of the youthful ladies who were Angela's +friends, were wont to declare that it gave them a palpitation of the +heart to summon up the necessary courage required to ring the great +bell. Within the house there was much of a similar gloom, save in +Angela's own studio, which she had herself made beautiful with a +brightness and lightness found in no other corner of the vast and +stately abode. Her father, Prince Pietro Sovrani, was of a reserved and +taciturn nature,--poor but intensely proud--and he would suffer no +interference by so much as a word or a suggestion respecting the manner +in which he chose to arrange or to order his household. His wife Gita +Bonpre, the only sister of the good Cardinal, had been the one love of +his life,--and when she died all his happiness had died with her,--his +heart was broken, but he showed nothing of his grief to the outside +world, save that in manner he was more silent and reserved than +ever,--more difficult to deal with,--more dangerous to approach. People +knew well enough that he was poor, but they never dared to mention +it,--though once an English acquaintance, moved by the best intentions +in the world, had suggested that he could make a good deal of money by +having a portion of the Palazzo Sovrani redecorated, and modernized, to +suit the comfort and convenience of travelling millionaires who might +probably be disposed to pay a high rent for it during the Roman +"season." But the proposal was disastrous in its results. Sovrani had +turned upon his adviser like an embodied thunder-cloud. + +"When a prince of the House of Sovrani lets out apartments," he said, +"you may ask your English Queen to take in washing!" + +And a saturnine smile, accompanied by the frowning bend of his white +fuzzy eyebrows over his flashing black eyes, had produced such a +withering, blistering effect on the soul of the unfortunate Englishman, +whose practical ideas of utility had exceeded his prudence, that he had +scarcely ever dared to look the irate Italian noble in the face again. + +Just now, the Prince was in his library, seated in dignified +uprightness like a king enthroned to give audience, in a huge +high-backed chair, shadowed over by an ancient gilded baldacchino, +listening with a certain amount of grim patience to his daughter's +softly murmured narrative of her stay in Paris. He had received the +Cardinal an hour ago on his arrival, with first, a humble genuflexion +as became a son of the Church, and secondly with a kiss on both cheeks +as became a brother-in-law. The Cardinal's youthful companion Manual, +he had scarcely remarked, even while giving him welcome. These two had +gone to the suite of rooms prepared for the reception of His +Eminence,--but Angela, after hastily changing her travelling dress, had +come down to her father, anxious not only to give, but to hear +news--especially news of Florian Varillo. Prince Sovrani, however, was +not a man given to much social observation,--nor did he ever break +through his half cynical, half gloomy humour, to detail the gossip of +Rome, and he therefore sat more or less unmoved, while Angela told him +all she could think of that would interest him. At last with a little +delicate hesitation, she related the strange story of Abbe Vergniaud, +and added, + +"And by this time, I suppose, the Holy Father has been told all!" + +"Naturally," said the Prince, with a stern smile moving the hard +muscles of his mouth, "Moretti's love of scandal is as deep as that of +any old woman!--and the joy of excommunicating a soul from the +salvation of the Church must be too exquisite to admit of any delay! I +am sorry for Vergniaud, but I do not think he will suffer much. These +things are scarcely ever noticed in the press nowadays, and it will +only be a very limited circle that even learns of his excommunication. +Nevertheless, I am sorry--one is always sorry for brave men, even if +they are reckless. And the son is Gys Grandit! Corpo di Bacco! What a +denouement!" + +He considered it a moment, looking straight before him at the rows of +ancient and musty books that adorned his walls,--then he gave a sudden +exclamation. + +"Pesta! I had nearly forgotten! I knew there was a curious thing I had +to tell you, Angela,--but in the hurry of your arrival it had for the +moment escaped my mind . . ." + +"About Florian?" asked Angela anxiously. + +The Prince bent his brows upon her quizzically. + +"Florian! What should I know about Florian? He has not been near me +since you left Rome. I fancy he will not be too attentive a son-in-law! +No, it is not about Florian. It is about your uncle Felix. Have you +heard of this miracle he has performed?" + +Angela's eyes opened wide. + +"A miracle! What do you mean by a miracle?" + +"Santissima Madonna! A miracle is always a miracle," retorted her +father testily, "A something out of the common, and an upsetting of the +ordinary laws of nature. Did your uncle tell you nothing of his visit +to Rouen?" + +"Nothing," replied Angela, "Nothing but the story of Manuel." + +"Manuel? Who is he?" + +"The boy he has with him now. Uncle Felix found him lost at night near +the Cathedral of Rouen, and has taken him under his protection ever +since." + +"Altro! That is nothing!" said her father, "That is only one of Felix's +quixotic ideas. There is no miracle in that. But when a child is a +cripple from babyhood, and our Felix cures him by one simple prayer, +and makes him strong and well again--Gran Dio!--it is not remarkable +that such news creates a stir at the Vatican." + +"But it cannot be true!" said Angela surprised, "Uncle Felix never said +a word about it. I am sure he knows nothing whatever of such a report!" + +"Ebben! We will ask him presently,"--and the Prince raised himself +stiffly and slowly out of his throne-like chair, "Personally I have +considered Felix above any sort of priestly trickery; but after all, if +he has an ambition for the Papacy, I do not see why he should not play +for it. Others do!" + +"Oh, father!" cried Angela, "How can you think such a thing of Uncle +Felix! He is as nearly a saint as any mortal man can be!" + +"So I always thought, child--so I always thought!" replied the Prince, +with a vexed air, "But to perform such a miracle of healing as to cure +a child with a twisted spine and bent legs, by the mere utterance of a +prayer!--that is impossible!--impossible! It sounds like +charlatanism--not like Felix!" + +As he spoke he straightened himself and stood upright, a tall, spare, +elegant figure of a man,--his dark complexioned face very much +resembling a fine bronze cast of the Emperor Aurelius. Angela rose too +and stood beside him, and his always more or less defiant eyes slowly +softened as he looked at her. + +"You grow very like your mother," he said, with just the faintest +tremor in his voice--"Ah, la mia Gita!" + +A sigh that was like a groan broke from his lips, and Angela laid her +head caressingly against his breast in silence. He touched her soft +hair tenderly. + +"Very like your mother," he repeated, "Very like! But you will leave me +soon, as she has left me,--not for Heaven, no!--but for that doubtful +new life called marriage. It is not doubtful when there is love--love +in both hearts;--and if there is any difference at all, the love should +be greater on the man's side than on the woman's! Remember that, Angela +mia, remember that! The true lover is always spiritually on his knees +before the woman he loves; not only in passion, but in worship--in +reverence!" + +"And is not Florian so?" murmured Angela timidly. + +"I do not know, child; he may be! Sometimes I think that he loves +himself too much to love YOU as well as you deserve. But we shall see." + +As he spoke a servant entered, carrying an exquisite basket of flowers, +and brought it to Angela who blushed and smiled divinely as she took it +and opened the envelope fastened to its handle and addressed to her, +which contained merely these words,-- + + "A la mia dolcezza! Con voto d'eterno amore! + "FLORIAN." + +"Are they not lovely?" she said, bending over the blossoms tenderly as +though she would have taken them all into her embrace, "Such a sweet +welcome home!" + +Her father nodded, but gave no verbal response to her enthusiasm. +Presently he said, + +"How about your picture? When will it be finished?" + +"A month's work will be enough now," she replied, looking up +quickly--"And then--" + +"Then it will remain in one of the galleries unsold!" said Sovrani, +with a touch of bitterness in his tone which he could not quell, "You +have chosen too large a canvas. From mere size it is unsaleable,--for +unless it were a marvel of the world no nation would ever purchase a +woman's picture." + +Angela's delicate head drooped,--she turned away to hide the tears that +rushed to her eyes. Her father's words were harsh, yet eminently +practical; she knew he did not mean them unkindly, but that the +continual pinch of poverty was sometimes greater than he could endure +with patience. Angela had earned considerable sums of money by the +smaller pictures which had established her name; and the Prince had +bitterly grudged the time she had given to the enormous canvas which +had now remained so long in her studio covered up, even from his +eyes--for he had made up his mind that it was one of those fantastic +dreams of genius, which when they become realised into the substance of +a book or a picture, terrify the timid conventions of the world so +completely as to cause general avoidance. + +"If Raffaelle were alive he would not paint a 'Transfiguration' now," +he was wont to say, "The Church no longer employs great artists. It +keeps its money for speculation purposes. If a Michael Angelo were in +Rome he would find nothing to do." + +Which statement was true enough. For the modern Italian loves money +next to his own precious skin, and everything beautiful or sacred is +sacrificed to this insatiable craze. There is no love, no honour, no +patriotism in Italy without careful calculation as to the cost of +indulging in these sentiments,--and what wreck of religion is left +merely panders to the low melodramatic temper of an ignorant populace. +Art is at its lowest ebb, it cannot live without encouragement and +support--and it is difficult for even the most enthusiastic creator in +marble or colour to carry out glorious conceptions for an inglorious +country. But Angela Sovrani--ambitious Angela,--was not painting for +Italy. She was painting for the whole world. She had dreams of seeing +her great picture borne away out of Rome to Paris, and London, to be +gazed upon by thousands who would take its lesson home to their hearts +and lives. Italy was merely a village in the area of her aspiring mind; +but she built her "castles in the air" alone; and never by so much as +the smallest hint allowed anyone to guess the far reaching scope of her +intentions. Truth to tell, she had obtained very little encouragement +during her long days and months of work, though in the sweetness of her +nature she pleased herself by imagining that Florian Varillo gave her a +complete and perfect sympathy. Yet even with Florian, one or two casual +remarks he had let fall lightly and unthinkingly, had vaguely startled +her, and set her wondering, "Perhaps he does not think much of my +abilities after all"--and had caused her for once to be closely +reserved upon the subject and treatment of her work, and to refuse a +glimpse of it even to him who was her elect Beloved. She had thought he +would perhaps have been pained at this inviolate secrecy on her +part,--she had feared he might take offence at finding the doors of her +studio always locked,--but on the contrary he appeared quite amused at +her uncommunicative humour, and jested about it as if she were a little +child playing in a dark corner at some forbidden game. She was somewhat +surprised at this,--the more so as he frequently spoke of the +importance of his own pictures for the Roman "Art Season,"--pictures to +which he really gave the attentive discussion and consideration a man +always bestows on matters of his personal business--but often when +Angela's work was spoken of, he smiled with a kindly tolerance, as one +who should say, "Dear girl! How sweetly she embroiders her simple +sampler!" And yet again, he never failed, when asked about it in +Angela's presence, to say that he was "sure Donna Sovrani would +astonish the world by what she was doing!" So that one never quite knew +where to have him, his nature being that curious compound of obsequious +servility and intense self-love which so often distinguishes the +Italian temperament. Angela however put every shadow of either wonder +or doubt as to his views, entirely aside,--and worked on with an +earnest hand and trusting heart, faithfully and with a grand patience +and self-control seldom found either in masculine or feminine heroes. +Sometimes her spirit sank a little, as now, when her father told her +that her picture would remain unsold in one of the galleries--but all +the same, some force within her urged her to go on with her intention +steadily, and leave all results to God. And the tears that had sprung +to her eyes at the smart of old Sovrani's rough speech, soon returned +to their source; and she was quite her composed sweet self again when +her uncle the Cardinal, accompanied by Manuel, entered the room, +holding an open letter in his hand, and looking strangely agitated. + +"Brother, here is a matter which I cannot possibly understand," he +said, "Monsignor Gherardi writes here to congratulate me upon a miracle +I have worked in Rouen!--and summons me at once to the presence of His +Holiness! What can it mean? I have performed no miracle! Surely some +jest is being played with me,--and one most unbecoming to a man of +Gherardi's position and influence!" + +Prince Sovrani took the letter from Bonpre's hand and read it in +silence. + +"Yes--I have heard about it already," he said, "And if you indeed know +nothing, it is strange! But can you not remember--is there no clue to +such a report? Were there no sick children brought to you . . . ?" + +"Oh, for that," answered the Cardinal quickly, "a little boy named +Fabien Doucet, was brought to me by the children of an inn-keeper of +the Hotel Poitiers where I stayed two nights, and to grant their +wishes, (and also because it is my duty to do what I can for the +suffering and the afflicted), I laid my hands upon him and prayed to +our Lord that he might be healed." + +"Ebbene! Our Lord has then healed him," said Sovrani drily, "It is +remarkable!--but if the cure is truly accomplished, we shall have to +admit that the Deity does sometimes pay attention to our many prayers, +though for the most part they appear to fall upon a deaf, dumb, and +irresponsive Silence." + +The Cardinal sat down, wearily resting his head on his hand. + +"I do not like it!" he said, "It is altogether amazing to me; it seems +like a snare set to catch my soul! For I have no power to perform +miracles . . . I can only pray." + +"And why should not your prayer be answered?" asked Manuel suddenly. + +They had all forgotten the boy's presence in the room, and his voice +startled them. His young face was pale, yet tranquil--and the deep +tenderness that always dwelt in his eyes seemed deeper and softer at +this moment than ever. + +"Truly I do not see why," said Prince Sovrani, bending his fierce +regard full on the lad as he spoke, and beginning to wonder like the +rest at his fairness and beauty, "Only as a rule, fanciuollo +mio--prayer is mere waste of breath--a demand without supply." + +"Is that not perhaps the fault of the person who prays?" said Manuel, +"May that person not lack faith and pure intention? May he not even be +too self-absorbed to lift his soul high enough for an approach to God? +When the disciples were vexed that they could not cure a child that was +afflicted, and saw that their Master healed that child at once, they +asked why they were unable to do what He did. And He told them plainly, +'Because of your unbelief. For verily I say unto you, if ye have faith +as a grain of mustard seed ye shall say unto this mountain, remove from +yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to +you.' And I am sure that my lord the Cardinal's faith is greater than a +grain of mustard seed!" + +They were all silent. Cardinal Bonpre turned his eyes thoughtfully on +the young speaker + +"You were with me, child, when the little cripple sat on my knee and +held my crucifix," he said in a low tone, "You saw--you heard all. What +did I do?--what did I say?" + +"You held him in your arms, even as Christ took little children in His +arms and blessed them," replied Manuel, "And you prayed--and in your +prayer you said--'King and Master of all such children, even as Thou +wert a child Thyself, be pleased to heal him of his sad infirmity. For +if Thou wilt, Thou canst make this bent body straight, and these +withered muscles strong,--from death itself Thou canst ordain life, and +nothing is impossible unto Thee!'" + +There was a pause. Then Manuel added,-- + +"That is what you said, my lord Cardinal;--and when the child went +away, you told him that if the giving of your own life could make him +strong, he should have that life willingly. Some people might say that +without meaning it,--but you meant what you said,--every word came +straight from your heart. And should it then surprise you that God has +granted your prayer?" + +Prince Sovrani listened to the dulcet young voice with a strange +emotion. Something holy and convincing seemed to emanate from the boy's +very presence, and though he, as became a modern Italian, was +thoroughly sceptical and atheistical, and would have willingly argued +against the very words of Christ as written in the Gospel, some curious +hesitation that was almost shamefacedness held him silent. But the +Cardinal was even more strongly moved. The earnest spirit of truth with +which Manuel appeared always to be environed,--his simple and straight +enunciation of the old, oft-quoted phrases used by the Divine Saviour +of the world,--and then his unfaltering memory of the simple prayer +that had been said for the comfort of the unfortunate little Fabien +Doucet, together with this strange and unexpected announcement of the +child's miraculous cure,--these things rushed over the mind of the good +Bonpre like an overwhelming flood, and confused his brain--strange +half-formed thoughts occurred to him that he dared not express, chief +among which was a vague, a terrifying idea that the young boy beside +him who spoke so sweetly, and almost so commandingly, must surely be an +Angel! Strange legends of the Church began to recur to him;--legends of +old-time when angels had descended to walk with priests in their +monastic seclusion, and instruct them as to the value of time, as in +the "Legend Beautiful," when the monk Felix, being perplexed by the +phrase "a day with God is as a thousand years," went to sleep in a +garden, soothed by the singing of the birds at sunset, and woke up to +find that in his slumber a century had rolled away! All manner of +fantastic notions swept in upon him, and he grew suddenly blind and +dizzy--rising from his chair totteringly he extended his hands--then +suddenly sank back again in a dead faint. Sovrani caught him as he +fell--and Angela ran for water, and tenderly bathed his forehead while +Manuel took his hand and held it fast. + +"Too long a journey, and too much excitement!" said the Prince,--"Our +Felix is growing old,--he cannot stand fatigue. He is failing fast!" + +"Oh, no," said Manuel brightly, "He is not failing! He is younger by +far than he seems! He is too strong to fail!" + +And as he spoke the Cardinal opened his eyes and smiled with an +expression of perfect rapture. + +"Why, what has ailed me?" he enquired, looking at Angela's anxious +face, "I had but gone for a moment into the presence of my Lord!" Here +he paused, and then gradually recovering himself entirely, sat upright. + +"All is well with me!" he said, pressing the hand of Manuel in his own, +and releasing it again, "Do not fret, Angela,--it was the merest +passing faintness. Forgive me, brother, for alarming you thus +foolishly! As for the letter from the Vatican concerning this miracle, +I must needs present myself before His Holiness and assure him that I +know nothing of it,--that I did no more than pray--that I left the +crippled child still crippled--and that if indeed it be true he is +healed, it is by the merciful act of God and--the intervention of our +Lord and Saviour Christ, to Whom be all the praise and glory!" + +He rose up again from his chair and stood full height,--a grand and +beautiful figure of noble old age, transfigured by the light of some +never-aging thought, some glorious inspiration. And Angela, who had +been startled and alarmed by his sudden fainting fit, was even more +overcome by the sight of him thus radiant and selfpossessed, and +dropping on her knees she caught his hand and kissed it, her tears +falling fast. He stooped and raised her. + +"Child, why are you weeping?" he said tenderly, "Nay, I am not so ill +as you think me! I am well--strong!--ready for the doing of many things +in my Master's service! Pietro, take this dear girl and comfort her!" +and he put her gently into her father's arms,--"For myself, I have work +to do--work to do!--" he repeated musingly,--"I see trouble ahead!--but +I shall face it--and if God please--overcome it!" His, eyes flashed, +and after a moment he resumed, "I will write to Gherardi now--and +to-morrow--to-morrow I will speak!" + +"Can I help you, brother?" asked the Prince, taken out of himself by +the air of splendour and sovereignty which seemed to surround the +Cardinal as with a divine halo, "You are fatigued with your +journey,--let me write for you!" + +"No, Pietro! I must do this myself, and think well of all I should +say." He paused, then added, "They tell me Claude Cazeau, secretary to +the Archbishop of Rouen brought the news of this so-called miracle to +Rome. I should have liked to have seen that man to-night." + +"You will see him at the Vatican," said Sovrani. with a touch of irony, +"That will be time enough! Oh, innocent Felix! Do you not see you will +be confronted with Cazeau? And that Gherardi and his set will be there +to note your every look and gesture, and privately judge as to whether +you and the Archbishop of Rouen concocted the miracle between you! And +that if you were to see this Cazeau to-night, that very meeting would +be taken as a sign of conspiracy!" + +Over the pale features of the Cardinal rushed a warm glow of +indignation, but it died away as rapidly as it had come. + +"True!" he said simply, "I forgot! If a good deed is done in the world +by the force of the undefined Spirit of Christ, it is judged as +trickery,--and we must never forget that even the Resurrection of our +Blessed Lord from the dead is believed by some to be a mere matter of +conspiracy among His disciples. True--I forgot the blindness,--the +melancholy blindness of the world! But we must always say, 'Father +forgive them, for they know not what they do!' I will write to +Gherardi,--and,--if you will permit me, I will remain in my own rooms +tonight for I must think and pray,--I must be alone . . ." + +"Without me, my lord Cardinal?" asked Manuel softly. + +"No, not without you!" and Bonpre looked at him with a smile, "Not +without you! I have no wish to be so much alone as your absence would +make me. Come!" + +And lifting the heavy velvet portiere at the door, he held it back for +his "foundling" to pass,--and then slowly followed. + + + + +XX. + +On the first floor of an ancient mansion, in a street which slopes down +towards the Tiber, there is a suite of dreary old rooms which must +evidently have once belonged to some great "Prince of the Church", (to +use the term which Cardinal Bonpre held so much in aversion,) if one +may form any opinion from the ecclesiastical designs on the faded green +hangings, which cling like moss to the damp walls, and give an +additional melancholy to the general gloom The "salon" or +audience-chamber is perhaps the best in repair, and possesses a +gorgeous, painted ceiling, bordered by a frieze of red and gold, +together with one or two large pictures, which perhaps if cleaned might +show the touch of some great Master, but which in their sad condition +of long neglect, present nothing to the view but a dark blur of +indistinct outlines. The rooms in their entirety composed the business, +or town dwelling of Monsignor Gherardi, one of the cleverest, most +astute, and most unscrupulous of men, to whom Religion was nothing more +than a means of making money and gaining power. There was scarcely a +Roman Catholic "community" in the world, in which Gherardi had not a +share,--and he was particularly concerned in "miraculous shrines", +which were to him exactly in the same category as "companies" are to +the speculator on the Stock Exchange. He had been cautious, prudent, +and calculating from his earliest years,--from the time when, as the +last male scion of the house of Gherardi he had been educated for the +Ecclesiastical career at the "College of Nobles". He had read widely, +and no religious or social movement took place anywhere without his +knowing of it and admitting it into his calculations as a sort of new +figure in his barking sum. He was an extensive shareholder in the +"Lourdes" business; and a careful speculator in all the religious +frenzies of the uneducated and superstitious. His career had been very +successful so far. He had amassed a considerable fortune; and away out +towards Frascati he had a superb Villa, furnished with every modern +luxury and convenience, (not rented in his own name, but in that of a +man whom he paid heavily to serve him as his tool and menial,)--where a +beautiful Neapolitan danseuse condescended to live as his mistress;--he +was a diplomat for himself if not for his country, and kept his finger +on the pulse of European politics as well as on the fluctuating fevers +of new creeds. But he never troubled himself seriously as to the +possible growth of any "movement", or "society", or "crusade"; as +experience had taught him that no matter how ardently thinkers may +propound theories, and enthusiasts support them, there is always a +dense and steady wave of opposition surging against everything +new,--and that few can be found whose patience will hold out +sufficiently long to enable them to meet and ride over that wet wall of +dull resistance. + +Monsignor Gherardi was a most useful man at the Vatican, as he never +failed to comfort the Pope whenever that Holy Personage was cast down +or afraid of brooding disasters. When the Representative of the +ever-merciful Christ ventured to give it out as his Christian opinion +that the unhappy and maltreated Dreyfus would be found guilty Monsignor +Gherardi smilingly agreed with him. When His Holiness denounced +Freemasonry as a wicked association, formed for atheistical and +revolutionary purposes, Gherardi, though he knew well enough that it +was a fraternity formed for the mutual help and sustainment of its +members, denounced it too;--in the gardens of the Vatican, but not +elsewhere. There was nothing really either in the way of Freemasonry or +other sort of "society", that he was afraid of;--no anxiety whatever +troubled his mind, except the possibility of losing money by some +incautious speculation. In appearance he was an exceedingly handsome +man,--tall, with a fine figure and commanding features,--physical +advantages which greatly helped him to enforce his spiritual authority. +As he sat in his high-backed, gilded chair, turning over papers on his +desk, docketing this and marking that for reference, his dark eyes +sparkling with avidity as he counted up certain dividends obtained from +mysterious shares in "miracle" health resorts, and a smile of +satisfaction playing on the firm, well-shaped curve of his intellectual +but hard mouth, he looked an imposing personage enough, of the very +type to awe the weak and timorous. He was much entertained on this +particular morning,--one might almost say he was greatly amused. Quite +a humorous little comedy was being played at the Vatican,--a +mock-solemn farce, which had the possibility of ending in serious +disaster to the innocent,--and he, as a student of the wily and +treacherous side of human nature, was rather interested in its +development. Cardinal Felix Bonpre, a man living far away in an obscure +cathedral-town of France, where he had become renowned for good works +and saintly living, had now, after many years, come out of his long +voluntary retirement, and had performed a miracle! + +"And very well done too!" murmured Monsignor Gherardi, smiling to +himself, "Well prepared, well thought out, and successfully +accomplished! Our good Felix is much cleverer than I gave him credit +for. First, he wins a renown for good works,--then he starts travelling +toward Rome, the Mother of our Faith,--and on his way to the sacred +city performs a miraculous cure! An excellent move! I see a possibility +of making the Cathedral of Rouen a popular shrine for healing. Yes, +much can be done there! Only I am sorry that Felix has made a little +mistake in Paris--just a little mistake!--in that matter of Vergniaud. +And it is exceedingly unfortunate that the son should turn out to be +Gys Grandit. No wonder the Holy Father is troubled;--no wonder! It is a +little drama of the age, and will no doubt prove complex in its +movement, and worth watching." Here his smile broadened,--and his eyes +glittered more keenly than ever "Yes!--it will be an excitement; and +one wants a little excitement now and then in the general monotony. +Since Agostino preached,--" here he paused, and a dark contraction +knitted his brows,--"Let me see!--this morning, yes!--this morning I +receive the English socialist Aubrey Leigh." + +He turned in his chair, and glanced at the dial of a huge ticking clock +behind him, and saw that the hands were close on the appointed hour of +eleven. His smile slowly disappeared, and vanished altogether in a +heavy frown. "A dangerous man! I do not like his book--it is written in +melodramatic style, with heat and with enthusiasm, and will attract the +vulgar. He must be suppressed--but how?" + +He rose and paced the room slowly, his long white hands clasped behind +his back, and the frown on his brows deepened;--how suppress a man who +had announced himself as free of every Church and Creed, and who was +resolved to stand by the moral ethics of Christ only? A man who desired +nothing for himself, not even money;--"But stop!" thought +Gherardi,--"that is absurd! Every man wants money! Every man must have +it, and the more he has, the more he seeks. There is no one in the +world who cannot be bought or bribed!" + +At that moment the green hangings of the door were lifted, and the +Italian man-servant announced,-- + +"Il Signor Aubri Lee!" + +Gherardi, who in his pacing to and fro had reached the window, wheeled +round abruptly and faced his entering visitor. The light fell aslant +upon his stately figure as he drew himself up to his full height, and +greeted Leigh with a suavely condescending bow and smile, while Aubrey +in turn glanced him up and down with a pleasurable consciousness of his +intellectual appearance, and evident combative temperament. + +"You are welcome, Mr. Leigh," said Gherardi, speaking English with a +fluency of which he was pardonably proud, "Your letter from Florence +received my instant attention, and as you see, I have made it a point +to receive you at once--in spite of pressing business. Yes,--in spite +of pressing business! I confess I have been curious to see the writer +who has made himself so obnoxious to our dear friends and brothers, the +English clergy!" + +A smile that was brilliant, but which conveyed no meaning whatever, +illumined his features; but for all reply to these words Aubrey simply +bowed and remained silent. Gherardi glanced at him sharply. Was he +intimidated already?--overawed at being in the presence of one who was +known to be a friend and confidant of the Pope? No--there was nothing +of fear or embarrassment in the composed attitude, proud manner, and +reserved expression of this slim, muscular man, with the bright hair +and keen eyes,--and Gherardi dropped his tone of patronage for one of +courtesy. + +"Pray sit down!" he said, "I understand that you wish to obtain a +private audience of the Holy Father. That of course is impossible!" + +Aubrey drew a chair slowly towards the desk where Gherardi had resumed +his own usual seat, and raised his eyes with a curious look of half +satirical questioning. + +"Impossible!" he said, "And why?" + +Gherardi almost laughed. + +"Why? My dear sir, is it necessary to ask? Your name is sufficiently +well-known! and--I am sorry to tell you so,--but it is quite as +unpleasant at the Vatican as that of Gys Grandit!" + +"Gys Grandit is a friend of mine," responded Aubrey composedly, "In +fact, I may almost say he is my disciple. I found him working in the +fields as a little peasant lad,--the love child, or 'bastard,' to put +it roughly, of some priest whose name he never told me. He was helping +to earn daily bread for his deserted mother whose maiden name he then +bore; and I helped to train his evident genius in the way it has since +developed." + +"I cannot congratulate you on your pupil!" said Gherardi, smiling +coldly, "The offspring of a priest's sin is not likely to do the world +any credit. The son of the renegade Abbe Vergniaud may become +notorious, but never famous!" + +Aubrey Leigh started up from his chair doubting whether he had heard +aright. + +"The son of Abbe Vergniaud!" he exclaimed, "Is it possible! No, you +must surely be mistaken!--I know the Abbe,--I saw him in Paris but a +fortnight ago!" + +"Indeed! Well, since that time strange things have happened," said +Gherardi, still preserving his calm inscrutability of demeanour, "We +have had our news from Monsignor Moretti, an envoy of ours in Paris, on +secret service. To put it briefly,--Vergniaud, for no particular cause +whatever, save perhaps the idea--(which may be only an idea)--that he +is going to die soon, has made a public confession of his +twenty-five-year-old crime and hypocrisy, in a blasphemous address +preached from the pulpit of Notre Dame de Lorette. The son, known to +the world as Gys Grandit, was present in the church, and fired a pistol +shot at his father, hoping to murder him,--then came the theatrical +denouement of the whole scene;--the Abbe ordered the gendarmes to +release the assassin, pronouncing him to be his son. And finally--the +saddest incident of all--there took place the mutual pardon and +reconciliation of both parties in the presence of one of our most +respected and beloved Princes of the Church, Cardinal Felix Bonpre, +whose grave error in this matter is causing poignant and loving sorrow +to the Holy Father!" + +A curious expression began to appear in the delicate lines of Aubrey's +face--an expression which some of his London audiences knew so well, +and which generally meant war. + +"You surprise me, Monsignor," he said in quiet accents,--"Events move +quickly, I know, in a quickly moving age,--still your news is entirely +unexpected. I never knew till now who the father of my friend Gys +Grandit was;--but now that I do know I think the public confession you +tell me of, was the only fitting reparation such a man as the Abbe +could make to the dead woman who was his wife in the sight of God, as +well as to his living son, and the public generally. I never quite +liked or trusted the Abbe; but if all this be true, he has risen a +hundred per cent, in my opinion! As for Cardinal Bonpre, one of the +noblest and purest of men, you surely cannot be in earnest when you +speak of his having committed a grave error!" + +"You know the Cardinal?" asked Gherardi evading the question. + +"I was presented to him in Paris the day before I left for Florence," +replied Aubrey, "at the studio of his niece, Donna Angela Sovrani." + +"Ah!" and Gherardi balanced a paper-knife lightly on the point of his +long forefinger, "An unpleasant woman that! One of the female +'geniuses' who presume nowadays to compete with men in art and +literature." + +"In Donna Sovrani's case there can be no question of competition," +answered Leigh quietly, "She is by far and away the best artist of her +time." + +"You think so? Very good, very good!" and Gherardi laughed a little, +"You are very chivalrous! You have a touch of the American in you, have +you not?--there is a tendency in the men of the New World to be always +on their knees before women. Strange, very strange!" + +"We begin our lives in that way," replied Leigh, "We kneel to our +mothers!" + +A slight flush reddened Gherardi's yellow paleness, but he kept his +smile well in evidence. + +"Charmingly expressed--very charmingly!" he said suavely, "And so you +have met our dear St. Felix! Well, well! And did he tell you all about +the wonderful miracle he performed at Rouen?" + +A cloud of surprise intermingled with contempt darkened Leigh's +intellectual brows. + +"Never!" he said emphatically, "I should not have thought so much of +him if he had laid any claim to such a pretence!" + +Gherardi laughed again softly. + +"What a pity," he observed, "What a pity you clever heretics are so +violent! You think the power of the Church is a decaying one, and that +our Lord has ceased to supply its ministers with the Spirit of Grace +and the powers of healing? But this is where you are mistaken! The +Church--the Roman Church--remains as it always was and always will be; +impregnable!--the source of inspiration, the seat of miracle, the only +clue and road to everlasting life! And as for its power--" here he +closed his hand and dropped it on the table with a silent force which +was strangely expressive, "its power is immeasurable! It reaches out in +every direction--it grasps--it holds,--it keeps! Why will you and your +co-workers 'kick' like St. Paul 'against the pricks'? It is quite +useless! The Church is too strong for any one of you--aye, and for any +army of you! Do you not hear the divine Voice from heaven calling daily +in your ears, 'Why persecutest thou Me?'" + +"Yes," answered Aubrey deliberately, "I hear that every time I enter a +church! I hear it every time I see an ordained priest or minister of +the Gospel misusing his time in construing to his own purposes the +classic simplicity of Christ's doctrine. In some places of worship, +such as the tawdry church of the 'Annunziata' in Florence that protest +seems to reach its climax. When one sees the unwashen priests +expectorating every five minutes or so [Footnote: A fact] on the very +altars where they perform Mass;--when one notes the dirt, the neglect, +the gim-crackery;--the sickening and barbarous superstition everywhere +offered as being representative of sublime Deity,--the Force which has +raised the heaven above us with its endless star-patterns of living +universe,--then the cry of 'Why persecutest thou Me?' seems to roll +through the arches like the thunder which sometimes precedes a general +earthquake!" + +Leigh's clear penetrating voice, artistically modulated to the +perfectly musical expression of thought, was not without its usual +effect, even on a mind so callous as that of Gherardi. He moved +uneasily in his chair,--he was inwardly fuming with indignation, and +for one moment was inclined to assume the melodramatic pose of the +irate Churchman, and to make himself into the figure of an approved +"stage" dignitary of religion, with out stretched arm, menacing eyes, +and words that were as darts to wound and sting. But looking under his +eye lids at the cold, half satirical tranquillity of Aubrey's pale +clear-cut features, he felt that any attempt at "acting" his part would +be seen through in a second by a man who was so terribly in earnest. So +with a benevolent and regretful air, he said, + +"Yes!--no doubt things appear to you as they do not appear to us. The +spirit of faith enables us to see through all unsatisfactory outward +forms and ceremonies, to the actual divine mysteries which they +symbolise;--and heretics perceive incongruities, where we, by the grace +of God, see nothing but harmony! And though you, Mr. Leigh, receive the +information with incredulity and a somewhat blameable indifference, it +is a matter of rejoicing to us that Cardinal Bonpre has performed this +miracle of healing at Rouen. It would have raised him to a very high +place indeed in the Holy Father's estimation, had it not been for the +strange mistake he has unfortunately made with respect to the Abbe +Vergniaud." + +"One may cure a sick person then, but one must not pardon a sinner?" +suggested Aubrey, "'For whether is it easier to say, Thy sins be +forgiven thee;' or 'Arise and walk?' The one is considered a +miracle;--the other a mistake!" + +Gherardi's cold eyes glittered. + +"We will not go into the technicalities of the question," he said +frigidly, "We will return to the point from whence we diverged. Your +wish expressed in this letter," and he drew one from a packet on the +table and glanced it over in a business-like way, "was to obtain a +private audience from the Pope. I repeat that to a mere civilian and +socialistic writer like yourself, that is impossible!" + +Aubrey sat unmoved. + +"I suppose if I were a prince of the blood-royal I should not be +refused an audience?" he said. + +Gherardi's thick dark eyebrows went up with a movement of surprise at +such an irrational remark. + +"That would make a difference certainly," he answered smiling, "The +claims of diplomacy have to be considered!" + +"If a prince of the blood-royal whose private life was a scandal to the +world"--went on Aubrey, "who was guilty of every vice known in the +calendar,--who was neither intelligent nor sympathetic,--whose whole +career was one of self and self-indulgence,--I say if he were to seek a +private audience of the man who is declared to be the representative of +Christ in Christendom, he would obtain it! On the other hand, if a man +who had denied himself every personal gratification, and had sacrificed +his whole life in working for his fellow men, and to the following of +the teachings of the Gospel as far as it was possible,--but who yet had +got no further in world's wealth than to be earning from his writings a +few hundreds a year, he could NOT be received! Monsignor, this may be +diplomacy, but it is not Christianity!" + +"I cannot enter into these matters with you--" began Gherardi +impatiently. + +"No, you cannot, because you dare not!" said Aubrey boldly. "Man, you +are not a Christian! Why pretend to be one? Is it not time you left off +feigning what you do not feel? Is it not preposterous that you, at your +years, should consent to make your life a lie in the face of +Omnipresent Deity?" + +Gherardi rose up pale and trembling. + +"Mr. Leigh, if you have come here to insult me--" + +"Insult you!" echoed Aubrey, "Not I! I would make a man of you if I +could,--but that is too late! You are a witness of imposture and a +supporter of it,--and we are none of us worthy to be called men if we +do either of these two things. You know as well as I do, that there is +no representative of the blameless Christ at the Vatican,--you know +there is only a poor weak old man, whose mind is swayed by the crafty +counsels of the self-seeking flatterers around him, and who passes his +leisure hours in counting up money, and inventing new means of gaining +it through forms of things that should be spiritual and divine. If you +BELIEVE Christ was God Incarnate, how dare you tamper with such a +Supernal Mystery?" + +Gherardi turned his head slowly and looked round at Aubrey,--then +recovering his composure, sat down and pretended to turn over some +documents on the table, but Aubrey went on undeterred by his aspect of +frigidity, "How dare you, I say? The God in Man! Do you realize the +stupendous meaning of such a phrase? Do you not see that it means A +DIVINE LIFE PALPITATING THROUGH EVERY ATOM OF CREATION? A Force so +great, so pure and majestic, so absolute in Its working for good, and +yet so deliberate in Its movements that It will give Its creature Man +whole centuries of chance to find and save his own soul before utterly +destroying him? What has this sublime Power in common with the Pope, +who shuts himself up in his palace, a voluntary prisoner, all forsooth +because he is denied temporal power! Temporal power! What is temporal +power compared to spiritual power! If he were the true representative +of Christ he would move the world by deeds of benevolence, goodness, +and sanctity! In such a case as that of the unhappy Dreyfus for +instance, he would have issued a solemn warning and earnest reproach to +the French nation for their misguided cruelty;--he would have travelled +himself to Rennes to use his personal influence in obtaining an +innocent man's release with honour! That would have been Christian! +That would have been a magnificent example to the world! But what did +he do? Shut comfortably up in his luxurious palace where no harm could +touch him, where no crucifixion of the heart or soul could torture him, +he announced to his myrmidons his opinion that the wretched martyr +would be found guilty! And who can tell but that his utterance thus +unchristianly proclaimed did not help to sway the minds of the Rennes +Court-martial? Again, why are there so many poor in Italy? If the Pope +were the father indeed of those who are immediately around him, the +land should be like the fabled Paradise, flowing with milk and honey. +The Vatican is full of money and jewels. 'Sell half that thou hast and +give to the poor,' was the command of Christ.--Does the Pope do that? +Why does he not go out among the people and work in active sympathy +with them? Christ did so! Christ was never borne with solemn flourish +of trumpets like a mummy in a chair, under canopies of cloth of gold, +to give a blessing to a crowd who had got admission to see him by paid +ticket! Man, man! The theatrical jugglery of Rome is a blasphemy in the +sight of heaven;--and most truly did St. John declare this city, +throned on its seven hills, to be, 'MYSTERY, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND +ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.' And most clearly does God say at this +period of our time, 'Come out of her My people, that ye be not +partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her +sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities!' +The days of evil are drawing to an end; Rome must fall!" + +Gherardi's breath came and went quickly,--but he kept up the outward +appearance of cold composure. + +"You rant very well, Mr. Leigh!" he said, "You would make an excellent +Hyde Park orator! You have all the qualities which attract the vulgar; +but we--we of the Church know quite well how to deal with men of your +class,--their denunciations do not affect us at all. They amuse us +occasionally; and sometimes they pain us, for naturally we grieve for +the backslidings of refractory brethren. We regret the clamourings of +ignorance which arise from a strong personal desire for notoriety. That +passage in the Revelation of St. John, has been quoted scores of times +as being applicable to Rome, though as a matter of fact it distinctly +mentions Babylon." Here he smiled suavely. "And thanks to the workings +of an All-wise Influence, Rome was never more powerful than she is at +the present moment. Her ramifications are everywhere; and in England +she has obtained a firm footing. Your good English Queen has never +uttered one word of reproach against the spread of our Holy Religion +among her subjects! Our prayers for the conversion of England will yet +be granted!" + +"Not while I live!" said Aubrey firmly, "Not while I can hold back but +a handful from such a disaster, and that handful shall hold back yet +another handful! The hand of Roman priestcraft shall never weigh on +England while there are any honest men left in it! The conversion of +England! The retrogression of England! Do you think such a thing is +likely to happen because a few misguided clerics choose to appeal to +the silly sentimentality of hysterical women with such church tricks +and rags of paganism as incense and candles! Bah! Do not judge the +English inward heart by its small outward follies, Monsignor! There are +more honest, brave, and sensible folk in the British Islands than you +think. And though our foreign foes desire our fall, the seed of THEIR +decay is not yet in us!" + + + + +XXI. + +Gherardi sat for two or three minutes in absolute silence. Only the +twitching of his eyelids and a slight throbbing in the muscles of his +throat showed with what difficulty he suppressed his rising fury. But +his astute and crafty powers of reasoning taught him that it would be +worse than ridiculous to give way to anger in the presence of this +cool, determined man, who, though he spoke with a passion which from +its very force seemed almost to sound like "the mighty wind" which +accompanied the cloven tongues of fire at the first Pentecost, still +maintained his personal calm,--that immovable calmness which is always +the result of strong inward conviction. A dangerous man!--yes, there +was no doubt of that! He was one of those concerning whom Emerson +wrote, "let the world beware when a Thinker comes into it." Aubrey +Leigh was a thinker,--and more than that, he was a doer. He was of the +strong heroic type of genius that turns its dreams into facts, its +thoughts into deeds. He did not talk, in common with so many men, of +what they considered OUGHT to be done, without exerting themselves to +DO it;--he was sincerely in earnest, and cared nothing for any personal +loss or inconvenience he might suffer from carrying out his intentions. +And Gherardi saw that there was little or no possibility of moving such +a man from the firm ground of truth which he had elected to stand on. +There is nothing so inconvenient in this world as an absolutely +truthful person, who can both speak and write, and has the courage of +his convictions. One can always arrange matters with liars, because +they, being hampered by their own deceits, are compelled to study ways, +means, and chances for appearing honest. But with the man or woman who +holds truth dearer than life, and honour more valuable than +advancement, there is nothing to be done, now that governments cannot +insist on the hemlock-cure, as in the case of Socrates. Gherardi, +looking furtively under his eyelids at Leigh's strong lithe figure, and +classic head, felt he could have willingly poisoned or stabbed him. For +there were, and ARE great interests at stake in the so-called +"conversion of England,"--it is truly one of the largest financial +schemes ever set afloat in the world, if those whose duty it is to +influence and control events could only be brought to see the practical +side of the matter, and set a check on its advancement before it is too +late. Gherardi knew what great opportunities there were in embryo of +making large fortunes;--and not only of making large fortunes but of +obtaining incredible power. There was a great plan afoot of drawing +American and English wealth into the big Church-net through the medium +of superstitious fear and sentimental bigotry,--and an opposer and +enemy like Aubrey Leigh, physically handsome, with such powers of +oratory as are only granted to the very few, was capable of influencing +women as well as men--and women, as Gherardi well recognised, are the +chief supporters of the Papal system. Uneasily he thought of a certain +wealthy American heiress whom he had persuaded into thinking herself +specially favoured and watched over by the Virgin Mary, and who, +overcome by the strong imaginary consciousness of this heavenly +protection, had signed away in her will a million of pounds sterling to +a particular "shrine" in which he had the largest share of financial +profit. Now, suppose she should chance to come within the radius of +Leigh's attractive personality and teaching, and revoke this bequest? +Deeply incensed he sat considering, yet he was conscious enough of his +own impotency to persuade or move this man a jot. + +"I am very sorry," he said at last without raising his eyes, and +carefully preserving an equable and mild tone of voice, "I am sorry you +are so harsh in your judgments, Mr. Leigh;--and still more sorry that +you appear to be bent on opposing the Roman Catholic movement in +England. I will do you the justice to believe that you are moved by a +sincere though erroneous conviction,--and it is out of pure kindness +and interest in you that I warn you how useless you will find the task +in which you have engaged. The force of Rome is impregnable!--the +interpretation of the Gospel by the Pope infallible. Any man, no matter +how gifted with eloquence, or moved by what he imagines to be +truth-(and alas! how often error is mistaken for truth and truth for +error!)--must be crushed in the endeavour to cope with such a divinely +ordained power." + +"The Car of Juggernaut was considered to be divinely ordained," said +Aubrey, "And the wretched and ignorant populace flung themselves under +it in the fit of hysterical mania to which they were excited by the +priests of the god, and so perished in their thousands. Not THEY were +to blame; but the men who invented the imposture and encouraged the +slaughter. THEY had an ideal;--the priests had none! But Juggernaut had +its end--and so will Rome!" + +"You call yourself a Christian?" asked Gherardi, with a touch of +derision. + +"Most assuredly I do," replied Aubrey, "Most assuredly I am! I love and +honour Christ with every fibre of my being. I long to see that Divine +Splendour of the ages stand out white and shining and free from the mud +and slime with which His priests have bespattered Him. I believe in Him +absolutely! But I can find nowhere in His Gospel that He wished us to +turn Religion into a sort of stock-jobbing company managed by +sacerdotal directors in Rome!" + +"What do you know about the 'sacerdotal directors' as you call them, of +Rome?" asked Gherardi slowly, his eyes narrowing at the corners, and +his whole countenance expressing ineffable disdain, "Do you think we +give out the complex and necessary workings of our sacred business to +the uneducated public?" + +"No, I do not," replied Aubrey, "For you keep the public in the dark as +much as you can. Your methods of action are precisely those of the +priests of ancient Egypt, who juggled with what they were pleased to +call their sacred 'mysteries' in precisely the same way as you do. Race +copies race. Roman Christianity is grafted upon Roman Paganism. When +the Apostles were all dead, and their successors (who had never been in +personal touch with Christ) came on to the scene of action, they +discovered that the people of Rome would not do without the worship of +woman in their creed, so they cleverly substituted the Virgin Mary for +Venus and Diana. They turned the statues of gods and heroes into +figures of Apostles and Saints. They knew it would be unwise to deprive +the populace of what they had been so long accustomed to, and therefore +they left them their swinging censers, their gold chalices, and their +symbolic candles. Thus it is that Roman Catholicism became, and is +still, merely a Christian form of Paganism which is made to pay +successfully, just as the feasts and Saturnalia of ancient days were +made to pay as spectacular and theatrical pastimes. I should not blame +your Church if it declared itself to be an offshoot of Paganism at +once,--Paganism, or any other form of faith, deserves respect as long +as its priests and followers are sincere; but when their belief is a +mere pretence, and their system degenerates into a scheme of making +money out of the fond faiths of the ignorant, then I consider it is +time to protest against such blasphemy in the presence of God and all +things divine and spiritual!" + +Gherardi had listened to these words very quietly, his countenance +gradually relaxing and smoothing into an amiable expression of +forbearance. He looked up now at Aubrey with a smile that was almost +benignant. + +"You are quite right, Mr. Leigh!" he said gently, "I begin to +understand you now! I see that you have studied deeply, and you have +thought still more. If you will continue your studies and your thinking +also, you will see how difficult it is for us to move as rapidly with +the times as you would have us do. You must remember that it would be +quite possible for Holy Mother Church to rise at once to the high +scientific and psychical position you wish her to adopt, if it were not +for the mass of the ignorant, with whom one must have patience! You are +a man in the prime of life--you are zealous--eager for +improvement,--yes!--all that is very admirable and praiseworthy. But +you forget the numerous and widely differing interests with which we of +the Church have to deal. For the great majority of persons it would be +useless, for example, to give them lessons on the majesty of God's work +in the science of Astronomy. They would be confused, bewildered, and +more or less frightened out of faith altogether. They must have +something tangible to cling to--for instance,"--and he pressed the tips +of his fingers delicately together, "there are grades of intelligence +just as there are grades of creation; you cannot instruct a caterpillar +as you instruct a man. Now there are many human beings who are of the +caterpillar quality of brain--what are you to do with them? They would +not understand God as manifested in the solar system, but they would +try to please some favourite Saint by good conduct. Is it not better +that they should believe in the Saint than in nothing?" + +"I cannot think it well for anyone to believe in a lie," said Aubrey +slowly, taken aback despite himself by Gherardi's sudden gentleness, +"There is a magnificent simplicity in truth;--truth which, the more it +is tested, the truer it proves. Where is there any necessity of +falsehood? Surely the marvels of nature could be explained with as much +ease as the supposed miracles of a Saint?" + +"I doubt it!" answered Gherardi smiling, "You must admit, my dear sir, +that our scientific men are a great deal too abstruse for the +majority;--in some cases they are almost too abstruse for themselves! +You spoke just now of the priests of Egypt;--the oracles of Memphis +were clear reading compared to the involved sentences of some of our +modern scientists! Scientific books are hard nuts to crack even for the +highly educated; but for the uneducated, believe me, the personality of +a Saint is much more consoling than the movements of a star. Besides, +Humanity must have something human to love and to revere. The infinite +gradations of the Mind of God through Matter, appeal to none but those +of the very highest intellectual capability." + +Aubrey was silent a moment, then he said, + +"But even the most ignorant can understand Christ,--Christ as He +revealed Himself to the world in perfect beauty and simplicity as 'a +Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.' There needs no Vatican, no +idolatry of the Pope, no superstitious images, no shrines of healing +and reliquaries to explain His sublime intention!" + +"I am afraid, Mr. Leigh, you entertain a very optimistic view of +mankind," said Gherardi, "Unfortunately Christ is not enough for many +people. Christ was an Incarnation of God, and though He became Man he +'knew not sin.' He therefore stands apart; an Example, but not a +Companion. There are a certain class of sinners who like to think of +Saints;--human beings constituted like themselves, who have committed +errors, even crimes, and repented of them. This is a similar spirit to +that of the child who catches hold of any convenient support he can +find to guide his first tottering steps across the floor to his +mother,-the Saint helps the feeble-footed folk to totter their way +towards Christ. I assure you, our Church considers everything that is +necessary for the welfare of its weakest brethren." + +"Yes,--I grant you that it is full of subtle means for approaching and +commanding the ignorant," said Aubrey. "But to the intellectual forces +it offers no progress." + +"The intellectual forces can clear their own way!" declared Gherardi, +rising to his full imposing height, and beaming sovereign benevolence +on his visitor, "and can, if they choose, make their own Church. This +is the age of freedom, and no restraint is placed on the action of the +intellectually free. But the ignorant must always form the majority; +and in their ignorance and helplessness, will do wisely to remain like +obedient children under the sway of Rome!" + +Aubrey rose also, and could not forbear an involuntary glance of +reluctant admiration at the stately figure and commanding attitude of +the man who confronted him with such a pride in the persistent +Jesuitical conviction that even a Lie may be used in religion for the +furtherance of conversion to the Truth. + +"I do not see," Gherardi went on, smiling blandly, "why after all, you +should not be received by the Holy Father. I will try to arrange it for +you. But it would avail you very little, I imagine, as he is not +strong, and would not be capable of conversing with you for more than a +few minutes. I think it would serve your purpose much more to carefully +study the movements, and the work of what you call 'the stock-jobbing +company of sacerdotal directors,'" and here his smile became still more +broadly benevolent, "and take note of their divisions and subdivisions +of influence which extend from the very poorest and most abandoned to +the very highest and most cultured. You will then understand why I +maintain that Rome as a power is impregnable;--and why some of the more +far-sighted and prophetic among us look upon the Conversion of England +as an almost accomplished fact!" + +Aubrey smiled; but he was not without the consciousness that from his +own particular point of view Gherardi had some excuse for his belief. + +"According to your own written opinions," went on Gherardi, "for I have +read your books,--the Church of England is in a bad way. Its +Ritualistic form is very nearly Roman. Some of your Archbishops confess +to a liking for incense! You admit that the stricter forms of +Protestantism do not comfort the sick soul in times of need; well, what +would you Socialists and Freethinkers have? Would you do without a +Church altogether?" + +"No," said Aubrey quickly, "But we would have a purified Church,--a +House of Praise to God--without any superstition or dogma." + +"You must have dogma," said Gherardi complacently, "You must formulate +something out of a chaos of opinion. As for superstition, you will +never get rid of that weakness out of the human composition. If the +Church gives nothing for this particular mood of man to feed on, man +will invent something else OUTSIDE the Church. My dear sir, we have +thought of all these difficulties for ages! In religion one cannot +appeal solely to the intellect. One must touch the heart--the emotions. +Music, painting, colour, spectacle, all these are permitted us to use +for the good purpose of lifting the soul of a sinner to contemplate +something better than himself. Women and little children enter the +Church as well as men,--would you have THEM find no comfort? Must a +woman with a broken heart take her sorrows to the vast Silence of an +unreasonable God among universes of star systems? Or shall she find +hope, and a gleam of comfort in a prayer to a woman of the same clay as +herself in the person of the Virgin Mary? And remember, there is +something very beautiful in the symbol of the Virgin as applied to +womanhood! The Mother of God! Does it not suggest to your poetical mind +that woman is destined always to be the Mother of the God?--that is, +mother of the perfect man when that desirable consummation shall be +accomplished?" + +"I have never doubted it.'" said Aubrey, "The Mother of Christ is to me +a symbol of womanhood for all time!" Gherardi smiled. + +"Good! Then in spite of your denunciations you come very near to our +faith'" + +"I never denied the beauty, romance, or mysticism of the Roman Catholic +Faith," said Aubrey, "If it were purified from the accumulated +superstition of ages, and freed from intolerance and bigotry, it would +perhaps be the grandest form of Christianity in the world. But the rats +are in the house, and the rooms want cleaning!" + +"In every house there are those rats--in every room there is dirt!" +said Gherardi, "Presuming that you speak in a moral sense. What of your +Houses of Parliament? What of the French Senate? What of the Reichstag? +What of the Russian Autocracy?--the American Republic? In every quarter +the rats squeal, and the dirt gathers! The Church of Rome is purity +itself compared to your temporal governments! My dear sir," and +approaching, he laid a kindly hand on Aubrey's arm, "I would not be +harsh with you for the world! I understand your nature perfectly. It is +full of enthusiasm and zeal for righteousness,--your heart warms to the +sorrows of the human race,--you would lift up the whole world to God's +footstool; you would console--you would be a benefactor--you would +elevate, purify, rejuvenate, inspire! Yes! This is a grand mood--one +which has fired many a would-be reformer before you,--but you forget! +It is not the Church against which you should arm yourself--it is the +human race! It is not one or many religious systems with which you +should set yourself to contend--it is the blind brutishness of +humanity!" As he spoke, his tall form appeared to tower to an even +greater height,--his eyes flashed, and the intellectual pride and force +of his character became apparent in every feature of his face. "If +humanity in the mass asked us for Christ only; if men and women would +deny themselves the petty personal aim, the low vice, the crawling +desire to ingratiate themselves with Heaven, the Pharisaical +affectation of virtue--if they would themselves stand clear of 'vain +repetition' and obstinate egoism, and would of themselves live purely, +the Church would be pure! May I venture to suggest to you that men make +the Church, not the Church the men? We try to supply the spiritual +needs of the human being, such as his spiritual needs at present +are,--when he demands more we will give him more. At present his needs +are purely personal, and therefore low and tainted with +sensuality,--yet we drag him along through these emotions as near to +the blameless Christ as we can. When he is impersonal enough, unselfish +enough, loyal-hearted enough, to stand face to face with the glorious +manifestation of the Deity unaided, we can cast away his props, such as +superstitious observances, Saints and the like, and leave him,--but +then the Millennium will have come, and there will be new heavens and a +new earth!" + +He spoke well, with force and fervour, and Aubrey Leigh was for a +moment impressed. After a slight pause however, he said, + +"You admit the ignorance of human beings, and yet--you would keep them +ignorant?" + +"Keep them ignorant!" Gherardi laughed lightly. "That is more than any +of us can do nowadays! Every liberty is afforded them to learn,--and if +they still remain barbarous it is because they elect to be so. But OUR +duty is to look after the ignorant more than the cultured! Quite true +it is that the Pope lost a magnificent opportunity in the Dreyfus +affair,--if he had spoken in favour of mercy and justice he would have +won thousands of followers; being silent he has lost thousands. But +this should be a great satisfaction to you, Mr. Leigh! For if the Holy +Father had given an example to the Catholic clergy to act in the true +Christian spirit towards Dreyfus, the Conversion of England might have +been so grafted on enthusiastic impulse as to be a much nearer +possibility than it is now!" + +Aubrey was silent. + +"Now, Mr. Leigh, I think you have gained sufficient insight into my +views to judge me with perhaps greater favour than you were inclined to +do at the beginning of our interview," continued Gherardi, "I assure +you that I shall watch your career with the greatest interest! You have +embarked in a most hopeless cause,--you will try to help the helpless, +and as soon as they are rescued out of trouble, they will turn and rend +you,--you will try to teach them the inner mysteries of God's working, +and they will say you are possessed of a devil! You will endeavour to +upset shams and hypocrisies, and the men of your press will write you +down and say you are seeking advertisement and notoriety for yourself. +Was there ever a great thinker left unmartyred? Or a great writer that +has not been misunderstood and condemned? You wish to help and serve +humanity! Enthusiast! You would do far better to help and serve the +Church! For the Church rewards; humanity has cursed and killed every +great benefactor it ever had INCLUDING CHRIST!" + +The terrible words beat on Aubrey's ears like the brazen clang of a +tocsin, for he knew they were true. But he held his ground. + +"There are worse things than death," he said simply. + +Gherardi smiled kindly. + +"And there are worse things than life!" he said, + +"Life holds a good many harmless enjoyments, which I am afraid you are +putting away from you in your prime, for the sake of a mere chimera. +But--after all, what does it matter! One must have a hobby! Some men +like horse-racing, others book-collecting,--others pictures,--and so +forth--you like the religious question! Well, no doubt it affords you a +great many opportunities of studying character. I shall be very +happy--" here he extended his hand cordially, "to show you anything +that may be of interest to you in Rome, and to present you to any of +our brethren that may assist you in your researches. I can give you a +letter to Rampolla--" + +Aubrey declined the offered introduction with a decided negative shake +of his head. + +"No," he said, "I know Cardinal Bonpre; that is enough!" + +"But there is a great difference between Rampolla and Bonpre," said +Gherardi, with twinkling eyes, "Bonpre is scarcely ever in Rome. He +lives a life apart--and has for a long while been considered as a kind +of saint from the privacy and austerity of his life. But he has +heralded his arrival in the Eternal City triumphantly--by the +performance of a miracle! What do you say to this?--you who would do +away with things miraculous?" + +"I say nothing till I hear," answered Aubrey, "I must know what the +nature of the so-called miracle is. I am a believer in soul-forces, and +in the exhalation of spiritual qualities affecting or influencing +others: but in this there is no miracle, it is simply natural law." + +"Well, you must interview the Cardinal yourself," said Gherardi +indulgently, "and tell me afterwards what you think about it, if indeed +you think anything. But you will not find him at home this morning. He +is summoned to the Vatican." + +"On account of the miracle?--or the scandal affecting the Abbe +Vergniaud?" asked Aubrey. + +"Both matters are under discussion, I believe," replied Gherardi +evasively, "But they are not in my province. Now, can I be of any +further service to you, Mr. Leigh?" + +"No. I am sorry to have taken up so much of your time," said Aubrey, +"But I think I understand your views--" + +"I hope you do," interrupted Gherardi, "And that you will by and by +grasp the fact that my views are shared by almost everyone holding any +Church authority. But you must go about in Rome, and make enquiries for +yourself . . . now, let me see! Do you know the Princesse D'Agramont?" + +"No." + +"Oh, you must know her,--she is a great friend of Donna Sovrani's, and +a witty and brilliant personage in herself. She is rather of your way +of thinking, and so is out of favour with the Church. But that will not +matter to you; and you will meet all the dissatisfied and enthusiastic +of the earth in her salons! I will tell her to send you a card." + +Aubrey said something by way of formal acknowledgment, and then took +his leave. He was singularly depressed, and his face, always quick to +show traces of thought, had somewhat lost its former expression of +eager animation. The wily Gherardi had for the time so influenced his +sensitive mind as to set it almost to the tune of the most despairing +of Tennyson's "Two Voices", + + "A life of nothings, nothing worth, + From that first nothing ere his birth, + To that last nothing under earth." + +What was the use of trying to expound a truth, if the majority +preferred a lie? + + "Will one bright beam be less intense, + When thy peculiar difference + Is cancelled in the world of sense?" + +And Gherardi noted the indefinable touch of fatigue that gave the +slight droop of the shoulders and air of languor to the otherwise +straight slim figure as it passed from his presence,--and smiled. He +had succeeded in putting a check on unselfish ardour, and had thrown a +doubt into the pure intention of enthusiastic toil. That was enough for +the present. And scarcely had Aubrey crossed the threshold--scarcely +had the echo of his departing footsteps died away--when a heavy velvet +curtain in the apartment was cautiously thrust aside, and Monsignor +Moretti stepped out of a recess behind it, with a dignity and composure +which would have been impossible to any but an Italian priest convicted +of playing the spy. Gherardi faced him confidently. + +"Well?" he said, with a more exhaustive enquiry expressed in his look +than in the simple ejaculation. + +"Well!" echoed Moretti, as he slowly advanced into the centre of the +room, "You have not done as much as I expected you would. Your +arguments were clever, but not--to a man of his obstinacy, convincing." + +And sitting down, he turned his dark face and gleaming eyes full on his +confrere, who with a shrug of his massive shoulders expressed in his +attitude a disdainful relinquishment of the whole business. + +"You have not," pursued Moretti deliberately, "grasped anything like +the extent of this man Leigh's determination and indifference to +results. Please mark that last clause,--indifference to results. He is +apparently alone in the world,--he seems to have nothing to lose, and +no one to care whether he succeeds or fails;--a most dangerous form of +independence! And in his persistence and eloquence he is actually +stopping--yes, I repeat it,--stopping and putting a serious check on +the advancement of the Roman Catholic party. And of course any check +just now means to us a serious financial loss both in England and +America,--a deficit in Vatican revenues which will very gravely +incommode certain necessary measures now under the consideration of His +Holiness. I expected you to grasp the man and hold him,--not by +intimidation but by flattery." + +"You think he is to be caught by so common a bait?" said Gherardi, +"Bah! He would see through it at once!" + +"Maybe!" replied Moretti, "But perhaps not if it were administered in +the way I mean. You seem to have forgotten the chief influence of any +that can be brought to bear upon the heart and mind of a man,--and that +is, Woman." + +Gherardi laughed outright. + +"Upon my word I think it would be difficult to find the woman suited to +this case!" he said. "But you who have a diplomacy deeper than that of +any Jew usurer may possibly have one already in view?" + +"There is now in Rome," pursued Moretti, speaking with the same even +deliberation of accent, "a faithful daughter of the Church, whose +wealth we can to a certain extent command, and whose charm is +unquestionable,--the Comtesse Sylvie Hermenstein--" + +Gherardi started. Moretti eyed him coldly. + +"You are not stricken surely by the childlike fascination with which +this princess of coquettes rules her court?" he enquired sarcastically. + +"I?" echoed Gherardi, shifting his position so that Moretti's gaze +could not fall so directly upon him. "I? You jest!" + +"I think not!" said Moretti, "I think I know something about +women--their capabilities, their passions, their different grades of +power. Sylvie Hermenstein possesses a potent charm which few men can +resist, and I should not wonder if you yourself had been occasionally +conscious of it. She is one of those concerning whom other women say +'they can see nothing in her'. Ah!" and Moretti smiled darkly, "What a +compliment that is from the majority of women to one! This woman Sylvie +is unique. Where is her beauty? You cannot say--yet beauty is her very +essence. She cannot boast perfection of features,--she is frequently +hidden away altogether in a room and scarcely noticed. And so she +reminds me of a certain flower known to the Eastern nations, which is +difficult to find, because so fragile and small that it can scarcely be +seen, but when it is found, and the scent of it unwittingly inhaled, it +drives men mad!" + +Gherardi looked at him with a broadly wondering smile. + +"You speak so eloquently," he said, "that one would almost fancy--" + +"Fancy nothing!" retorted Moretti quickly, "Fancy and I are as far +apart as the poles, except in the putting together of words, in which +easy art I daresay I am as great an adept as Florian Varillo, who can +write verses on love or patriotism to order, without experiencing a +touch of either emotion. What a humbug by the way, that fellow is!--" +and Moretti broke off to consider this new point--"He rants of the +honour of Italy, and would not let his finger ache for her cause! And +he professes to love the 'Sovrani' while all Rome knows that Pon-Pon is +his mistress!" + +Gherardi wisely held his peace. + +"The Comtesse Sylvie Hermenstein is the little magic flower you must +use;" resumed Moretti, emphasising his words with an authoritative +movement of his hand, "Use her to madden Aubrey Leigh. Bring them +together;--he will lose his head as surely as all men do when they come +under the influence of that soft deep-eyed creature, with the full +white breast of a dove, and the smile of an angel,--and remember, it +would be an excellent thing for the Church if he could be persuaded to +marry her,--there would be no more preaching then!--for the thoughts of +love would outweigh the theories of religion." + +"You think it?" queried Gherardi dubiously. + +"I know it!" replied Moretti rising, and preparing to take his +departure, "But,--play the game cautiously! Make no false move. +For--understand me well, this man Leigh must be silenced, or we shall +lose England!" + +And with these last words he turned abruptly on his heel and left the +apartment. + + + + +XXII. + +Cardinal Felix Bonpre sat alone in the largest and loneliest room of +the large and lonely suite of rooms allotted to him in the Palazzo +Sovrani,--alone at a massive writing table near the window, his head +resting on one hand, and his whole figure expressive of the most +profound dejection. In front of him an ancient silver crucifix gleamed +in the flicker of the small wood fire which had been kindled in the +wide cavernous chimney--and a black-bound copy of the Gospels lay open +as if but lately consulted. The faded splendour of certain gold +embroidered hangings on the walls added to the solemn and melancholy +aspect of the apartment, and the figure of the venerable prelate seen +in such darkening gloom and solitude, was the crowning completion of an +expressive and pathetic picture of patient desolation. So might a +martyr of the Inquisition have looked while the flames were getting +ready to burn him for the love of the gentle Saviour; and something of +the temper of such a possible predecessor was in the physically frail +old man, who just now was concentrating all the energies of his mind on +the consideration of a difficult question which is often asked by many +hearts in secret, but is seldom voiced to the public ear;--"Christ or +the Church? Which must I follow to be an honest man?" + +Never had the good Cardinal been in such a strange predicament. Living +away from the great centres of thought and action, he had followed a +gentle and placid course of existence, almost unruffled, save by the +outside murmurs of a growing public discontent which had reached him +through the medium of current literature, and had given him cause to +think uneasily of possible disaster for the religious world in the near +future,--but he had never gone so far as to imagine that the Head of +the Church would, while being perfectly conscious of existing +threatening evils, deliberately turn his back to appeals for +help,--shut his ears to the cry of the "lost sheep of the House of +Israel", and even endeavour, with an impotence of indignation which was +as pitiable as useless, to shake a rod of Twelfth-century menace over +the advancement of the Twentieth! + +"For the onward movement of Humanity is God's work," said the Cardinal, +"And what are we--what is even the Church--when it does not move side +by side in perfect and pure harmony with the order of Divine Law?" + +And he was bitterly troubled in spirit. He had spent the whole morning +at the Vatican, and the manner of his reception there had been so +curiously divided between flattery and reproach that he had not known +what to make of it. The Pope had been tetchy and querulous,--precisely +in such a humour as one naturally expects so aged a man to be when +contradicted on any matter, whether trivial or important. For with such +advanced years the faculties are often as brittle as the bones, and the +failing powers of the brain are often brought to bear with more +concentration on inconsiderable trifles than on the large and important +affairs of life. He had questioned the Cardinal closely concerning the +miraculous cure performed at Rouen, and had become excessively angry +when the honest prelate earnestly disclaimed all knowledge of it. He +had then confronted him with Claude Cazeau, the secretary of the +Archbishop of Rouen, and Cazeau had given a clear and concise account +of the whole matter, stating that the child, Fabien Doucet, had been +known in Rouen since his babyhood as a helpless cripple, and that after +Cardinal Bonpre had prayed over him and laid hands on him, he had been +miraculously cured, and was now to be seen running about the city as +strong and straight as any other healthy child. And Bonpre listened +patiently;--and to all that was said, merely reiterated that if the +child WERE so cured, then it was by the special intervention of God, as +he personally had done no more than pray for his restoration. But to +his infinite amazement and distress he saw plainly that the Holy Father +did not believe him. He saw that he was suspected of playing a +trick,--a trick, which if he had admitted, would have been condoned, +but which if he denied, would cause him to be looked upon with distrust +by all the Vatican party. He saw that even the man Cazeau suspected +him. And then,--when the public confession of the Abbe Vergniaud came +under discussion,--the Pope had gathered together all the visible +remains of physical force his attenuated frame could muster, and had +hurled himself impotently against the wall of opposing fact with such +frail fury as almost to suggest the celebrated simile of "a reed shaken +with the wind". In vain had the Cardinal pleaded for Vergniaud's +pardon; in vain had he urged that after all, the sinner had branded +himself as such in the sight of all men; what further need to add the +ban of the Church's excommunication against one who was known to be +within touch of death? Would not Christ have said, "Go, and sin no +more"? But this simple quotation from the Gospels seemed to enrage the +representative of St. Peter more violently than before, and when Bonpre +left the Holy Presence he knew well enough that he was, for no fault of +his own, under the displeasure of the Vatican. How had it all come +about? Nothing could have been simpler than his life and actions since +he left his own Cathedral-town,--he had prayed for a sick child,--he +had sympathised with a sorry sinner,--that was all. And such deeds as +these were commanded by Christ. Yet--the Head of the Church for these +same things viewed him with wrath and suspicion! Wearily he sat, +turning over everything in his mind, and longing, with a weakness which +he fully admitted to his own conscience, to leave Rome at once and +return to his own home, there to die among his roses at peace. But he +saw it would never do to leave Rome just yet. He was bound fast hand +and foot. He was "suspect"! In his querulous fit the Pope had ordered +Claude Cazeau to return to Rouen without delay, and there gather +further evidence respecting the Cardinal's stay at the Hotel Poitiers, +and if possible, to bring the little Fabien Doucet and his mother back +to Rome with him. Pending the arrival of fresh proof, Bonpre, though he +had received no actual command, knew he was expected to remain where he +was. Weary and sick at heart, the venerable prelate sighed as he +reviewed all the entangling perplexities, which had, so unconsciously +to himself, become woven like a web about his innocent and harmless +personality, and so absorbed was he in thought that he did not hear the +door of his room open, and so was sot aware that his foundling Manuel +had stood for some time silently watching him. Such love and compassion +as were expressed in the boy's deep blue eyes could not however radiate +long through any space without some sympathetic response,--and moved by +instinctive emotion, Cardinal Felix looked up, and seeing his young +companion smiled,--albeit the smile was a somewhat sad one. + +"Where have you been, my child?" he asked gently, "I have missed you +for some hours." + +Manuel advanced a little, and stood between the pale afternoon light +reflected through the window, and the warmer glow of the wood fire. + +"I have been to the strangest place in all the world!" he answered, +"The strangest,--and surely one of the most wicked!" + +The Cardinal raised himself in his chair, and bent an anxious wondering +look upon the young speaker. + +"One of the most wicked!" he echoed, "What place are you talking of?" + +"St. Peter's!" answered Manuel, with a thrill of passion in his voice +as he uttered the name, "St. Peter's,--the huge Theatre misnamed a +Church! Oh, dear friend!--do not look at me thus! Surely you must feel +that what I say is true? Surely you know that there is nothing of the +loving God in that vast Cruelty of a place, where wealth and +ostentation vie with intolerant officialism, bigotry and +superstition!--where even the marble columns have been stolen from the +temples of a sincerer Paganism, and still bear the names of Isis and +Jupiter wrought in the truthful stone;--where theft, rapine and murder +have helped to build the miscalled Christian fane! You cannot in your +heart of hearts feel it to be the abode of Christ; your soul, bared to +the sight of God, repudiates it as a Lie! Yes!"--For, startled and +carried away by the boy's fervour, Cardinal Felix had risen, and now +stood upright, making a feeble gesture with his hands, as though +seeking to keep back the crushing weight of some too overwhelming +conviction,--"Yes--you would silence me!--but you cannot!--I read your +heart! You love God . . . and I--I love Him too! You would serve +Him!--and I--I would obey Him! Ah, do not struggle with yourself, dear +and noble friend! If you were thrice crowned a martyr and saint you +could not see otherwise than clearly--you could not but accept Truth +when Truth is manifested to you,--you could not swear falsely before +God! Would the Christ not say now as He said so many centuries ago--'My +House is called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of +thieves!' Is it not truly a den of thieves? What has the Man of Sorrows +to do with all the evil splendour of St. Peter's?--its bronzes, its +marbles, its colossal statues of dead gods, its glittering altars, its +miserable dreary immensity, its flaring gilding and insolent vulgarity +of cost! Oh, what a loneliness is that of Christ in this world! What a +second Agony in Gethsemane!" + +The sweet voice broke--the fair head was turned away,--and Cardinal +Felix, overcome by such emotion as he found it impossible to explain, +suddenly sank on his knees, and stretched out his arms to the young +slight creature who spoke with such a passion and intensity of yearning. + +"Child!" he said, with tremulous appeal in his accents, "For God's +sake'--you who express your thoughts with such eloquence and fervent +pain!--tell me, WHO ARE YOU? My mind is caught and controlled by your +words,--you are too young to think as you do, or to speak as you +do,--yet some authority you seem to possess, which I submit to, not +knowing why; I am very old, and maybe growing foolish in my age--many +troubles are gathering about me in these latter days,--do not make them +more than I can bear!" + +His words were to himself incoherent, and yet it seemed as if Manuel +understood them. Suffering himself to be clasped for a moment by the +old man's trembling hands, he nevertheless gently persuaded and +assisted him to rise, and when he was once more seated, stood quietly +by his side, waiting till he should have recovered from his sudden +agitation. + +"Dear friend, you are weary and troubled in spirit," he said tenderly +then, "And my words seem to you only terrible because they are true! If +they grieve you, it is because the grief in your heart echoes mine! And +if I do think and speak more seriously than I should, it is for the +reason that I have been so much alone in the world,--left to myself, +with my own thoughts of God, which are not thoughts such as many care +for. I would not add to your sorrows,--I would rather lighten them if I +could--but I feel and fear that I shall be a burden upon you before +long!" + +"Never!" exclaimed Bonpre fervently, "Never a burden on me, child! +Surely while I live you will not leave me?" + +Manuel was silent for a little space. His eyes wandered from the +Cardinal's venerable worn features to the upstanding silver crucifix +that gleamed dully in the glow of the wood-embers. + +"I will not leave you unless it is well for you that I should go," he +answered at last, "And even then, you will always know where to find +me." + +The Cardinal looked at him earnestly, and with a searching +interrogation,--but the boy's face though sweetly composed, had a +certain gravity of expression which seemed to forbid further +questioning. And a deep silence fell between them,--a silence which was +only broken by the door opening to admit Prince Sovrani who, pausing on +the threshold, said, + +"Brother, if you will allow yourself to be disturbed, Angela would like +to see you in her studio. There are several people there,--her fiance, +Varillo among the number,--and I think the girl would be glad of your +presence." + +The Cardinal started as from a dream, and rose from his chair. + +"I will come at once--yes--I will come," he said, "I must not be +selfish and think only of my own troubles!" He stood erect,--he was +still in the scarlet robes in which he had made his appearance at the +Vatican, and they fell regally about his tall dignified form, the vivid +colour intensifying the pallor of his thin features. A servant entering +at the moment with two large silver candelabra ablaze with lights, +created an effect of luminance in the room that made him appear to even +greater advantage as an imposing figure of ecclesiastical authority, +and Prince Pietro looked at him with the admiring affection and respect +which he, though a cynic and sceptic, had always felt for the brother +of his wife,--affection and respect which had if anything become +intensified since that beloved one's untimely death. + +"You were well received at the Vatican?" he said tentatively. + +"Not so well as I had hoped," replied the Cardinal patiently--"Not so +well! But the cloud will pass. I will go with you to the +studio,--Manuel, will you stay here?" + +Manuel bent his head in assent; he had just closed the before open copy +of the Gospels, and now stood with his hand upon the Book. + +"I will wait till you call me, my lord Cardinal," he replied. + +Prince Pietro then led the way, and Cardinal Bonpre followed, his +scarlet robes sweeping behind him with a rich rustling sound, and as +the two entered the large lofty studio, hung with old tapestries, and +panelled with deeply carved and gilded oak, the room which was Angela +Sovrani's special sanctum, all the persons there assembled rose from +their different sitting or lounging attitudes, and respectfully bent +their heads to the brief and unostentatious benediction given to them +by the venerable prelate of whom all present had heard, but few had +seen, and everyone made way for him as Angela met and escorted him to a +seat on one of the old, throne-like chairs with which the Sovrani +palace was so amply supplied. When he was thus installed, he made the +picturesque centre of a brilliant little scene enough,--one of those +vivacious and bright gatherings which can be found nowhere so perfectly +blended in colour and in movement as in a great art-studio in Rome. +Italians are not afraid to speak, to move, to smile,--unlike the +Anglo-Saxon race, their ease of manner is inborn, and comes to them +without training, hence there is nothing of the stiff formality and +awkward gloom which too frequently hangs like a cloud over English +attempts at sociality,--and that particular charm which is contained in +the brightness and flashing of eyes, creates a dazzling effect +absolutely unknown to colder northern climes. Eyes,--so potent to +bewitch and to command, are a strangely neglected influence in certain +forms of social intercourse. English eyes are too often dull and +downcast, and wear an inane expression of hypocrisy and prudery; unless +they happen to be hard and glittering and meaningless; but in southern +climes, they throw out radiant invitations, laughing assurances, +brilliant mockeries, melting tendernesses, by the thousand flashes, and +make a fire of feeling in the coldest air. And so in Angela's beautiful +studio, among the whiteness of classic marbles, and the soft hues of +richly falling draperies, fair faces shone out like flowers, lit up by +eyes, whose light seemed to be vividly kindled by the heat of an +amorous southern sun,--Venetian eyes blue as a cornflower, Florentine +eyes brown and brilliant as a russet leaf in autumn, Roman eyes black +as night, Sicilian eyes of all hues, full of laughter and flame--and +yet among all, no sweeter or more penetratingly tender eyes than those +of Sylvie Hermenstein ever shot glances abroad to bewilder and dazzle +the heart of man. Not in largeness, colour or brilliancy lay their +charm, but in deep, langourous, concentrated sweetness,--a sweetness so +far-reaching from the orb to the soul that it was easy to sink away +into their depths and dream,--and never wish to wake. Sylvie was +looking her fairest that afternoon,--the weather was chilly, and the +close-fitting black velvet dress with its cape-like collar of rich +sables, well became her figure and delicately fair complexion, and many +a spiteful little whisper concerning her went round among more showy +but less attractive women,--many an involuntary but low murmur of +admiration escaped from the more cautious lips of the men. She was +talking to the Princesse D'Agramont, who with her brilliant dark beauty +could afford to confess ungrudgingly the charm of a woman so +spirituelle as Sylvie, and who, between various careless nods and +smiles to her acquaintance, was detailing to her with much animation +the account of her visit to the Marquis Fontenelle before leaving Paris. + +"He must be very epris!" said the Princesse laughing, "For he froze +into a rigid statue of virtue when I suggested that he should escort me +to Rome! I did not wait to see the effect of my announcement that YOU +were already there!" + +Sylvie lowered her eyes, and a faint colour crimsoned her cheeks. + +"Then he knows where I am?" she asked. + +"If he believes ME, he knows," replied Loyse D'Agramont, "But perhaps +he does not believe me! All Paris was talking about the Abbe Vergniaud +and his son 'Gys Grandit', when I left, and the Marquis appeared as +interested in that esclandre as he can ever be interested in anything +or anybody. So perhaps he forgot my visit as soon as it was ended. Abbe +Vergniaud is very ill by the way. His self-imposed punishment, and his +unexpected reward in the personality of his son, have proved a little +too much for him,--both he and 'Grandit' are at my Chateau," here she +raised her lorgnon, and peered through it with an inquisitive air, +"Tiens! There is the dear Varillo making himself agreeable as usual to +all the ladies! When does the marriage come off between him and our +gifted Sovrani?" + +"I do not know," answered Sylvie, with a little dubious look, "Nothing +is contemplated in that way until Angela's great picture is exhibited." + +The Princesse D'Agramont looked curiously at the opposite wall where an +enormous white covering was closely roped and fastened across an +invisible canvas, which seemed to be fully as large as Raffaelle's +"Transfiguration". + +"Still a mystery?" she queried, "Has she never shown it even to you?" + +Sylvie shook her head. + +"Never!" and then breaking off with a sudden exclamation she turned in +the direction of the door where there was just now a little movement +and murmur of interest, as the slim tall figure of a man moved slowly +and with graceful courtesy through the assemblage towards that corner +of the studio where the Cardinal sat, his niece standing near him, and +there made a slight yet perfectly reverential obeisance. + +"Mr. Leigh!" cried Angela, "How glad I am to see you!" + +"And I too," said the Cardinal, extending his hand, and kindly raising +Aubrey before he could complete his formal genuflection, "You have not +wasted much of your time in Florence!" + +"My business was soon ended there," replied Aubrey. "It merely +concerned the saving of a famous religious picture--but I find the +modern Florentines so dead to beauty that it is almost impossible to +rouse them to any sort of exertion . . ." Here he paused, as Angela +with a smile moved quickly past him saying, + +"One moment, Mr. Leigh! I must introduce you to one of my dearest +friends!" + +He waited, with a curious sense of impatience, and full beating of his +heart, answering quite mechanically one or two greetings from Florian +Varillo and other acquaintances who knew and recognised him--and then +felt, rather than saw, that he was looking into the deep sweet eyes of +the woman who had flung him a rose from the balcony of the angels, and +that her face, sweet as the rose itself, was smiling upon him. As in a +dream he heard her name, "The Comtesse Sylvie Hermenstein" and his own, +"Mr. Aubrey Leigh"; he was dimly aware of bowing, and of saying +something vague and formal, but all the actuality of his being was for +the moment shaken and transfigured, and only one strong and +overwhelming conviction remained,--the conviction that, in the slight +creature who stood before him gracefully acknowledging his salutation, +he had met his fate. Now he understood as he had never done before what +the poet-philosopher meant by "the celestial rapture falling out of +heaven";--for that rapture fell upon him and caught him up in a cloud +of glory, with all the suddenness and fervour which must ever attend +the true birth of the divine passion in strong and tender natures. The +calculating sensualist can never comprehend this swiftly exalted +emotion, this immediate radiation of light through all life, which is +like the sun breaking through clouds on a dark day. The sensualist has +by self-indulgence, blunted the edge of feeling, and it is impossible +for him to experience this delicate sensation of exquisite +delight,--this marvellous assurance that here and now, face to face, +stands the One for whom all time shall be merged into a Song of Love, +and upon whom all the sweetest thoughts of imagination shall be brought +to bear for the furtherance of mutual joy! Aubrey's strong spirit, set +to stern labour for so long, and trained to toil with but scant peace +for reward, now sprang up as it were to its full height of capability +and resolution,--yet its power was tempered with that tender humility +which, in a noble-hearted man, bends before the presence of the woman +whose love for him shall make her sacred. All his instincts bade him +recognise Sylvie as the completion and fulfilment of his life, and this +consciousness was so strong and imperative that it made him more than +gentle to her as he spoke his first few words, and obtained her consent +to escort her to a seat not far off from the Cardinal, yet removed +sufficiently from the rest of the people to enable them to converse +uninterruptedly for a time. Angela watched them, well pleased;--she too +had quick instincts, and as she noted Sylvie's sudden flush under the +deepening admiration of Aubrey's eyes, she thought to herself, "If it +could only be! If she could forget Fontenelle--if--" + +But here her thoughts were interrupted by her own "ideal",--Florian +Varillo who, catching her hand abruptly, drew her aside for a moment. + +"Carissima mia, why did you not introduce the Princesse D'Agramont to +Mr. Leigh rather than the Comtesse Hermenstein? The Princesse is of his +way of thinking,--Sylvie is not!" and he finished his sentence by +slipping an arm round her waist quickly, and whispering a word which +brought the colour to her cheeks and the sparkle to her eyes, and made +her heart beat so quickly that she could not speak for a moment. Yet +she was supposed by the very man whose embrace thus moved her, to be +"passionless!" + +"You must not call her 'Sylvie'," she answered at last, "She does not +like such familiarity--even from you!" + +"No? Did she tell you so?" and Florian laughed, "What a confiding +little darling you are, Angela! I assure you, Sylvie Hermenstein is not +so very particular--but there! I will not say a word against any friend +of yours! But do you not see she is already trying to make a fool of +Aubrey Leigh?" + +Angela looked across the room and saw Leigh's intellectual head bending +closely towards the soft gold of Sylvie's hair, and smiled. + +"I do not think Sylvie would willingly make a fool of anyone," she +answered simply, "She is too loyal and sincere. I fancy you do not +understand her, Florian. She is full of fascination, but she is not +heartless." + +But Florian entertained a very lively remembrance of the recent rebuff +given to himself by the fair Comtesse, and took his masculine vengeance +by the suggested innuendo of a shrug of his shoulders and a lifting of +his eyebrows. But he said no more just then, and merely contented +himself with coaxingly abstracting a rose out of Angela's bodice, +kissing it, and placing it in his own buttonhole. This was one of his +"pretty drawing-room tricks" according to Loyse D'Agramont who always +laughed unmercifully at these kind of courtesies. They had been the +stock-in-trade of her late husband, and she knew exactly what value to +set upon them. But Angela was easily moved by tenderness, and the +smallest word of love, the lightest caress made her happy and satisfied +for a long time. She had the simple primitive notions of an innocent +woman who could not possibly imagine infidelity in a sworn love. +Looking at her sweet face, earnest eyes, and slim graceful figure now, +as she moved away from Florian Varillo's side, and passed glidingly in +and out among her guests, the Princesse D'Agramont, always watchful, +wondered with a half sigh how she would take the blow of disillusion if +it ever came; would it crush her, or would she rise the nobler and +stronger for it? + +"Many a one here in this room to-day," mused the Princesse, "would be +glad if she fell vanquished in the hard fight! Many a man--shameful as +it seems--would give a covert kick to her poor body. For there is +nothing that frets and irks some male creatures so much as to see a +woman attain by her own brain and hand a great position in the world, +and when she has won her crown and throne they would deprive her of +both, and trample her in the mud if they dared! SOME male +creatures--not all. Florian Varillo for instance. If he could only get +the world to believe that he paints half Angela's pictures he would be +quite happy. I daresay he does persuade a few outsiders to think it. +But in Rome we know better. Poor Angela!" + +And with another sigh she dismissed the subject from her mind for the +moment, her attention being distracted by the appearance of Monsignor +Gherardi, who just then entered and took up a position by the +Cardinal's chair, looking the picture of imposing and stately +affability. One glance of his eyes in the direction of Aubrey Leigh, +where he sat absorbed in conversation with the Comtesse Hermenstein, +had put the wily priest in an excellent humour, and nothing could +exceed the deferential homage and attention he paid to Cardinal Bonpre, +talking with him in low, confidential tones of the affairs which +principally occupied their attention,--the miraculous cure of Fabien +Doucet, and the defection of Vergniaud from the Church. Earnestly did +the good Felix, thinking Gherardi was a friend, explain again his utter +unconsciousness of any miracle having been performed at his hands, and +with equal fervour did he plead the cause of Vergniaud, in the spirit +and doctrine of Christ, pointing out that the erring Abbe was, without +any subterfuge at all, truly within proximity of death, and that +therefore it seemed an almost unnecessary cruelty to set the ban of +excommunication against a repentant and dying man. Gherardi heard all, +with a carefully arranged facial expression of sympathetic interest and +benevolence, but gave neither word nor sign of active partisanship in +any cause. He had another commission in charge from Moretti, and he +worked the conversation dexterously on, till he touched the point of +his secret errand. + +"By the way," he said gently, "among your many good and kindly works, I +hear you have rescued a poor stray boy from the streets of Rouen--and +that he is with you now. Is that true?" + +"Quite true," replied the Cardinal, "But no particular goodness can be +accredited to any servant of the Gospel for trying to rescue an orphan +child from misery." + +"No--no, certainly not!" assented Gherardi--"But it is seldom that one +as exalted in dignity as yourself condescends--ah, pardon me!--you do +not like that word I see!" + +"I do not understand it in OUR work," said the Cardinal, "There can be +no 'condescension' in saving the lost." + +Gherardi was silent a moment, smiling a little to himself. "What a +simpleton is this Saint Felix!" he thought. "What a fool to run amuck +at his own chances of distinction and eminence!" + +"And the boy is clever?" he said presently in kindly accents--"Docile +in conduct?--and useful to you?" + +"He is a wonderful child!" answered the Cardinal with unsuspecting +candour and feeling, "Thoughtful beyond his years,--wise beyond his +experience." + +Gherardi shot a quick glance from under his eyelids at the fine +tranquil face of the venerable speaker, and again smiled. + +"You have no further knowledge of him?--no clue to his parentage?" + +"None." + +Just then the conversation was interrupted by a little movement of +eagerness,--people were pressing towards the grand piano which Florian +Varillo had opened,--the Comtesse Sylvie Hermenstein was about to grant +a general request made to her for a song. She moved slowly and with a +touch of reluctance towards the instrument, Aubrey Leigh walking beside +her. + +"You are a musician yourself?--" she said, glancing up at him, "You +play--or you sing?" + +"I do a little of both," he answered, "But I shall be no rival to you! +I have heard YOU sing!" + +"You have? When?" + +"The other night, or else I dreamed it," he said softly, "I have a very +sweet echo of a song in my mind with words that sounded like 'Ti +volglio bene', and a refrain that I caught in the shape of a rose!" + +Their eyes met--and what Emerson calls "the deification and +transfiguration of life" began to stir Sylvie's pulses, and set her +heart beating to a new and singular exaltation. The warm colour flushed +her cheeks--the lustre brightened in her eyes, and she looked sweeter +and more bewitching than ever as she loosened the rich sables from +about her slim throat, and drawing off her gloves sat down to the +piano. Florian Varillo lounged near her--she saw him not at +all,--Angela came up to ask if she could play an accompaniment for +her,--but she shook her bright head in a smiling negative, and her +small white fingers running over the keys, played a rippling passage of +a few bars while she raised her clear eyes to Aubrey and asked him,-- + +"Do you know an old Brittany song called 'Le Palais D'Iffry'? No? It is +just one of those many songs of the unattainable,--the search for the +'Fortunate Isles', or the 'Fata Morgana' of happiness." + +"Is happiness nothing but a 'Fata Morgana'?'" asked Aubrey gently, +"Must it always vanish when just in sight?" + +His eyes grew darkly passionate as he spoke, and again Sylvie's heart +beat high, but she did not answer in words,--softening the notes of her +prelude she sang in a rich mezzo-soprano, whose thrilling tone +penetrated to every part of the room, the quaint old Breton ballad, + +"Il serait un roi! Mais quelqu'un a dit, 'Non!--Pas pour toi! 'Reste en +prison,--ecoute le chant d'amour, 'Et le doux son des baisers que la +Reine a promit 'A celui qui monte, sans peur et sans retour Au Palais +D'Iffry!' Helas, mon ami, C'est triste d'ecouter le chanson sans le +chanter aussi!" + +Aubrey listened to the sweet far-reaching notes--"Sans peur, et sans +retour, au Palais D'Iffry"! Thither would he climb--to that enchanted +palace of love with its rainbow towers glittering in the "light that +never was on sea or land"--to the throne of that queen whose soft eyes +beckoned him--whose kiss waited for him--everything now must be for +her--all the world for her sake, willingly lost or willingly won! And +what of the work he had undertaken? The people to whom he had pledged +his life? The great Christ-message he had determined to re-preach for +the comfort of the million lost and sorrowful? His brows +contracted,--and a sudden shadow of pain clouded the frank clearness of +his eyes. Gherardi's words came back to his memory,--"You have embarked +in a most hopeless cause! You will help the helpless, and as soon as +they are rescued out of trouble they will turn and rend you,--you will +try to teach them the inner mysteries of God's working and they will +say you are possessed of a devil!" Then he thought of another and +grander saying--"Whoso, putting his hand to the plough, looketh back, +is not fit for the Kingdom of God!--" and over all rang the enchanting +call of the siren's voice-- + +"Et le doux son des baisers que la Reine a promit A celui qui monte, +sans peur et sans retour Au Palais D'Iffry!" + +and he so lost himself in a tangle of thought that he did not observe +how closely Monsignor Gherardi was studying every expression of his +face, and he started as if he had been awakened from a dream when +Sylvie's song ceased, and Sylvie herself glanced up at him. + +"Music seems to make you sad, Mr. Leigh!" she said timidly. + +"Not music--but sometimes the fancies which music engenders, trouble +me," he answered, bending his earnest searching eyes upon her, and +wondering within himself whether such a small, slight gossamer thing of +beauty, brilliant as a tropical humming-bird, soft and caressable as a +dove, could possibly be expected to have the sweet yet austere +fortitude and firmness needed to be a true "helpmeet" to him in the +work he had undertaken, and the life he had determined to lead. He +noted all the dainty trifles of her toilette half doubtingly, half +admiringly,--the knot of rich old lace that fastened her sables,--the +solitary star-like diamond which held that lace in careless +position--the numerous little touches of taste and elegance which made +her so unique and graceful among women--and a pang shot through his +heart as he thought of her wealth, and his own poverty. She meanwhile, +on her part, was studying him with all the close interest that a +cultured and refined woman feels, who is strongly conscious of having +awakened a sudden and masterful passion in a man whom she secretly +admires. A triumphant sense of her own power moved her, allied to a +much more rare and beautiful emotion--the sense of soul-submission to a +greater and higher life than her own. And so it chanced that never had +she looked so charming--never had her fair cheeks flushed a prettier +rose--never had her easy fascination of manner been so bewitchingly +troubled by hesitation and timidity--never had her eyes sparkled with a +softer or more irresistible languor. Aubrey felt that he was fast +losing his head as he watched her move, speak, and smile,--and with a +sudden bracing up of his energies resolved to make his adieux at once. + +"I must be going,--" he began to say, when his arm was touched from +behind, and he turned to confront Florian Varillo, who smiled with all +the brilliancy his white and even teeth could give him. + +"Why must you be going?" asked Varillo cheerily, "Why not stay and dine +with my future father-in-law, and Angela, and the eminent Cardinal? We +shall all be charmed!" + +"Thanks, no!--I have letters to write to England . . ." + +"Good-bye!" said the Comtesse Hermenstein at this juncture,--"I am +going to drive the Princesse D'Agramont round the Pincio, will you join +us, Mr. Leigh? The Princesse is anxious to know you--may I introduce +you?" + +And without waiting for a reply, as the Princesse was close at hand, +she performed the ceremony of introduction at once in her own light +graceful fashion. + +"Truly a strange meeting!" laughed Varillo, "You three ought to be very +good friends! The Comtesse Hermenstein is a devout daughter of the +Roman Church--Madame la Princesse is against all Churches--and you, Mr. +Leigh, are making your own Church!" + +Aubrey did not reply. It was not the time or place to discuss either +his principles or his work, moreover he was strangely troubled by +hearing Sylvie described as "a devout daughter of the Roman Church." + +"I am charmed!" said the Princesse D'Agramont, "Good fortune really +seems to favour me for once, for in the space of a fortnight I have met +two of the most distinguished men of the time, 'Gys Grandit', and +Aubrey Leigh!" + +Aubrey bowed. + +"You are too kind, Madame! Grandit and I have been friends for some +years, though we have never seen each other since I parted from him in +Touraine. But we have always corresponded." + +"You have of course heard who he really is? The son of Abbe Vergniaud?" +continued the Princesse. + +"I have heard--but only this morning, and I do not know any of the +details of the story." + +"Then you must certainly come and drive with us," said Loyse +D'Agramont, "for I can tell you all about it. I wrote quite a brilliant +essay on it for the Figaro, and called it 'Church Morality'!" She +laughed. "Come,--we will take no denial!" + +Aubrey tried to refuse, but could not,--the attraction,--the 'will o' +the wisp' magnetism of Sylvie's dainty personality drew him on, and in +a few minutes, after taking respectful leave of the Cardinal, Prince +Sovrani, and Angela, he left the studio in the company of the two +ladies. Passing Monsignor Gherardi on the way out he received a wide +smile and affable salute from that personage. + +"A pleasant drive to you, Mr. Leigh," he said, "The view from the +Pincio is considered extremely fine!" + +Aubrey made some formal answer and went his way. Gherardi returned to +the studio and resumed his confidential talk with Bonpre, while one by +one the visitors departed, till at last the only persons left in the +vast room were Angela and Florian Varillo, Prince Pietro, and the two +dignitaries of the Church. Florian was irritated, and made no secret of +his irritation to his fair betrothed, with whom he sat a little apart +from the others in the room. + +"Do you want a love affair between Sylvie Hermenstein and that fellow +Leigh?" he enquired, "If so, it is probable that your desire will be +gratified!" + +Angela raised her delicate eyebrows in a little surprise. + +"I have no wish at all in the matter," she answered, "except to see +Sylvie quite happy." + +"How very romantic is the friendship between you two women!" said +Varillo somewhat sarcastically, "You wish to see Sylvie happy,--and the +other day she told me she would form her judgment of me by YOUR +happiness! Really, it is most admirable and touching!" + +Angela began to feel somewhat puzzled. Petulance and temper were not in +her character, and she was annoyed to see any touch of them in her +lover. + +"Are you cross, Florian?" she asked gently, "Has something worried you +to-day?" + +"Oh, I am often worried!" he replied;--and had he spoken the exact +truth he would have confessed that he was always seriously put out when +he was not the centre of attraction and the cynosure of women's +eyes--"But what does it matter! Do not think at all about me, cara mia! +Tell me of yourself. How goes the picture?" + +"It is nearly finished now," she replied, her beautiful violet eyes +dilating and brightening with the fervour that inspired her whenever +she thought of her work, "I rise very early, and begin to paint with +the first gleam of daylight. I think I shall have it ready sooner than +I expected. The Queen has promised to come and see it here before it is +exhibited to the public." + +"Margherita di Savoja is very amiable!" said Florian, with a tinge of +envy he could not wholly conceal, "She is always useful as a patron." + +A quick flush of pride rose to Angela's cheeks. + +"I do not need any patronage, Florian," she said simply yet with a +little coldness, "You know that I should resent it were it offered to +me. If my work is not good in itself, no 'royal' approval can make it +so. Queen Margherita visits me as a friend--not as a patron." + +"There now! I have vexed you!" And Florian took her hand and kissed it. +"Forgive me, sweetest!--Look at me--give me a smile!--Ah! That is +kind!" and he conveyed an expression of warm tenderness into his eyes +as Angela turned her charming face upon him, softened and radiant with +the quick affection which always moved her at his voice and caress. "I +spoke foolishly! Of course my Angela could not be patronised--she is +too independent and gifted. I am very glad the Queen is coming!" + +"The Queen is coming?" echoed Gherardi, who just then advanced. "Here? +To see Donna Sovrani's picture? Ah, that will be an excellent +advertisement! But it would have been far better, my dear young lady, +had you arranged with me, or with some other one of my confreres, to +have the picture sent to the Vatican for the inspection of His +Holiness. The Popes, as you know, have from time immemorial been the +best patrons of art!" + +"My picture would not please the Pope," said Angela quietly, "It would +more probably win his denunciation than his patronage." + +Gherardi smiled. The idea of a woman--a mere woman imagining that +anything which she could do was powerful enough to bring down Papal +denunciation! The strange conceit of these feminine geniuses! He could +almost have laughed aloud. But he merely looked her over blandly and +forbearingly. + +"I am sorry," he said, "very sorry you should consider such a thing as +possible of your work. But no doubt you speak on impulse. Your +distinguished uncle, the Cardinal Bonpre, would be sadly distressed if +your picture should contain anything of a nature to bring you any +condemnation from the Vatican,--and your father . . ." + +"Leave me out of it, if you please!" interrupted Prince Pietro, "I have +nothing whatever to do with it! Angela works with a free hand; none of +us have seen what she is doing." + +"Not even you, Signor Varillo?" enquired Gherardi affably. + +"Oh, I?" laughed Florian carelessly, "No indeed! I have not the least +idea of the subject or the treatment!" + +"A mystery then?" said Gherardi, still preserving his bland suavity of +demeanour, "But permit me, Donna Sovrani, to express the hope that when +the veil is lifted a crown of laurels may be disclosed for you!" + +Angela thanked him by a silent inclination of her head, and in a few +minutes the stately Vatican spy had taken his leave. As he disappeared +the Cardinal rose from his chair and moving somewhat feebly, prepared +to return to his own apartments. + +"Dearest uncle, will you not stay with us to-night? Or are you too +tired?" asked Angela as she came to his side. + +He raised her sweet face between his two wrinkled hands and looked at +her long and earnestly. "Dear child!" he said, "Dear brave little +child! For you must always be nothing more than a child to me,--tell +me, are you sure you are moved by the right spirit in the painting of +your picture?" + +"I think so!" answered Angela gently, "Indeed, indeed, I think so! I +know that according to the teaching of our Master Christ, it is a TRUE +spirit!" + +Slowly the Cardinal released her, and slowly and with impressive +earnestness traced the Cross on her fair brows. + +"God bless you!" he said, "And God help you too! For if you work by +'the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter', remember it is the same Spirit +which our Lord tells us 'the world cannot receive because it seeth Him +not, neither knoweth Him.' And to testify of a Spirit which the world +cannot receive makes the world very hard to you!" + +And with these words he gently leaned on the arm she proffered and left +the studio with her, the rich glow and voluminous folds of his scarlet +robes contrasting vividly with the simple black gown which Angela wore +without other adornment than a Niphetos rose to relieve its sombreness. +As she went with her uncle she looked over her shoulder and smiled an +adieu to Florian,--he, in his turn lightly kissed his hand to her, and +then addressed Prince Pietro, who, with the care of a man to whom +expense is a consideration, was putting out some of the tall lamps that +had illumined the dusk of the late afternoon. + +"The good Cardinal is surely breaking up," he said carelessly, "He +looks extremely frail!" + +"Young men sometimes break up before old ones!" returned the Prince +drily, "Felix is strong enough yet. You dine with us to-night?" + +"If you permit--" said Varillo, with a graceful salutation. + +"Oh, my permission does not matter'" said Sovrani eyeing him narrowly, +"Whatever gives pleasure to Angela must needs please me. She is all +that is left to me now in an exceedingly dull world. A riverderci! At +eight we dine." + +Flonan nodded,--and took his departure, and the Prince for a moment +stood hesitating, looking at the great white covering on the wall which +concealed his daughter's mysterious work. His tall upright figure stiff +and sombre, looked as if cast in bronze in the half light shed by the +wood fire,--one lamp was still burning, and after a pause he moved from +his rigid attitude of gloomy consideration, and extinguished it, then +glancing round to see that all was in order, he left the studio, +closing its great oaken door behind him. Five minutes after he had gone +a soft step trod the polished floor, and the young Manuel, holding a +lighted taper, entered all alone. The flame of the little torch he +carried cast a soft golden glow about him as he walked noiselessly +through the great empty room, his blue eyes lifted to the marble heads +of gods and heroes which occupied their different positions on the +gilded and oaken brackets set against the tapestried walls,--and +presently he paused in front of Angela's hidden work. It was but a +moment's pause, and then, still with the same light step, and the same +bright glow reflected from the flame that glittered in his hand, he +passed through the room, lifted the velvet portiere at the other end +where there was another door leading to the corridor connected with the +Cardinal's apartments, and so unnoticed, disappeared. + + + + +XXIII. + +Meanwhile, the Marquis Fontenelle had been nearly a fortnight in Rome, +living a sufficiently curious sort of life, and passing his time in a +constant endeavour to avoid being discovered and recognised by any of +his numerous acquaintances who were arriving there for the winter. His +chief occupation was of course to watch the Comtesse Sylvie,--and he +was rewarded for his untiring pains by constant and bewitching glimpses +of her. Sometimes he would see her driving, wrapped in furs, her tiny +Japanese dog curled up in a fold of her sables, and on her lap a knot +of violets, the fresh scent of which came to him like a sweet breath on +the air as she passed. Once he almost met her, face to face in the +gardens of the Villa Borghese, walking all alone, and reading a book in +which she seemed to be deeply interested. He made a few cautious +enquiries about her, and learnt that she lived very quietly,--that she +received certain "great" people,--especially Cardinals and Monsignori, +notably Monsignor Gherardi, who was a constant visitor. But of any +closer admirer he never gathered the slightest rumour, till one +afternoon, just when the sun was sinking in full crimson glory behind +the dome of St. Peter's, he saw her carriage come to a sudden halt on +the Pincio and she herself leaned out of it to shake hands with, and +talk to a tall fair man, who seemed to be on exceptionally friendly +terms with her. It is true she was accompanied in the carriage by the +famous Sovrani,--but that fact did not quell the sudden flame of +jealousy which sprang up in Fontenelle's mind--for both ladies appeared +equally charmed with the fair man, and their countenances were radiant +with pleasure and animation all the time they were in conversation with +him. When the carriage resumed its round again, the Marquis sauntered +by a side path where he could take quiet observation of his apparent +rival, who walked past him with a firm light step, looking handsome, +happy, and amazingly confident. There was an old man raking the path, +and of him Fontenelle asked carelessly, + +"Do you know who that gentleman is?" + +The gardener looked up and smiled. + +"Ah, si, si! Il Signor Inglese! Molto generoso! Il Signor Aubri Lee!" + +Aubrey Leigh! A "celebrity" then,--an English author;--not that all +English authors are considered "celebrities" in Rome. Italian society +makes very short work of spurious art, and closes its doors ruthlessly +against mere English "Grub Street". But Aubrey Leigh was more than an +author,--he was an influential power in the world, as the Marquis well +knew. + +"A great religious reformer! And yet a victim to the little Sylvie!" he +mused, "Well! The two things will not work together. Though truly +Sylvie would captivate a John Knox or a Cromwell. I really think,--I +really do begin to think, that rather than lose her altogether, I must +marry her!" + +And he went back to the obscure hotel where he had chosen temporarily +to reside in a meditative mood, and as he entered, was singularly +annoyed to see a flaring poster outside, announcing the arrival of +Miraudin and his whole French Company in Rome for a few nights only. +The name "MIRAUDIN" glared at him in big, fat, red letters on a bright +yellow ground; and involuntarily he muttered, + +"D--n the fellow! Can I go nowhere in the world without coming across +him!" + +Irritated, and yet knowing his irritation to be foolish,--for after +all, what was the famous actor to him?--what was there in his +personality to annoy him beyond the trivial fact of a curious personal +resemblance?--he retired to his room in no pleasant humour, and sitting +down began to write a letter to Sylvie asking her to be his wife. Yet +somehow the power of expression seemed lacking, and once or twice he +laid down his pen in a fit of abstraction, wondering why, when he had +sought Sylvie as a lover only, he had been able to write the most +passionate love phrases, full of ardour and poetry, and now, when he +was about to make her the offer of his whole life, his sentences were +commonplace and almost cold. And presently he tore up what he had been +writing, and paced the room impatiently. + +"The fact is I shall make a bad husband, and I know it!" he said +candidly to himself, "And Sylvie will make a great mistake if she +accepts me!" + +He walked to the window and looked out. His hotel was not in a +fashionable or frequented quarter of Rome, and the opposite view of the +street was anything but enlivening. Dirty, frowsy women,--idle men, +lounging along with the slouching gait which is common to the +'unemployed' Italian,--half-naked children, running hither and thither +in the mud, and screaming like tortured wild animals,--this kind of +shiftless, thriftless humanity, pictured against the background of ugly +modern houses, such as one might find in a London back slum, made up a +cheerless prospect, particularly as the blue sky was clouded and it was +beginning to rain. One touch of colour brightened the scene for a +moment, when a girl with a yellow handkerchief tied round her head +passed along, carrying a huge flat basket overflowing with bunches of +purple violets, and as Fontenelle caught the hue, and imagined the +fragrance of the flowers, he was surprised to feel his eyes smart with +a sudden sting of tears. The picture of Sylvie Hermenstein, with her +child-like head, fair hair, and deep blue eyes, floated before +him,--she was fond of violets, and whenever she wore them, their odour +seemed to be the natural exhalation of her sweet and spirituelle +personality. + +"She is much too good for me!" he said half aloud, "To be perfectly +honest with myself, I know I have no stability of character, and I +cannot imagine myself remaining constant to any woman for more than six +months. And the best way is to be perfectly straight-forward about it." + +He sat down again, and without taking any more thought wrote straight +from the heart of his present humour, addressing her by the name he had +once playfully bestowed upon her. + +"Enchanteresse! I am here in Rome, and this brief letter is to ask, +without preamble or apology, whether you will do me the infinite honour +to become my wife. I confess to you honestly that I am not worth this +consideration on your part, for I am not to be relied upon. I repose no +confidence in myself, therefore I will leave it to you to measure my +audacity in making the suggestion that you should place a lifetime's +confidence in me. But with all my heart, (as much as I know of it at +the present), I desire to show you what respect so poor a life as mine +can give to one who deserves all tenderness, as well as trust. If I may +hope that you will pardon my past follies and libertinage with regard +to you,--if you can love me well enough to wear my not too exalted +name, and preserve my remaining stock of honour, summon me to your +presence, and I will endeavour, by such devotion and fidelity as in me +lies, to atone for whatsoever offence I may have given you previously +by my too passionate pursuit of your beauty. Yours, unless you decide +my fate otherwise, + +"GUY BEAUSIRE DE FONTENELLE." + +Thrusting this note into an envelope he hastily sealed it, but decided +not to post it till late at night, in order that Sylvie might only +receive it with the early morning, when her mind was fresh, and +unswayed by any opinions or events of a long day. And to pass the time +he strolled out to one of the many "osterie," or wine-houses which +abound in Rome,--a somewhat famous example of its kind in the Via +Quattro Fontane. Choosing a table where he could sit with his back +turned towards the door, so as to avoid being seen by either strangers +or possible friends, he took up the Giornale Romano, and ordered a +"mezzo-litro" of the "Genzano" wine, for which that particular house +has long been celebrated. He sat there about half an hour thus quietly +reading,--scarcely hearing the loud voices and louder laughter of the +men who came and went around him, when suddenly the name "Sylvie +Hermenstein" caught his ear. It was spoken carelessly and accompanied +with a laugh. Quietly laying down his newspaper, he sat very still in +his chair, keeping his back turned to the groups of wine drinkers who +were gathering in large numbers as the evening advanced, and listened. + +"The most delicious little bonbon in the whole box! Jolie a craquer!" +said a man's voice. + +"Chocolat fondant! Garantie tres pure!" cried another, his words being +followed by a shout of laughter. + +Fontenelle gripped the arm of his chair, and held himself rigid, but +ready to spring. + +"The Church always knows where to find the prettiest women," said the +first man who had spoken, "from the Santissima Madonna downwards! What +would become of the Pope if it were not for the women!" + +"Bah! The Pope is only one man, but what would become of all the +Monsignori?" asked a voice different to the rest in mellowness and deep +quality, but with a touch of insolent mockery in its tone. + +Another burst of laughter answered him. + +Fontenelle turned in his chair and looked at the last speaker, and to +his amazement saw the actor, Miraudin. He was leaning carelessly +against the wine counter, a half-emptied "fiaschetto" in front of him, +and a full glass of wine in his hand. + +"The Monsignori would be all desolate bachelors!" he went on, lazily, +"And the greatest rascal in the Vatican, Domenico Gherardi, would no +longer be the fortunate possessor of the wealth, the influence, and the +dear embraces of the fascinating Hermenstein!" + +Scarcely had he spoken when the glass he held was dashed out of his +hand, and Fontenelle, white with fury, struck him smartly and full +across the face. A scene of the wildest confusion and uproar ensued. +All the men in the wine-shop crowded around them, and for a moment +Miraudin, blinded by the blow, and the wine that had splashed up +against his eyes, did not see who had struck him, but as he recovered +from the sudden shock and stared at his opponent, he broke into a wild +laugh. + +"Diantre! Ban soir, Monsieur le Marquis! Upon my life, there is +something very strange in this! Fate or the devil, or both! Well! What +now!" + +"You are a liar and a blackguard!" said Fontenelle fiercely, "And +unless you apologise for your insult to the lady whose name you have +presumed to utter with your mountebank tongue--" + +"Apologise! I! Moi!--genie de France! Never!" retorted Miraudin with an +air of swaggering audacity, "All women are alike! I speak from +experience!" + +White to the lips, the Marquis Fontenelle looked around. + +"Are there any MEN here?" he asked, eying the crowd about him with +ineffable hauteur. + +A young fellow stepped forward. "At your command, Marquis! You served +me once--I shall be happy to serve you now!" + +Quickly Fontenelle shook hands with this timely friend. He recognised +in him a young Italian officer, named Ruspardi, an acquaintance of some +years back, to whom he had chanced to be useful in a pressing moment of +need. + +"Thanks! Arrange everything for me, will you, Ruspardi? And as quickly +as possible!" + +"It is nearly midnight now," said Ruspardi in a low tone, "Shall we say +five or six in the morning?" + +"Yes--anything you like--but quickly!" + +Then raising his head haughtily, he addressed Miraudin in distinct +tones. + +"Monsieur Miraudin, you have greatly insulted and falsely slandered a +lady whom I have the honour to know. I have struck you for your lie; +and consider you worthy of no further treatment save a horsewhipping in +public. Gentlemen do not as a rule condescend to meet their paid +servants--actors and the like,--in single combat--but I will do you +that honour!" + +And with these words he bowed haughtily to all present, and left the +scene of noisy disorder. + +Out in the streets the moonlight lay in broad silver bands, like white +glistening ribbon spread in shining strips across the blackness, and +there was a moisture in the air which,--dropped as it were fresh, from +the surrounding hills,--cooled Fontenelle's flushed face and burning +brows. He walked rapidly,--he had a vague, unformed desire in his mind +to see Sylvie again if possible. He knew where she lived, and he soon +turned down the street where the quaint old central balcony of the Casa +D'Angeli thrust itself forward into the moon-rays among the sculptured +angels' wings,--and he saw that the windows were open. Pausing +underneath he waited, hesitating--full of strange thoughts and stranger +regrets. How poor and valueless seemed his life as he regarded it +now!--now when he had voluntarily placed it in jeopardy! What had he +done with his days of youth and prime? Frittered away every valuable +moment,--thrown to the winds every costly opportunity,--spent his +substance on light women who had kissed and clung to him one day, and +repulsed him the next. Well--and after? His heart beat thickly,--if he +could only see Sylvie for a moment! Hush! There was a murmur--a +voice--a ripple of sweet laughter; and moving cautiously back into the +shadows, he looked up--yes!--there she was--clad in some soft silvery +stuff that gathered a thousand sparkles from the light of the +moon,--her fair hair caught up in a narrow circlet of diamonds, and her +sweet face purely outlined against the dark worn stone of one of the +great carved angel-wings. But someone was with her,--someone whom +Fontenelle recognised at once by the classic shape of his head and +bright curly hair,--the man whom he had seen that very day on the +Pincio,--Aubrey Leigh. With a jealous tightening at his heart, +Fontenelle saw that Leigh held the soft plume of downy feathers which +served Sylvie for a fan, and that he was lightly waving it to and fro +as he talked to her in the musical, all-potent voice which had charmed +thousands, and would surely not be without its fascination for the +sensitive ears of a woman. Moving a little closer he tried to hear what +was being said,--but Leigh spoke very softly, and Sylvie answered with +equal softness, so that he could catch no distinct word. Yet the mere +tone of these two voices melted into a harmony more dulcet and perfect +than could be endured by Fontenelle with composure, and uttering an +impatient exclamation at his own folly he hastily left his retreat, and +with one parting glance up at the picture of fair loveliness above him +walked swiftly away. Returning to his hotel he saw the letter that he +had written to Sylvie lying on the table, and he at once posted it. +Then he began to prepare for his encounter with Miraudin. He dressed +quickly,--wrote a few business letters,--and was about to lie down for +a rest of an hour or so when the swift and furious galloping of a +horse's hoofs awoke the echoes of the quiet street, and almost before +he had time to realise what had happened, his friend Ruspardi stood +before him, breathless and wild with excitement. + +"Marquis, you are tricked!" he cried, "Everything is +prepared--seconds,--pistols,--all! But your man--your man has gone!" + +"Gone!" exclaimed Fontenelle furiously, "Where?" + +"Out of Rome! In a common fiacre--taking his latest mistress, one of +the stage-women with him. They were seen driving by the Porta Pia +towards the Campagna half an hour ago! He dare not face fire--bully and +coward that he is!" + +"I will go after him!" said Fontenelle promptly, "Half an hour ahead, +you say! Good!--I will catch him up. Can I get a horse anywhere?" + +"Take mine," said Ruspardi eagerly, "he is perfectly fresh--just out of +the stable. Have you weapons?" + +"Yes," and the Marquis unlocked a case, and loading two, placed them in +a travelling holder. Then, turning to Ruspardi he shook hands. + +"Thanks, a thousand times! There are a few letters here--see to them if +I should not come back." + +"What are you going to do?" asked Ruspardi, his excitement beginning to +cool a little, now that he saw the possible danger into which +Fontenelle was voluntarily rushing. + +"Persuade the worthy mountebank either to come back or fight at once on +whatever ground I find him, and assume to be a gentleman--for once!" +said Fontenelle, carelessly. "Addio!" + +And without further words he hurried off, and tossing a twenty-franc +piece to the sleepy hotel porter who was holding Ruspardi's horse +outside, he flung himself into the saddle and galloped away. Ruspardi, +young and hotblooded, was of too mercurial a disposition to anticipate +any really serious results of the night's adventure;--his contempt for +a coward was far greater than his fear of death, and he was delighted +to think that in all probability the Marquis would use his riding-whip +on Miraudin's back rather than honour him by a pistol shot. And so +dismissing all fears from his mind he took Fontenelle's letters in his +charge, and went straight out of the hotel singing gaily, charmed with +the exciting thought of the midnight chase which was going on, and the +possible drubbing and discomfiture of the "celebrated" Miraudin. + +Meanwhile, under the flashing stars, and through the sleeping streets +of Rome, the Marquis galloped with almost breakneck haste. He was a +daring rider, and the spirited animal he bestrode soon discovered the +force of his governing touch,--the resolve of his urging speed. He went +by the Porta Pia, remembering Ruspardi's hurried description of the +route taken by the runaway actor, and felt, rather than saw the outline +of the Villa Torlonia, as he rushed past, and the Basilica of St. +Agnese Fuori le Mura, which is supposed to cover the tomb of the +child-martyr St. Agnes,--then across the Ponte Nomentano, till, two +miles further on, in the white radiance of the moon, he perceived, +driving rapidly ahead of him, the vehicle of which he was in pursuit. +Letting the reins fall loosely on the neck of his straining steed, he +raised himself in his stirrups, and by his own movements assisted the +animal's now perfectly reckless gallop,--and at last, hearing the +flying hoofs behind, the driver of the fiacre became seized with panic, +and thinking of possible brigands and how to pacify them, he suddenly +pulled up and came to a dead halt. A head was thrust out of the +carriage window,--Miraudin's head,--and Miraudin's voice shouted in bad +Italian, + +"What are you stopping for, rascal! On with you! On with you! Five +hundred francs for your best speed!" + +Scarcely had he uttered the words when the Marquis gained the side of +the vehicle, and pulling up his horse till it almost fell in rearing +backwards, he cried furiously, + +"Lache! Tu vas te crever sur terre avant je te quitte!" + +And he struck his riding-whip full in the actor's face. + +Springing out of the fiacre Miraudin confronted his antagonist. His hat +was off--and his countenance, marked as it was with the crimson line of +the lash, lightened with laughter. + +"Again! Monsieur le Marquis, je vous salue!" he said, "Kismet! One +cannot escape it! Better to fight with you, beau sire, than with +destiny! I am ready!" + +Fontenelle at once dismounted, and tied his horse to the knotted bough +of a half-withered tree. Taking his pistols out of their holder he +proffered them to Miraudin. + +"Choose!" he said curtly, "Or use your own if you have any,--but mine +are loaded,--take care yours are! Play no theatrical tricks on such a +stage as this! "And then he gave a comprehensive wave of his hand +towards the desolate waste of the Campagna around them, and the faint +blue misty lines of the Alban hills just rimmed with silver in the rays +of the moon. + +At the first sight of the pistols the driver of the fiacre, who had +been more or less stupefied till now, by the suddenness of the +adventure, gave a sort of whining cry, and climbing down from his box +fell on his knees before Miraudin, and then ran a few paces and did the +same thing in front of the Marquis, imploring both men not to +fight,--not to get killed, on account of the trouble it would cause to +him, the coachman;--and with a high falsetto shriek a lady flung +herself out of the recesses of the closed vehicle, and clung to the +actor's arm. + +"Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! What is it you would do?" she cried, "Be killed +out here on the Campagna? and not a soul in sight--not a house--not a +shelter? And what is to become of me!--Me!--Me!--" and she tapped her +heaving bosom in melodramatic style, "Have you thought of ME?" + +"You--you!" laughed Miraudin, tearing off the lace veil which she wore +wrapped loosely round her head and shoulders, "You, Jeanne Richaud! +What is to become of you? The same fate will attend you that attends +all such little moths of the footlights! Perhaps a dozen more lovers +after me--then old age, and the care of a third-class lodging-house for +broken-down actors!" Here he chose his weapon. "At your service, +Marquis!" + +Jeanne Richaud, a soubrette, whose chief stock-in-trade had been her +large dark eyes and shapely legs, uttered a desperate scream, and threw +herself at the feet of the Marquis Fontenelle. + +"Monsieur! Monsieur! Think for a moment! This combat is unequal--out of +rule! You are a gentleman,--a man of honour!--would you fight without +seconds? It is murder--murder--!" + +Here she broke off, terrified in spite of herself by the immovability +of Fontenelle's attitude, and the coldness of his eyes. + +"I regret to pain you, Madame," he said stiffly, "This combat was +arranged according to rule between Monsieur Miraudin and myself some +hours since--and though it seems he did not intend to keep his +engagement I intend to keep mine! The principals in the fight are +here,--seconds are, as their name implies, a secondary matter. We must +do without them." + +"By no means!" exclaimed Miraudin, "We have them! Here they are! You, +Jeanne, will you be my second--how often you have seconded me in many a +devil's game--and you--cochon d'un cocher!--you will for once in your +life support the honour of a Marquis!" + +And with these words he seized the unhappy Roman cab-driver by the +collar of his coat, and flung him towards Fontenelle, who took not the +slightest notice of him as he lay huddled up and wailing on the grass, +but merely stood his ground, silently waiting. Mademoiselle Jeanne +Richaud however was not so easily disposed of. Throwing herself on the +cold ground, thick with the dust of dead Caesars, she clung to +Miraudin, pouring out a torrent of vociferous French, largely +intermixed with a special slang of the Paris streets, and broken by the +hysterical yells when she saw her "protector" throw off his coat, and, +standing in his shirt-sleeves, take close observation of the pistol he +held. + +"Is this your care of me?" she cried, "Mon Dieu! What a thing is a man! +Here am I alone in a strange country--and you endanger your life for +some quarrel of which I know nothing,--yet you pretend to love me! Nom +de Jesus! What is your love!" + +"You do well to ask," said Miraudin, laughing carelessly, "What is my +love! A passing fancy, chere petite! We actors simulate love too well +to ever feel it! Out of the way, jou-jou! Your life will be amusing so +long as you keep a little beaute de diable. After that--the +lodging-house!" + +He pushed her aside, but she still clung pertinaciously to his arm. + +"Victor! Victor!" she wailed, "Will you not look at me--will you not +kiss me!" + +Miraudin wheeled round, and stared at her amazed. + +"Kiss you!" he echoed, "Pardieu! Would you care! Jeanne! Jeanne! You +are a little mad,--the moonlight is too much for you! To-morrow I will +kiss you, when the sun rises--or if I am not here--why, somebody else +will!" + +"Who is the woman you are fighting for?" she suddenly demanded, +springing up from her crouching position with flushed cheeks and +flashing eyes. Miraudin looked at her with nonchalant admiration. + +"I wish you would have looked like that sometimes on my stage," he +said, "You would have brought down the house! 'Woman!' No 'woman' at +all, but WOMEN! The glamour of them--the witchery of them--women!--the +madness of them! Women!--The ONE woman saves when the ONE woman exists, +but then,--we generally kill HER! Now, once more, Jeanne,--out of the +way! Time flies, and Monsieur le Marquis is in haste. He has many +fashionable engagements!" + +He flashed upon her a look from the bright amorous hazel eyes, that +were potent to command and difficult to resist, and she cowered back, +trembling and sobbing hysterically as the Marquis advanced. + +"You are ready?" he enquired civilly. + +"Ready!" + +"Shall we say twelve paces?" + +"Excellent!" + +Deliberately Fontenelle dug his heel into the ground and measured +twelve paces from that mark between himself and his antagonist. Then +with cold courtesy he stood aside for Miraudin to assure himself that +the measurement was correct. The actor complied with this formality in +a sufficiently composed way, and with a certain grace and dignity which +Fontenelle might almost have taken for bravery if he had not been so +convinced that the man was "acting" still in his mind, and was going +through a "part" which he disliked, but which he was forced to play. +And with it all there was something indefinable about him--something +familiar in the turn of his head, the glance of his eye, the movement +of his body, which annoyed Fontenelle, because he saw in all these +little personal touches such a strong resemblance to himself. But there +was now no time to think, as the moment for the combat drew near. +Jeanne Richaud was still weeping hysterically and expostulating with +the cab-driver, who paid no attention whatsoever to her pleadings, but +remained obstinately on his knees out of harm's way, begging the +"Santissima Madonna" and all his "patron saints" to see him safely with +his fiacre back to the city. That was all he cared for. + +"We have no one to give us a signal," said Miraudin lightly, "But there +is a cloud on the moon. When it passes, shall we fire?" + +The Marquis bowed assent. + +For a moment the moon-rays were obscured,--and a faint sigh from the +wind stirred the long dry grass. A bat flew by, scurrying towards the +Catacombs of Alexander,--a shadow lay upon the land. The +combatants,--so singularly alike in form and feature,--stood rigidly in +position, their weapons raised,--their only witnesses a cabman and a +wanton, both creatures terrified out of their wits for themselves and +their own safety. Swiftly the cloud passed--and a brilliant silver +glory was poured out on hill and plain and broken column,--and as it +shone, the two shots were fired simultaneously--the two bullets whizzed +through the air. A light puff of smoke rose in the moonbeams--it +cleared--and Miraudin reeled backwards and fell heavily to the ground. +Fontenelle stood upright, but staggered a little,--instinctively +putting his hand to his breast. Jeanne Richaud rushed to the side of +her fallen lover. + +"Victor! Victor!" + +Miraudin struggled up to a half sitting position--the blood was welling +up thickly from a wound in his lungs. Half suffocated as he was, he +made a strong effort to speak, and succeeded. + +"Not you--not you!" he gasped, "Do not touch me! Do not come near me! +Him!--him!" And he pointed to Fontenelle who still stood erect, swaying +slightly to and fro with a dazed far-off look in his eyes--but now--as +the frenzied soubrette beckoned him, he moved unsteadily to the side of +his mortally wounded opponent, and there, through weakness, not +emotion, dropped on his knees. Miraudin looked at him with staring +filmy eyes. + +"How I have hated you, Monsieur le Marquis!" he muttered thickly, "How +I have hated you! Yes--as Cain hated Abel! For we--we are brothers as +they were--born of the same father--ah! You start!" for Fontenelle +uttered a gasping cry--"Yes--in spite of your pride, your lineage, your +insolent air of superiority--YOUR father was MY father!--the late +Marquis was no more satisfied with one wife than any of us are!--and +had no higher code of honour! YOUR mother was a grande dame,--MINE was +a 'light o' love' like this feeble creature!" and he turned his glance +for a moment on the shuddering, wailing Jeanne Richaud. "YOU were the +legal Marquis--_I_ the illegal genius! . . . yes--genius--!" + +He broke off, struggling for breath. + +"Do you hear me?" he whispered thickly, "Do you hear?" + +"I hear," answered Fontenelle, speaking with difficulty, "You have +hated me, you say--hate me no more!--for hate is done with--and love +also!--I am--dying!" + +He grasped the rank grass with both hands in sudden agony, and his face +grew livid. Miraudin turned himself on one arm. + +"Dying! You, too! By Heaven! Then the Marquisate must perish! I should +have fired in the air--but--but the sins of the fathers . . . what is +it?" Here a ghastly smile passed over his features, "The sins of the +fathers--are visited on the children! What a merciful Deity it is, to +make such an arrangement!--and the excellent fathers!--when all the +children meet them--I wonder what they will have to say to each other I +wonder . . ." A frightful shudder convulsed his body and he threw up +his arms. + + "'Un peu d'amour, + Et puis--bon soir!' + +C'est ca! Bon soir, Marquis!" + +A great sigh broke from his lips, through which the discoloured blood +began to ooze slowly--he was dead. And Fontenelle, whose wound bled +inwardly, turned himself wearily round to gaze on the rigid face +upturned to the moon. His brother's face! So like his own! He was not +conscious himself of any great pain--he felt a dizzy languor and a +drowsiness as of dreams--but he knew what the dreaming meant,--he knew +that he would soon sleep to wake again--but where? He did not see that +the woman who had professed to love Miraudin had already rushed away +from his corpse in terror, and was entreating the cabman to drive her +quickly from the scene of combat,--he realised nothing save the white +moonbeams on the still face of the man who in God's sight had been his +brother. Fainter and still fainter grew his breath--but he felt near +his heart for a little crumpled knot of filmy lace which he always +carried--a delicate trifle which had fallen from one of Sylvie's pretty +evening gowns once, when he had caught her in his arms and sworn his +passion. He kissed it now, and inhaled its violet perfume--as he took +it from his lips he saw that it was stained with blood. The heavy +languor upon him grew heavier--and in the dark haze which began to +float before his eyes he saw women's faces, some beautiful, some +devilish, yet all familiar,--he felt himself sinking--sinking into some +deep abyss of shadows, so dark and dreary that he shuddered with the +icy cold and horror, till Sylvie came, yes!--Sylvie's soft eyes shone +upon him, full of the pity and tenderness of some divine angel near +God's throne,--an angel of sweetness--an angel of forgiveness--ah!--so +sweet she was, so childlike, so trusting, so fair, so enticing in those +exquisite ways of hers which had pleaded with him, prayed to him, tried +to draw him back from evil, and incite him to noble thought; "ways" +that would have persuaded him to cleanse his flag of honour from the +mud of social vice and folly, and lift it to the heavens white and +pure! Ah, sweet ways!--sweet voice!--sweet woman!--sweet possibilities +of life now gone forever! Again that sinking,--that icy chill! His eyes +were closing--yet he forced himself to open them as he sank back +heavily on the turf, and then--then he saw the great white moon +descending on him as it seemed, like a shield of silver flung down to +crush him, by some angry god! + +"Sylvie!--Sylvie!" he muttered, "I never knew--how much I loved +you--till-now! Sylvie!" + +His eyes closed--a little smile flickered on his mouth for a +moment--and then the Shadow fell. And he lay stark and pallid in the +moonlight, close to the brother he had never known till the last hour +of life had revealed the bond of blood between them. Side by side they +lay,--strangely alike in death,--men to whom the possibilities of noble +living had been abundantly given, and who had wasted all their +substance on vanity. For Victor Miraudin, despite his genius and the +brilliancy of his art, was not likely to be longer remembered or +mourned than the Marquis Fontenelle. The fame of the actor is even less +than that of the great noble,--the actor's name is but a bubble on the +air which a breath disperses,--and the heir to a proud house is only +remembered by the flattering inscription on his tombstone. Forgotten +Caesars, greater than any living monarch, had mixed their bones with +the soil where these two sons of one father lay dead,--the bright moon +was their sanctuary lamp,--the stars their funeral torches,--the width +of the Campagna their bier, and the heavens their pall. And when the +two terrified witnesses of the fatal fight realised the position, and +saw that both combatants had truly perished, there were no regrets, no +lamentations, no prayers, no thought of going for assistance. With the +one selfish idea uppermost,--that of escaping immediate trouble--Jeanne +Richaud rallied her scattered wits, and dragging the praying and +gesticulating cab-driver up from his knees, she bade him mount his box +and drive her back to the city. Tremblingly he prepared to obey, but +not without unfastening the horse which the dead Marquis had so lately +ridden, and taking some trouble to attach it to his vehicle for his own +uses. + +"For if we do this, they will never know!" he muttered with chattering +teeth, "A horse is always a horse--and this is a good animal, more +valuable than the men;--and when they find the men that is none of our +business. In--in with you, Madama! I will drive you into the +city,--that is, if you give me a thousand francs instead of the five +hundred your man promised me! Otherwise I will leave you here!" + +"A thousand!" shrieked Richaud, "Oh, thief! You know I am a poor +stranger--Oh, mon Dieu! Do not murder me!" This, as the driver, having +hustled her into the vehicle and shut the door, now shook his dirty +fist at her threateningly. "Oh!--what a night of horror! Yes--yes!--a +thousand!--anything!--only take me back to Rome!" + +Satisfied in his own mind that he had intimidated her sufficiently to +make her give him whatever he demanded, the driver who, despite his +native cupidity, was seriously alarmed for his own safety, hesitated no +longer, and the noise of the dashing wheels and the galloping hoofs +woke loud echoes from the road, and dull reverberations from the Ponte +Nomentano, as the equipage, with two horses now instead of one, +clattered out of sight. And then came silence,--the awful silence of +the Campagna--a silence like no other silence in the world--brooding +like darkness around the dead. + + + + +XXIV. + +The next morning dawned with all the strange half mystical glow of +light and colour common to the Italian sky,--flushes of pink warmed the +gray clouds, and dazzling, opalescent lines of blue suggested the sun +without declaring it,--and Sylvie Hermenstein, who had passed a +restless and wakeful night, rose early to go on one of what her society +friends called her "eccentric" walks abroad, before the full life of +the city was up and stirring. She, who seemed by her graceful mignonne +fascinations and elegant toilettes, just a butterfly of fashion and no +more, was truly of a dreamy and poetic nature,--she had read very +deeply, and the griefs and joys of humanity presented an ever-varying +problem to her refined and penetrative mind. She was just now +interesting herself in subjects which she had never studied so closely +before,--and she was gradually arriving at the real secret of the +highest duty of life,--that of serving and working for others without +consideration for oneself. A great love was teaching her as only a +great love can;--a love which she scarcely dared to admit to herself, +but which nevertheless was beginning to lead her step by step, into +that mysterious land, half light, half shadow, which is the nearest +road to Heaven,--a land where we suffer gladly for another's sorrow, +and are joyous in our own griefs, because another is happy! To love ONE +greatly, means to love ALL more purely,--and to find heart-room and +sympathy for the many sorrows and perplexities of those who are not as +uplifted as ourselves. For the true mission of the divine passion in +its divinest form, is that it should elevate and inspire the soul, +bringing it to the noblest issues, and for this it must be associated +with respect, as well as passion. No true soul can love what it does +not sincerely feel to be worthy of love. And Sylvie--the brilliant +little caressable Sylvie, whose warm heart had been so long +unsatisfied, was, if not yet crowned by the full benediction of love, +still gratefully aware of the wonderful colour and interest which had +suddenly come into her life with the friendship of Aubrey Leigh. His +conversation, so different to the "small talk" of the ordinary man, not +only charmed her mind, but strengthened and tempered it,--his +thoughtful and tender personal courtesy filled her with that serenity +which is always the result of perfect manner,--his high and pure ideas +of life moved her to admiration and homage,--and when she managed to +possess herself of every book he had written, and had read page after +page, sentence after sentence, of the glowing, fervent, passionate +language, in which he denounced shams and glorified truth,--the +firmness and fearlessness with which he condemned religious hypocrisy, +and lifted pure Christianity to the topmost pinnacle of any faith ever +known or accepted in the world, her feelings for him, while gaining +fresh warmth, grew deeper and more serious, merging into reverence as +well as submission. She had a book of his with her as a companion to +her walk this very morning, and as she entered the Pamphili woods, +where she had a special "permesso" to go whenever she chose, and trod +the mossy paths, where the morning sun struck golden shafts between the +dark ilex-boughs, as though pointing to the thousands of violets that +blossomed in the grass beneath, she opened it at a page containing +these lines:-- + +"Who is it that dares assert that his life or his thoughts are his own? +No man's life is his own! It is given to him in charge to use for the +benefit of others,--and if he does not so use it, it is often taken +from him when he least expects it. 'THOU FOOL, THIS NIGHT THY LIFE +SHALL BE REQUIRED OF THEE!' No man's thoughts even, are his own. They +are the radiations of the Infinite Mind of God which pass through every +living atom. The beggar may have the same thought as the Prime +Minister,--he only lacks the power of expression. The more helpless and +inept the beggar, the greater the responsibility of the Premier. For +the Premier has received education, culture, training, and the choice +of the people, and to him is given the privilege of voicing the +beggar's thought. And not only the beggar's thought, but the thoughts +of all in the nation who have neither the skill nor the force to speak. +If he does not do what he is thus elected to do, he is but an +inefficient master of affairs. And what shall we say of the ministers +of Religion who are 'ordained' to voice the Message of Christ? To echo +the Divine!--to repeat the grand Ethics of Life,--the Law of Love and +Charity and Forbearance and Pity and Forgiveness! When one of these +highly destined servants of the Great King fails in his duty,--when he +cannot pardon the sinner,--when he looks churlishly upon a child, or +condemns the innocent amusements of the young and happy,--when he makes +the sweet Sabbath a day of penance instead of praise--of tyranny +instead of rest,--when he has no charity for backsliders, no sympathy +for the sorrowful, no toleration for the contradictors of his own +particular theory--do we not feel that his very existence is a +blasphemy, and his preaching a presumption!" + +Here Sylvie raised her eyes from the book. She was near an ancient +cedar-tree whose dark spreading boughs, glistening with the early +morning dew, sparkled like a jewelled canopy in the sun,--at her feet +the turf was brown and bare, but a little beyond at the turn of the +pathway, a cluster of white narcissi waved their graceful stems to the +light wind. There was a rustic bench close by, and she sat down to rest +and think. Very sweet thoughts were hers,--such thoughts as sweet women +cherish when they dream of Love. Often the dream vanishes before +realisation, but this does not make the time of dreaming less precious +or less fair. Lost in a reverie which in its pleasantness brought a +smile to her lips, she did not hear a stealthy footstep on the grass +behind her, or feel a pair of dark eyes watching her furtively from +between the cedar-boughs,--and she started with surprise, and something +of offence also, as Monsigner Gherardi suddenly appeared and addressed +her,-- + +"Buon giorno, Contessa!" + +She rose from her seat and saluted him in silence, instinctively +grasping the book she held a little closer. But Gherardi's quick glance +had already perceived the title and the name of its author. + +"You improve the time!" he said, sarcastically, pacing slowly beside +her. "To one of your faith and devotion that book should be accursed!" + +She raised her clear eyes and looked at him straightly, + +"Is the sunlight accursed?" she said, "The grass or the flowers? The +thoughts in this book are as pure and beautiful as they!" + +Gherardi smiled. The enthusiasm of a woman's unspoilt nature was always +a source of amusement to him. + +"Your sentiments are very pretty and poetic!" he said, "But they are +exaggerated. That book is on the 'Index'!" + +"Yes, of course it would be!" answered Sylvie quietly, "I have often +wondered why so much fine literature is condemned by the Church,--and +do you know, it occurred to me the other day that if our Lord had +WRITTEN what He said in the form of a book, it might be placed on the +'Index' also?" + +Gherardi lifted his eyes from their scrutiny of the ground, and fixed +them upon her with a look of amazement that was almost a menace. But +she was not in the least intimidated,--and her face, though pale as the +narcissi she had just seen in blossom, was very tranquil. + +"Are you the Comtesse Hermenstein?" said Gherardi then, after an +impressive pause, "The faithful, gentle daughter of Holy Church? or are +you some perverted spirit wearing her semblance?" + +Sylvie laughed. + +"If I am a perverted spirit you ought to be able to exorcise me, +Monsignor!" she said,--"With the incense of early Mass clinging to you, +and the holy water still fresh on your hands, you have only to say, +'Retro me Sathanas!' and if I am NOT Sylvie Hermenstein I shall melt +into thin air, leaving nothing but the odour of sulphur behind me! But +if I AM Sylvie Hermenstein, I shall remain invincible and +immovable,--both in myself and in my opinions!" + +Gherardi controlled his rising irritation, and was silent for some +minutes, reflecting within himself that if the fair Countess had +suddenly turned restive and wayward, it was probably because she was +falling in love with the author whose works she defended, and taking +this into consideration, he judged it would be wisest to temporise. + +"Invincible you always are!" he said in softer tones, "As many unhappy +men in Europe can testify!" + +"Are you among them?" queried Sylvie mischievously, the light of +laughter beginning to twinkle and flash in her pretty eyes. + +"Of course!" answered Gherardi suavely, though his heart beat thickly, +and the secret admiration he had always felt for the delicate beauty of +this woman who was so utterly out of his reach, made his blood burn +with mingled rage and passion. "Even a poor priest is not exempt from +temptation!" + +Sylvie hummed a little tune under her breath, and looked up at the sky. + +"It will be a lovely day!" she said--"There will be no rain!" + +"Is that the most interesting thing you can say to me?" queried +Gherardi. + +"The weather is always interesting," she replied, "And it is such a +safe subject of conversation!" + +"Then you are afraid of dangerous subjects?" + +"Oh no, not at all! But I dislike quarrelling,--and I am afraid I +should get very angry if you were to say anything more against the book +I am reading"--here she paused a moment, and then added steadily, "or +its author!" + +"I am aware that he is a great friend of yours," said Gherardi gently, +"And I assure you, Contessa--seriously I assure you, I should be the +last person in the world to say anything against him. Indeed, there is +nothing to say, beyond the fact that he is, according to our religion, +a heretic--but he is a brilliant and intellectual heretic,--WELL WORTH +REDEEMING!" He emphasised the words, and shot a meaning glance at her; +but she did not appear to take his hint or fathom his intention. She +walked on steadily, her eyes downcast,--her tiny feet, shod in charming +little French walking shoes, peeping in and out with a flash of steel +on their embroidered points, from under the mysterious gleam of silk +flounces that gave a soft "swish," as she moved,--her golden hair +escaping in one or two silky waves from under a picturesque black hat, +fastened on by velvet ribbons, which were tied in a captivating knot +under the sweetest of little white chins, a chin whose firm contour +almost contradicted the sensitive lines of the kissable mouth above it. +A curious, dull sense of anger teased the astute brain of Domenico +Gherardi, as with all the dignified deportment of the stately +churchman, he walked on by her side. What was all his scheming worth, +he began to think, if this slight feminine creature proved herself more +than a match for him? The utmost he could do with his life and +ambitions was to sway the ignorant, cram his coffers with gold, and +purchase a change of mistresses for his villa at Frascati. But +love,--real love, from any human creature alive he never had won, and +knew he never should win. Sylvie Hermenstein was richer far than +he,--she had not only wealth and a great position, but the joys of a +natural existence, and of a perfect home-life were not denied to her. +Presently, seeing that they were approaching the gates of exit from the +Pamphili, he said,-- + +"Contessa, will you give me the favour of an hour's conversation with +you one afternoon this week? I have something of the very greatest +importance to say to you." + +"Can you not say it now?" asked Sylvie. + +"No, it would take too long,--besides, if walls have ears, it is +possible that gardens have tongues! I should not presume to trouble +you, were it not for the fact that my business concerns the welfare of +your friend, Mr. Aubrey Leigh, in whose career I think you are +interested,--and not only Mr. Leigh, but also Cardinal Bonpre. You will +be wise to give me the interview I seek,--unwise if you refuse it!" + +"Monsignor, you have already been well received at my house, and will +be well received again,"--said Sylvie with a pretty dignity, "Provided +you do not abuse my hospitality by calumniating my FRIENDS, whatever +you may think of myself,--you will be welcome! What day, and at what +hour shall I expect you?" + +Gherardi considered a moment. + +"I will write," he said at last, "I cannot at this moment fix the time, +but I will not fail to give you notice. A riverderci! Benedicite!" + +And he left her abruptly at the gates, walking rapidly in the direction +of the Vatican. Full of vague perplexities to which she could give no +name, Sylvie went homewards slowly, and as she entered her rooms, and +responded to the affectionate morning greetings of Madame Bozier, she +was conscious of a sudden depression that stole over her bright soul +like a dark cloud on a sunny day, and made her feel chilled and sad. +Turning over the numerous letters that waited her perusal, she +recognised the handwriting of the Marquis Fontenelle on one, and took +it up with a strange uneasy dread and beating of the heart. She read it +twice through, before entirely grasping its meaning, and then--as she +realised that the man who had caused her so much pain and shame by his +lawless and reckless pursuit of her in the character of a libertine, +was now, with a frank confession of his total unworthiness, asking her +to be his wife,--the tears rushed to her eyes, and a faint cry broke +from her lips. + +"Oh, I cannot . . . I cannot!" she murmured, "Not now--not now!" + +Madame Bozier looked at her in distress and amazement. + +"What is the matter, dear?" she asked, "Some bad news?" + +Silently Sylvie handed her Fontenelle's letter. + +"Dear me! He is actually in Rome!" said the old lady, "And he asks you +to be his wife! Well, dear child, is not that what you had a right to +expect from him?" + +"Yes--perhaps--but I cannot--not now!--Oh no, not now!" murmured +Sylvie, and her eyes, wet with tears, were full of an infinite pain. + +"But--pardon me dear--do you not love him?" + +Sylvie stood silent--gazing blankly before her, with such perplexity +and sorrow in her face that her faithful gouvernante grew anxious and +troubled. + +"Child, do not look like that!" she exclaimed, "It cuts me to the +heart! You were not made for sorrow!" + +"Dear Katrine,--we were all made for sorrow," said Sylvie slowly, +"Sorrow is good for us. And perhaps I have not had sufficient of it to +make me strong. And this is real sorrow to me,--to refuse Fontenelle!" + +"But why refuse him if you love him?" asked Madame Bozier bewildered. + +Sylvie sat down beside her, and put one soft arm caressingly round her +neck. + +"Ah, Katrine,--that is just my trouble," she said, "I do not love him +now! When I first met him he attracted me greatly, I confess,--he +seemed so gentle, so courteous, and above all, so true! But it was +'seeming' only, Katrine!--and he was not anything of what he seemed. +His courtesy and gentleness were but a mask for licentiousness,--his +apparent truth was but a disguise for mere reckless and inconstant +passion. I had to find this bit by bit,--and oh, how cruel was the +disillusion! How I prayed for him, wept for him, tried to think that if +he loved me he might yet endeavour to be nobler and truer for my sake. +But his love was not great enough for that. What he wanted was the body +of me, not the soul. What _I_ wanted of him was the soul, not the body! +So we played at cross purposes,--each with a different motive,--and +gradually, as I came to recognise how much baseness and brutality there +is in mere libertinism,--how poor and paltry an animal man becomes when +he serves himself and his passions only, my attraction for him +diminished,--I grew to realise that I could never raise him out of the +mud, because he had lived by choice too long in it,--I could never +persuade him to be true, even to himself, because he found the ways of +falsehood and deceit more amusing. He did unworthy things, which I +could not, with all my admiration for him, gloze over or excuse;--in +fact, I found that in his private life and code of honour he was very +little better than Miraudin,--and Miraudin, as you know, one CANNOT +receive!" + +"He is in Rome also," said Madame Bozier, "I saw his name placarded in +the streets only yesterday, and also outside one of the leading +theatres. He has brought all his Parisian company here to act their +repertoire for a few nights before proceeding to Naples." + +"How strange he should be here!" said Sylvie, "How very strange! He is +so like the Marquis Fontenelle, Katrine! So very like! I used to go to +the theatre and frighten myself with studying the different points of +resemblance! be the rough copy of Fontenelle's,--and I always saw in +the actor what the gentleman would be if he continued to live as he was +doing. Miraudin, whose amours are a disgrace, EVEN to the +stage!--Miraudin, who in his position of actor-manager, takes +despicable advantage of all the poor ignorant, struggling creatures who +try to get into his company, and whose vain little heads are turned by +a stray compliment,--and to think that the Marquis Fontenelle should be +merely the better-born copy of so mean a villain! Ah, what useless +tears I have shed about it,--how I have grieved and worried myself all +in vain!--and now . . ." + +"Now he asks you to marry him," said Madame Bozier gently, "And you +think it would be no use? You could not perhaps make him a better man?" + +"Neither I nor any woman could!" said Sylvie, "I do not believe very +much in 'reforming' men, Katrine. If they need to reform, they must +reform themselves. We make our own lives what they are." + +"Dear little philosopher!" said Madame Bozier tenderly, taking Sylvie's +small white hand as it hung down from her shoulder and kissing it, "You +are very depressed to-day! You must not take things so seriously! If +you do not love the Marquis as you once did--" + +"As I once did--ah, yes!" said Sylvie, "I did love him. I thought he +could not be otherwise than great and true and noble-hearted--but--" + +She broke off with a sigh. + +"Well, and now that you know he is not the hero you imagined him, all +you have to do is to tell him so," said the practical Bozier +cheerfully, "Or if you do not want to pain him by such absolute +candour, give him his refusal as gently and kindly as you can." + +Sylvie sighed again. + +"I am very sorry," she said, "If I could have foreseen this--perhaps--" + +"But did you not foresee it?" asked Madame Bozier persistently, "Did +you not realize that men always want what they cannot have--and that +the very fact of your leaving Paris increased his ardour and sent him +on here in pursuit?" + +Sylvie Hermenstein was of a very truthful nature, and she had not +attempted to deny this suggestion. + +"Yes--I confess I did think that if I separated myself altogether from +him it might induce him to put himself in a more honourable position +with me--but I did not know then--" she paused, and a deep flush +crimsoned her cheeks. + +"Did not know what?" queried Madame Bozier softly. + +Sylvie hesitated a moment, then spoke out bravely. + +"I did not know then that I should meet another man whose existence +would become ten times more interesting and valuable to me than his! +Yes, Katrine, I confess it! There is no shame in honesty! And so, to be +true to myself, however much the Marquis might love me now, I could +never be his wife." + +Madame Bozier was silent. She guessed her beloved pupil's heart's +secret,--but she was too tactful to dwell upon the subject, and before +the brief, half-embarrassed pause between them had ended, a servant +entered, asking, + +"Will the Signora Contessa receive the Capitano Ruspardi?" + +Sylvie rose from her seat with a look of surprise. + +"Ruspardi?--I do not know the name." + +"The business is urgent;--the Capitano is the bearer of a letter to the +Signora Contessa." + +"Remain with me, Katrine," said Sylvie after a pause,--then to the +servant--"Show Captain Ruspardi in here." + +Another moment, and a young officer in the Italian uniform entered +hurriedly,--his face was very pale,--and as the Comtesse Hermenstein +received him in her own serene sweet manner which, for all its +high-bred air had something wonderfully winning and childlike about it, +his self-control gave way, and when after a profound salute he raised +his eyes, she saw they were full of tears. Her heart began to beat +violently. + +"You bring some bad news?" she asked faintly. + +"Madama, I beg you not to distress yourself--this letter--" and he held +out a sealed envelope,--"was given to me specially marked, among +others, by my friend, the Marquis Fontenelle--last right before--before +he went to his death!" + +"His death!" echoed Sylvie, her eyes dilating with horror--"His death! +What do you mean?" + +Madame Bozier came quickly to her side, and put a hand gently on her +arm. But she did not seem to feel the sympathetic touch. + +"His death!" she murmured. And with trembling fingers she opened and +read the last lines ever penned by her too passionate admirer. + +"SWEETEST SYLVIE! Dearest and purest of women! If you ever receive this +letter I shall be gone beyond the reach of your praise or your blame. +For it will not be given to you at all unless I am dead. Dead, dear +Sylvie! That will be strange, will it not? To be lying quite still, +cold and stiff, out of the reach of your pretty warm white +arms,--deprived for ever and ever of any kiss from your rose-red +lips,--ah, Sylvie, it will be very cold and lonely! But perhaps better +so! To-night I saw you, up in your balcony, with someone who is a brave +and famous man, and who no doubt loves you. For he cannot fail to love +you, if he knows you. God grant you may be happy when I am gone! But I +want you to feel that to-night--to-night _I_ love you!--love you as I +have never loved you or any woman before--without an evil +thought,--without a selfish wish!--to the very height and breadth of +love, I love you, my queen, my rose, my saving grace of +sweetness!--whose name I shall say to God as my best prayer for pardon, +if I die to-night! + +FONTENELLE." + +Sylvie shuddered as with icy cold . . . a darkness seemed to overwhelm +her . . . she staggered a little, and Ruspardi caught her, +wondering--at the lightness and delicacy and beauty of her, as he +assisted Madame Bozier to lead her to a deep fauteuil where she sank +down, trembling in every nerve. + +"And--he is dead?" she asked mechanically. + +Ruspardi bowed a grave assent. She paused a moment--then forced herself +to speak again. + +"How did it happen?" + +In brief, concise words Ruspardi gave the account of the quarrel with +Miraudin,--and Sylvie shrank back as though she had received a blow +when she heard that her name had been the cause of the dispute. + +"And this morning, hearing no news," continued Ruspardi, "I made +enquiries at the theatre. There I found everything in confusion; +Miraudin and a soubrette named Jeanne Richaud, had left Rome the +previous evening so the box-keeper said, and there was no news of +either of them beyond a note from the girl saying she had returned +alone to Paris by the first morning train. Nothing had been heard of +Miraudin himself;--I therefore, knowing all the circumstances, drove +out to the Campagna by the Porte Pia, the way that Miraudin had gone, +and the way I bade the Marquis follow;--but on the Ponte Nomentano I +met some of the Miserecordia carrying two corpses on the same +bier,--two corpses so strangely alike that they might almost have been +brothers!--they were the bodies of the Marquis Fontenelle +and,--Miraudin!" + +Sylvie uttered a low cry and covered her face with her hands. + +"Miraudin!" exclaimed Madame Bozier in horrified tones. "Miraudin! Is +he killed also?" + +"Yes, Madame! Both shots must have been fired with deadly aim. They had +no seconds. Miraudin had hired a common fiacre to escape in from the +city, and the police will offer a reward for the discovery of the +driver. My horse, which my unfortunate friend Fontenelle rode, is gone, +and if it could be discovered, its possessor might furnish a clue;--but +I imagine it will be difficult, if not impossible to trace the +witnesses of the combat. The woman Richaud is on her way to Paris. But +by this time all Rome knows of the death of Miraudin; and in a few +hours all the world will know!" + +"And what of the Marquis Fontenelle?" asked Madame Bozier. + +"Madama, I posted all the letters he entrusted to my charge. The one I +have brought to the Contessa was enclosed in an envelope to me and +marked 'To be personally delivered in case of my death.' But among the +letters for the post was one to the Marquis's only sister, the Abbess +of a convent in Paris--she will probably claim her brother's remains." + +He was silent. After a pause Sylvie rose unsteadily, and detached a +cluster of violets she wore at her neck. + +"Will you--" her voice faltered. + +But Ruspardi understood, and taking the flowers, respectfully kissed +the little hand that gave them. + +"They shall be buried with him," he said. "His hand was clenched in +death on a small knot of lace--you perhaps might recognise +it,--yes?--so!--it shall be left as it was found." + +And,--his melancholy errand being done,--he bowed profoundly once more, +and retired. + +Sylvie gazed around her vaguely,--the letter of her dead admirer +grasped in her hand,--and his former letter, proposing marriage, lying +still open on the table. Her old gouvernante watched her anxiously, the +tears rolling down her cheeks. + +"You are crying, Katrine!" she said, "And yet you knew him very +little,--he never loved you! I wish--I wish MY tears would come! But +they are all here--aching and hurting me--"and she pressed her hand to +her heart--"You see--when one is a woman and has been loved by a man, +one cannot but feel sorry--for such an end! You see he was not +altogether cruel!--he defended my name--and he has died for my sake! +For my sake!--Oh, Katrine! For MY sake! So he DID love me--at the last! +. . . and I--I--Oh, Katrine!--I wish--I wish the tears would come!" + +And as she spoke she reeled--and uttering a little cry like that of a +wounded bird, dropped senseless. + + + + +XXV. + +The death of the famous actor Miraudin was a nine days' wonder, and +about a three weeks' regret. He had made no reputation beyond that of +the clever Mime,--he was not renowned for scholarship,--he had made no +mark in dramatic literature,--and his memory soon sank out of sight in +the whirling ocean of events as completely as though he had never +existed. There was no reality about him, and as a natural consequence +he went the way of all Shams. Had even his study of his art been +sincere and high--had he sought for the best, the greatest, and most +perfect work, and represented that only to the public, the final +judgment of the world might perhaps have given him a corner beside +Talma or Edmund Kean,--but the conceit of him, united to an illiterate +mind, was too great for the tolerance of the universal Spirit of things +which silently in the course of years pronounces the last verdict on a +man's work. Only a few of his own profession remembered him as one who +might have been great had he not been so little;--and a few women +laughed lightly, recalling the legion of his "amours", and said, "Ce +pauvre coquin, Miraudin!" That was all. And for the mortal remains of +Guy Beausire de Fontenelle, there came a lady, grave and pale, clothed +in deep black, with the nun's white band crossing her severe and +tranquil brows,--and she, placing a great wreath of violets fresh +gathered from the Pamphili woods, and marked, "In sorrow, from Sylvie +Hermenstein", on the closed coffin, escorted her melancholy burden back +to Paris, where in a stately marble vault, to the solemn sound of +singing, and amid the flare of funeral tapers, with torn battle banners +drooping around his bier, and other decaying fragments of chivalry, the +last scion of the once great house of Fontenelle was laid to rest with +his fathers. Little did the austere Abbess, who was the chief mourner +at these obsequies, guess that the actor Miraudin, whose grave had been +hastily dug in Rome, had also a right to be laid in the same marble +vault;--proud and cold and stern as her heart had grown through long +years of pain and disappointment, it is possible that had she known +this, her sufferings might have been still more poignant. But the +secret had died with the dead so far as the world went;--there remained +but the Eternal Record on which the bond of brotherhood was +inscribed,--and in that Eternal Record some of us do our best not to +believe, notwithstanding the universal secret dread that we shall all +be confronted with it at last. + +Meanwhile, events were moving rapidly, and the net of difficult +circumstance was weaving itself round the good Cardinal Bonpre in a +manner that was strangely perplexing to his clear and just mind. He had +received a letter from Monsignor Moretti, worded in curtly civil terms, +to the effect that as the Cardinal's miracle of healing had been +performed in France, he, as on Vatican service in Paris, found it his +duty to enquire thoroughly into all the details. For this cause, he, +Monsignor Moretti, trusted it would suit the Cardinal's convenience to +remain in Rome till the return of Monsieur Claude Cazeau, secretary to +the Archbishop of Rouen, who had been despatched back to that city on +the business connected with this affair. Thus Monsignor Moretti;--and +Cardinal Bonpre, reading between the lines of his letter, knew that the +displeasure of Rome had fallen upon him as heavily as it did upon the +eloquent and liberal-minded Padre Agostino when he made the mistake of +asking a blessing from Heaven on the King and Queen of Italy for their +works of charity among the poor. And he easily perceived where the real +trouble lay,--namely, in the fact of his having condoned the Abbe +Vergniaud's public confession. Out of the one thing there was an effort +being made to contrive mischief with the other,--and Bonpre, being too +frail and old to worry his brain with complex arguments as to the how +and why and wherefore of the machinations carried on at the Vatican, +resigned himself to God, and contenting his mind with meditation and +prayer, waited events patiently, caring little how they ended for +himself, provided they did not involve others in any catastrophe. +Moreover, there was a certain consolation contained in his enforced +waiting,--for his niece Angela had confided to him that the work of her +great picture had advanced more swiftly than she had imagined possible, +and that it was likely she would be able to show it to her relatives +and private friends in the course of a week or so. + +"But Florian must see it first," she said, "Of course you know that! +Florian must always be first!" + +"Yes," and the Cardinal stroked her hair tenderly, while his eyes +rested on her with rather a troubled look--"Yes--of course--Florian +first. I suppose he will always be first with you, Angela?--after God?" + +"Always!" she answered softly, "Always--after God!" + +And Felix Bonpre sighed--he knew not why--except that he was always +sorry for women who loved men with any very great exaltation or +devotion. That curiously tender adoration of a true woman's heart which +is so often wasted on an unworthy object, seemed to him like lifting a +cup of gold to a swine's snout. He found no actual fault with Florian +Varillo,--he was just a man as men go, with nothing very pronounced +about him, except a genius for fine mosaic-like painting. He was not a +great creator, but he was a delicate and careful artist,--a man against +whom nothing particular could be said, except perhaps that his manner +was often artificial, and that his conduct was not always sincere. But +he had a power of fascinating the opposite sex,--and Angela had fallen +a willing victim to his candid smile, clear eyes, charming voice, and +courteous ways,--and with that strange inconsistency so common to +gifted women, she was so full of "soul" and "over-soul" herself, that +she could not imagine "soul" lacking in others;--and never dreamed of +making herself sure that it elevated the character or temperament of +the man she loved. + + "Alas, the love of women! it is known + To be a lovely and a fearful thing; + For all of theirs upon that die is thrown + And, if 'tis lost, life hath no more to bring!" + [Footnote: Byron] + +During the time that matters were thus pending in Rome, Claude Cazeau, +well satisfied with himself, and the importance of being entrusted with +a special message from the Vatican to the Archbishop of Rouen, returned +to the Normandy capital with many ambitious speculations rife in his +brain, and schemes for improving the position of confidence with which +he had, by the merest chance, and the fluctuations of the Pope's +hunxour, been suddenly thrust. He took the Patoux family by surprise on +the evening of his arrival in Rouen, and much to his secret +satisfaction found Martine Doucet in their company. The children were +gone to bed, and the appearance of Cazeau in Papa Patoux's kitchen was +evidently not altogether the most agreeable circumstance that could +have happened at the Hotel Poitiers. He was civilly received, however, +and when he expressed his pleasure at seeing Madame Doucet present, +that worthy female lifted her eyes from her knitting and gave him a +suspicious glance of exceeding disfavour. + +"I do not see what pleasure my company can give you, Monsieur," she +said curtly, "I am only a poor marketwoman!" + +"But you have been singularly favoured by the protection and confidence +of a great Cardinal,--" began Cazeau. + +"Protection--confidence--!" echoed Martine snappishly, "Nom de Jesus! +What is the man talking about! I never set eyes on the Cardinal in my +life. But that he cured my Fabien is enough to make me think of him as +a saint for ever,--though it seems there are some that would almost +make him out to be a devil for having done a good deed! And ever since +my boy was cured I have lived a life of torture and trouble--yes, +truly!--torn between two things, our Blessed Lord and the Church! But I +am trying my best to keep fast hold of our Lord, whatever the Church +may do to me!" + +"Dear me!" said Cazeau blandly, turning with a smile and propitiatory +air to Patoux who sat silently smoking, "Madame Doucet seems a +little--what shall we say?--unduly excited? Yet surely the recovery of +her child should fill her with thanksgiving and make her a faithful and +devout servant--" "Pardon, Monsieur," interrupted Madame Patoux, +"Believe me, Martine is thankful enough, and devout enough,--but truly +it has been very hard for her to suffer the things that have been said +to her of late,--how that the child could never have been really +crippled at all, but simply shamming,--how that it was all a trick got +up between herself and the priests for the purpose of bringing visitors +and their money to Rouen,--for of course since the miracle was noised +abroad there have been many pilgrimages to Notre Dame, it having got +about that there was some mysterious spirit or angel in one of the +shrines,--for look you, our Archbishop, when he came to visit the +Cardinal here in this very hotel, distinctly remembers that His +Eminence assured him he had heard strange music in the Cathedral, when +truly there was no organ unlocked, and no organist on duty,--and then +there was something about the boy that His Eminence found lost that +night . . ." + +"Stop! Stop!" said Cazeau, growing impatient, "Your eloquence is so +impressive, Madame, and you say so much that is excellent in one +breath, that you must pardon my inferior capacity in not being able to +follow you quite coherently! There are conflicting statements, you +say--" + +"No, there are none," said Patoux himself, drawing his pipe out of his +mouth slowly, and looking intently at its well-sucked stem--"It is all +the same sort of thing. A child is sick--a child is cured--and it is +either God or the Devil who has done it. Some people prefer to think it +is the Devil,--some give the praise to God. It was exactly like that +whenever our Lord did a good deed. Half the folks said he was God,--the +other half that he had a devil. Jerusalem was like Rouen, Rouen is like +Jerusalem. Jerusalem was ancient and wicked; Rouen is modern and +wickeder,--that's all! As for music in the church, we have only the +Archbishop's warrant that the Cardinal ever said anything about hearing +music." + +"'ONLY' the Archbishop's warrant!" echoed Cazeau meaningly. + +"I said 'ONLY', Monsieur!--Make the best of it!" answered Patoux, +sticking his pipe into his mouth again, and resuming his smoke with +undisturbed tranquillity. + +Cazeau hummed and hawed,--he was irritated yet vaguely amused too at +the singular self-assertion of these common folk who presumed to take +their moral measurement of an Archbishop! It is a strange fact, but +these same common folk always DO take these sorts of measurements. + +"The inconsistencies--(if there are any--) in the story will soon be +cleared up," he said, with a benevolent assumption of authority, "At +least, I hope so! I am glad to say that I am entrusted with a message +to the Archbishop from our Holy Father, the Pope,--and I have also His +Holiness's instructions to request you, Madame Doucet, together with +your son Fabien, to accompany me back to Rome!" + +Martine Doucet bounced up from her chair, and let fall her knitting. + +"Me--me!" she cried, "ME go to Rome! Never! Wild horses will not drag +me there, nor shall you take my Fabien either! What should I do in +Rome?" + +"Testify personally to the truth of the Cardinal's miracle," answered +Cazeau, gazing coldly at her excited face as though he saw something +altogether strange and removed from human semblance. "And bring your +child into the Holy Presence and relate his history. It will be nothing +but an advantage to you,--for you will obtain a patient hearing, and +the priceless boon of the Papal benediction!" + +"Grand merci!" said Martine, "But I have lived more than half my time +without the Papal benediction, and I can work out the rest of my days +in the same way! Look you!--there is a great English Duke I am told, +who has an only son sorely afflicted, and he has taken this son to +every place in the world where the Church is supposed to work miracles +for the healing of the sick and the helpless,--all to no use, for the +poor boy is as sick and helpless as ever. How is that? What has the +Papal benediction done for him?" + +"Woman, your tongue overrules your senses!" said Cazeau, with rising +temper, "You rail against the Church like an ungrateful heathen, even +though you owe your son's recovery to the Church! For what is Cardinal +Bonpre but a Prince of the Church?" + +Martine stuck her arms akimbo, and surveyed him disdainfully. + +"OH--HE!" she cried, "My tongue overrules my senses, Monsieur Clause +Cazeau! Take care that your cunning does not overrule yourself! Did I +ever deny the worth and the goodness of Cardinal Bonpre? Though if I +were to speak the whole truth, and if I were to believe the +nonsense-talk of a child, I should perhaps give the credit of the +miracle to the stray boy whom the Cardinal found outside the Cathedral +door--"Cazeau started--"For Fabien says that he began to feel strong +the moment that little lad touched him!" + +"The boy!" exclaimed Cazeau--"The boy!" + +A curious silence ensued. Jean Patoux lifting his drowsy eyes gazed +fixedly at the whitewashed ceiling,--Madame, his wife, stood beside him +watching the changes on Cazeau's yellow face--and Martine sat down to +take breath after her voluble outburst. + +"The boy!" muttered Cazeau again--then he broke into a harsh laugh. + +"What folly!" he exclaimed, "As if a little tramp of the streets could +have anything to do with a Church miracle! Martine Doucet, if you were +to say such a thing at the Vatican--" + +"_I_ have not said it," said Martine angrily, "I only told you what my +Fabien says. I am not answerable for the thoughts of the child! That he +is well and strong--that he has the look and the soul of an angel, is +enough for me to praise God all my life. But I shall never say the Laus +Deo at the Vatican,--you will have no chance to trap me in that way!" + +Cazeau stared at her haughtily. + +"You must be mad!" he said, "No one wishes to 'trap' you, as you +express it! The miracle of healing performed on your child is a very +remarkable one,--it should not be any surprise to you that the Head of +the Church seeks to know all the details of it thoroughly, in order to +ratify and confirm it, and perhaps bestow new honour on the eminent +Cardinal--" + +"I rather doubt that!" interposed Patoux slowly, "For I gather from our +Archbishop that the Holy Father was suspicious of some trick rather +than an excess of sanctity!" + +Cazeau reddened through his pallid skin. + +"I know nothing of that!" he said curtly, "But my orders are +imperative, and I shall seek the assistance of the Archbishop to +enforce and carry them out! For the moment I have the honour to wish +you good-night, Monsieur Patoux!--and you also, Mesdames!" + +And he departed abruptly, in an anger which he was at no pains to +disguise. Personally he cared nothing about the miracle or how it had +been accomplished, but he cared very much for his own advancement,--and +he saw, or thought he saw, a chance of very greatly improving his +position among the ecclesiastical authorities if he only kept a cool +head and a clear mind. He recognised that there was a desire on the +part of the Pope to place Cardinal Bonpre under close observance and +restraint on account of his having condoned the Abbe Vergniaud's +confession to his congregation in Paris; and he rightly judged that +anything he could do to aid the accomplishment of that end would not be +without its reward. And the few words which Martine Doucet had let drop +concerning the stray boy who now lived under the Cardinal's protection, +had given him a new idea which he resolved to act upon when he returned +to Rome. For it was surely very strange that an eminent Prince of the +Church should allow himself to be constantly attended by a little tramp +rescued from the street! There was something in it more than +common,--and Cazeau decided that he would suggest a close enquiry being +made on this point. + +Crossing the square opposite the Hotel Poitiers, he hesitated before +turning the corner of the street which led towards the avenue where the +Archbishop's house was situated. The night was fine and calm--the air +singularly balmy,--and he suddenly decided to take a stroll by the +river before finally returning to his rooms for the night. There is one +very quiet bit of the Seine in Rouen where the water flows between +unspoilt grassy banks, which in summer are a frequent resort for lovers +to dream the dreams which so often come to nothing,--and here Cazeau +betook himself to smoke and meditate on the brilliancy of his future +prospects. The river had been high in flood during the week, and the +grass which sloped towards the water was still wet, and heavy to the +tread. But Cazeau limited his walk to the broad summit of the bank, +being aware that the river just below flowed over a muddy quicksand, +into which, should a man chance to fall, it would be death and fast +burial at one and the same moment. And Cazeau set a rather exorbitant +value on his own life, as most men do whose lives are of no sort of +consequence to the world. So he was careful to walk where there was the +least danger of slipping,--and as he lit an excellent cigar, and puffed +the faint blue rings of smoke out into the clear moonlit atmosphere, he +was in a very agreeable frame of mind. He was crafty and clever in his +way,--one of those to whom the Yankee term "cute" would apply in its +fullest sense,--and he had the happy knack of forgetting his own +mistakes and follies, and excusing his own sins with as much ease as +though he were one of the "blood-royal" of nations. Vices he had in +plenty in common with most men,--except that his particular form of +licentiousness was distinguished by a callousness and cruelty in which +there was no touch of redeeming quality. As a child he had loved to +tear the wings off flies and other insects, and one of his keenest +delights in boyhood had been to watch the writhings of frogs into whose +soft bodies he would stick long pins,--the frogs would live under this +treatment four and five hours--sometimes longer, and while observing +their agonies he enjoyed "that contented mind which is a perpetual +feast." Now that he was a man, he delighted in torturing human beings +after the same methods applied mentally, whenever he could find a +vulnerable part through which to thrust a sharp spear of pain. + +"The eminent Cardinal Bonpre!" he mused now; "What is he to me! If I +could force the Archbishop of Rouen into high favour at the Vatican +instead of this foolish old Saint Felix, it would be a better thing for +my future. After all, it was at Rouen that the miracle was +performed--the city should have some credit! And Bonpre has condoned a +heretic . . . he is growing old and feeble--possibly he is losing his +wits. And then there is that boy . . ." + +He started violently as a fantastic shadow suddenly crossed his path, +in the moonlight, and a peal of violent laughter assailed his ears. + +"Enfin! Toi, mon Claude!--enfin!--Grace a Dieu! Enfin!" + +And the crazed creature, known as Marguerite, "La Folle", stood before +him, her long black hair streaming over her bare chest and gaunt arms, +her eyes dilated, and glowing with the mingled light of madness and +despair. + +Cazeau turned a livid white in the moon-rays;--his blood grew icy cold. +What! After two years of dodging about the streets of Rouen to avoid +meeting this wretched woman whom he had tricked and betrayed, had she +found him at last! + +"When did you come back from the fair?" cried the girl shrilly, "I lost +you there, you know-and you man-aged to lose ME--but I have +waited!--waited patiently for news of you! . . . and when none came, I +still waited, making myself beautiful! . . . see!--" And she thrust her +fingers through her long hair, throwing it about in wilder disorder +than ever. "You thought you had killed me--and you were glad!--it makes +all men glad to kill women when they can! But I--I was not killed so +easily,--I have lived!--for this night--just for this night! Listen!" +and she sprang forward and threw herself violently against his breast, +"Do you love me now? Tell me again--as you told me at the fair--you +love me?" + +He staggered under her weight--and tried for a moment to thrust her +back, but she held him in a grip of iron, looking up at him with her +great feverish dark eyes, and grasping his shoulders with thin burning +hands. He trembled;--he was beginning to grow horribly afraid. What +devil had sent this woman whom he had ruined so long as two years ago, +across his path to-night? Would it be possible to soothe her? + +"Marguerite--" he began. + +"Yes, yes, Marguerite! Say it again!" she cried wildly, "Marguerite! +Say it again! Sweet--sweet and tenderly as you said it then! Poor +Marguerite! Your pale ugly face seemed the face of a god to her once, +because she thought you loved her--we all find men so beautiful when we +think they love us! Yes--your cold eyes and cruel lips and hard +brow!--it was quite a different face at the fair! So was mine a +different face--but you!--YOU have made mine what it is now!--look at +it! What!--you thought you could murder a woman and never be found out! +You thought you could kill poor Marguerite, and that no one would ever +know--" + +"Hush, hush!" said Cazeau, his teeth chattering with the cold of his +inward terror, "I never killed you, Marguerite!--I loved you--yes, +listen!" For she was looking up at him with an attentive, almost sane +expression in her eyes. "I meant to write to you after the fair,--and +come to you . . ." + +"Hush, hush!" said the girl, "Let me hear this!--this is strange news! +He meant to write to me--yet he let me die by inches in an agony of +waiting!--till I dropped into the darkness where I am now! He meant to +come to me--oh, it was very easy to come if he had chosen to +come,--before I wandered away into all this strangeness--this +shadow--this confusion and fire! But you see, it is too late now," and +she began to laugh again, "Too late! I have a strange idea that I am +dead, though I seem alive--I am in my grave; and so you must die also +and be buried with me! Yes, you must certainly die!--when one is cruel +and false and treacherous one is not wanted in the world!--better to go +out of it--and it is quite easy,--see!--this way!--" + +And before he realised her intention she sprang back a step--then drew +a knife from her bosom, and with a sort of exultant shriek, stabbed him +furiously once--twice--thrice . . . crying out--"This for your lie! +This for my sorrow!--This for your love!--" + +Reeling back with the agony of her murderous blows he made a fierce +effort to tear the knife from her hands, but she suddenly threw it a +long way from her towards the river, where it fell with a light splash, +and rushing at him twined her arms close about his neck, while her mad +laughter, piercing and terrible, rang out through the quiet air. + +"Together!" she said, "That day at the fair we were together, and +now--we shall be together again! Come!--Come! I have waited long +enough!--your promised letter never came--you have kept me waiting a +long long while--but now I will wait no longer! I have found you!--I +will never let you go!" + +Furiously, despite his wounds, he fought with her,--tried to thrust her +away from him,--and beat her backwards and downwards,--but she had the +strength of ten women in her maddened frame, and she clung to him with +the tenacity of some savage beast. All around them was perfectly +quiet,--there was not a soul in sight,--there was no place near where a +shout for help could have been heard. Struggling still, dizzy, blind +and breathless, he did not see that they were nearing the edge of the +slippery bank--all his efforts were concentrated in an endeavour to +shake off the infuriated creature, made more powerful in her very +madness by the just sense of her burning wrong and his callous +treachery--when all at once his foot slipped and he fell to the ground. +She pounced on him like a tigress, and fastened her fingers on his +throat,--clutching his flesh and breathlessly muttering, +"Never!--never! Never can you hide away from me any more! +Together--together! I will never let you go!--" till, as his eyes +rolled up in agony and his jaw relaxed, she uttered a shout of ecstasy +to see him die! He sank heavily under her fierce grasp which she never +relaxed for an instant, and his dead weight dragged her unconsciously +down--down!--she not heeding or knowing whither she was +moving,--down--still down!--till, as she clung to his inert body, madly +determining not to let it go, she fell,--fast grappling her betrayer's +corpse,--into the ominous stillness of the river. The flood opened, as +it were, to receive the two,--the dead and the living--there was a +slight ripple as though a mouth in the water smiled--then the usual +calm surface reflected the moon once more, and there was no sign of +trouble. Nothing struggled,--nothing floated,--all was perfectly +tranquil. The bells chimed from all the churches in the city a quarter +to midnight, and their pretty echoes were wafted across the water,--no +other sound disturbed the silence,--not a trace of the struggle was +left, save just one smeared track of grass and slime, which, if +examined carefully, might have been found sprinkled with blood. But +with the morning the earth would have swallowed those drops of human +life as silently as the river-quicksand had sucked down the bodies of +the betrayed and the betrayer;--in neither case would Nature have any +hint to give of the tragedy enacted. Nature is a dumb witness to many +dramas,--and it may be that she has eyes and ears and her own way of +keeping records. Sometimes she gives up long-buried secrets, sometimes +she holds them fast;--biding her time until the Judgment Day, when not +only the crime shall be disclosed but the Cause of the crime's +committal. And it may chance in certain cases, such as those of men who +have deliberately ruined the lives of trusting and loving women, that +the Cause may be proved a more criminal thing than the crime! + +That night Martine Doucet slept badly, and had horrible dreams of being +dragged by force to Rome, and there taken before the Pope who at once +deprived her of her son Fabien, and ordered her to be shot in one of +the public squares for neglecting to attend Mass regularly. And Jean +Patoux and his wife, reposing on their virtuous marital couch, +conversed a long time about the unexpected and unwelcome visit of +Claude Cazeau, and the mission he had declared himself entrusted with +from the Vatican,--"And you may depend upon it," said Madame +sententiously, "that he will get his way by fair means or foul! I am +thankful that neither of OUR children were subjects for a +Church-miracle!--the trouble of the remedy seems more troublesome than +the sickness!" + +"No, no," said her husband, "Thou dost not judge these things rightly, +my little one! God worked the remedy, as He works all good things,--and +there would be no trouble about it if it were not for the men's strange +way of taking it. Did ever our Lord do a good or a kind deed without +being calumniated for it? Did not all those men-fools in Jerusalem go +about 'secretly seeking how they might betray him'? That is a lesson +for us all,--and never forget, petite, that for showing them the +straight way to Heaven He was crucified!" + +The next day a telegram was despatched from the Archbishop of Rouen to +Monsignor Moretti at the Vatican:-- + +"Claude Cazeau visited Hotel Poitiers last night, but has since +mysteriously disappeared. Every search and enquiry being made. Strongly +suspect foul play." + + + + +XXVI. + +November was now drawing to a close, and St. Cecilia's Day dawned in a +misty sunrise, half cloud, half light, like smoke and flame +intermingled. Aubrey Leigh, on waking that morning, had almost decided +to leave Rome before the end of the month. He had learned all that was +necessary for him to know;--he had not come to study the antiquities, +or the dark memories of dead empires, for he would have needed to live +at least ten years in the city to gain even a surface knowledge of all +the Romes, built one upon another, in the Rome of to-day. His main +object had been to discover whether the Holy See existed as a grand and +pure institution for the uplifting and the saving of the souls of men; +or whether it had degenerated into an unscrupulous scheme for drawing +the money out of their pockets. He had searched this problem and solved +it. He had perceived the trickery, the dissimulation and hypocrisy of +Roman priestcraft. He had seen the Pope officiate at High Mass in the +Sistine Chapel, having procured the "introduction from very high +quarters" which, even according to ordinary guide-books, is absolutely +necessary,--the "high quarters" in this instance being Monsignor +Gherardi. Apart from this absurdity,--this impious idea of needing an +"introduction" to a sacred service professedly held for the worship of +the Divine, by the Representative of Christ on earth, he had watched +with sickening soul all the tawdry ceremonial so far removed from the +simplicity of Christ's commands,--he had stared dully, till his brows +ached, at the poor, feeble, scraggy old man with the pale, withered +face and dark eyes, who was chosen to represent a "Manifestation of the +Deity" to his idolatrous followers;--and as he thought of all the +poverty, sorrow, pain, perplexity, and bewilderment of the "lost sheep" +who were wandering to and fro in the world, scarcely able to fight the +difficulties of their daily lot, and unable to believe in God because +they were never allowed to understand or to experience any of His +goodness, such a passion of protest arose in him, that he could have +sprung on the very steps of the altar and cried aloud to the aged +Manager of the Stage-scene there, "Away with this sham of Christianity! +Give us the true message of Christ, undefiled! Sell these useless +broidered silks,--these flaunting banners;--take the silver, gold, and +bank-notes which hysterical pilgrims cast at your feet!--this Peter's +Pence, amounting to millions, whose exact total you alone know,--and +come out into the highways and byways of the cities of all lands,--call +to you the lame, the halt, the blind, the sickly, and diseased,--give +comfort where comfort is needed,--defend the innocent--protect the +just, and silence the Voce de la Verita which published under your +authority, callously advocates murder!" + +And though he felt all this, he could only remain a dumb spectator of +the Show in which not the faintest shadow of Christianity according to +Christ, appeared--and when the theatrical pageant was over, he hurried +out into the fresh air half stupefied with the heavy sense of shame +that such things could be, and no man found true enough to the commands +of the Divine Master to shake the world with strong condemnation. + +"Twelve fishermen were enough to preach the Gospel," he thought, "Yet +now there cannot be found twelve faithful souls who will protest +against its falsification!" + +And on St. Cecilia's morning he was in sad and sober mood,--too vexed +with himself to contemplate his future work without a sense of pain and +disappointment and loneliness. He loved Sylvie Hermenstein, and +admitted his passion for her frankly to his own soul, but at the same +time felt that a union with her would be impossible. He had seen her +nearly every day since their first introduction to each other, and had +realised to the height of soul-intoxication the subtle charm of her +delicate beauty, and the sweetness of her disposition. But--(there was +a but in it,--there always is!) he was not sure of her constancy. The +duel between the Marquis Fontenelle and the actor Miraudin had +furnished food for gossip at all the social gatherings in Rome, and +Sylvie's name, freely mentioned as the cause of the dispute, had been +thus given an unpleasant notoriety. And though Aubrey Leigh was far too +chivalrous and noble-natured to judge and condemn a woman without +seeking for the truth from her own lips, he was indescribably annoyed +to hear her spoken of in any connection with the late Marquis. He had a +strong desire to ask Angela Sovrani a few questions concerning the +affair, but hesitated, lest his keen personal anxiety should betray the +depth of his feelings. Then, too, he was troubled by the fact that the +Hermenstein family had been from time immemorial devout Romanists, and +he felt that Sylvie must perforce be a firm adherent to that faith. + +"Better to leave Rome!" he said to himself, "Better to shake off the +witchery of her presence, and get back to England and to work. And if I +cannot kill or quell this love in me, at any rate it shall serve me to +good purpose,--it shall make me a better and a braver man!" + +He had promised to meet the Princesse D'Agramont that morning at the +Catacombs of St. Callistus, to see the illumination of the tomb of St. +Cecilia, which takes place there annually on the Saint's Feast-Day, and +he knew that Angela Sovrani and the Comtesse Hermenstein were to be of +the Princesse's party. He was somewhat late in starting, and hired a +fiacre to drive him along the Via Appia to his destination, but when he +arrived there Mass had already commenced. A Trappist monk, tall and +grim and forbidding of aspect, met him at the entrance to the Catacombs +with a lighted taper, and escorted him in silence through the gloomy +"Oratorium" and passage of tombs,--the torch he carried flinging +ghastly reflections on the mural paintings and inscriptions, till, on +reaching the tomb of St. Cecilia where the murdered saint once lay, +though her remains are now enshrined in the Church of St. Cecilia in +Trastevere, the Trappist suddenly left him at a corner to attend to +other incoming visitors, and disappeared. Aubrey looked around him, +vaguely touched and awed by the solemnity of the scene;--the damp walls +on which old Byzantine paintings of the seventh century were still +visible, though crumbling fast away,--the glimmering lights,--the +little crowd of people pressed together,--the brilliantly illuminated +altar,--the droning accents of the officiating priests;--and presently +the sound of a boy's exquisite young voice rose high and pure, singing +the Agnus Dei. St. Cecilia herself might have been enraptured by such +sweet harmony,--and Aubrey Leigh instinctively bent his head, moved +strongly by the holy and tender fervour of the anthem. Growing +accustomed to the flickering lights, he presently perceived the +Princesse D'Agramont a little in front of him,--and beside her were her +two friends, Angela Sovrani and Sylvie Hermenstein. Sylvie was +kneeling, and her face was hidden. Angela was seated,--and her eyes, +full of the radiance of thought and dreaming genius, were fixed on the +altar. Gradually he moved up till he reached the rough bench where they +were all together--the Princesse D'Agramont saw him at once, and signed +to him to take a vacant place next to Sylvie. He sat down very +gently--afraid to disturb the graceful figure kneeling within touch of +his hand--how devout she seemed, he thought! But as the Agnus Dei +ceased, she stirred, and rose quietly,--as quietly as a bent flower +might lift itself in the grass after the rush of the wind,--and gave +him a gentle salute, then sat down beside him, drooping her soft eyes +over her prayer-book, but not before he had seen that they were wet +with tears. Was she unhappy he wondered? It seemed impossible! Such a +woman could never be unhappy! With beauty, health, and a sunny +temperament,--wealth and independence, what could she know of sorrow! +It is strange how seldom a man can enter into the true comprehension of +a woman's grief, though he may often be the cause of the trouble. A +woman, if endowed with beauty and charm, ought never, in a man's +opinion, to LOOK sad, whatever she may FEEL. It is her business to +smile, and shine like a sunbeam on a spring morning for his delectation +always. And Aubrey Leigh, though he could thoroughly appreciate and +enter into the sordid woes of hard-worked and poverty-stricken +womankind, was not without the same delusion that seems to possess all +his sex,--namely, that if a woman is brilliantly endowed, and has +sufficient of this world's goods to ensure her plenty of friends and +pretty toilettes, she need never be unhappy. Sylvie's tears were +therefore a mystery to him, except when a jealous pang contracted his +generally liberal and tender soul, and he thought, "Perhaps she is +grieving for the Marquis Fontenelle!" He glanced at her every now and +again dubiously,--while the service went on, and the exquisite music +beat rhythmic waves against the ancient walls and roof of the murdered +Saint's tomb,--but her face, fair and childlike, was a puzzle to his +mind,--he could never make out from its expression whether she were +thoughtful or frivolous. Strange mistakes are often made in +physiognomy. Often the so-called "intellectual" face,--the +"touch-me-not" dignity--the "stalking-tragedy" manner, covers a total +lack of brain,--and often a large-featured, seemingly "noble" face, has +served as a mask for untold depths of villainy. The delicate, small +face of Nelson suggested nothing of the giant heroism in his nature, +and many a pretty, and apparently frivolous woman's face, which +suggests nothing but the most thoughtless gaiety, is a disguise for a +strong nature capable of lofty and self-sacrificing deeds. There is +nothing likely to be so deceptive as a human countenance,--for with the +exception of a few uncomfortably sincere persons, we all try to make it +disguise our feelings as much as we can. + +The service concluded, and St. Cecilia solemnly commended once more to +her eternal rest, the people all rose and wandered like black ghosts, +through the darkness of the Catacombs, following the flicker of the +torches carried by the Trappist monks, who always perform the duty of +guides on this occasion,--and, once out in the open air, in the full +blaze of the sunshine which had now broken brilliantly through the mist +of the previously threatening rain-clouds, Aubrey Leigh saw with pain +that Sylvie looked very pale and ill. He ventured to say something +solicitous concerning this to the Princesse D'Agramont, whose bright +dark eyes flashed over him with an enigmatical look, half wonder, half +scorn. + +"What strange creatures men are!" she said satirically, "Even you, +clever, and gifted with an insight into human nature, seem to be +actually surprised that our poor, pretty little Sylvie looks ill! With +half Rome declaring that she WAS the mistress of Fontenelle, and the +other half swearing itself black in the face that she IS the mistress +of Gherardi, she certainly ought to be very happy, ought she not? +Indeed, almost dancing with the joy and consolation of knowing how +pleasant her 'Society' friends are making her life for her!" + +Aubrey's heart beat violently. + +"Princesse," he said, in a low tone of vibrating earnestness, "If I +thought--if I could think such abominable lies were told of her . . ." + +"Chut!" And the Princesse smiled rather sadly,--"It is not like you to +'pretend,' Mr. Leigh--You DO know,--you MUST know--that a coarse +discussion over her name was the cause of the duel between the Marquis +Fontenelle and that miserable vaurien of the stage, Miraudin,--gossip +generously lays the two deaths at her door--and the poor child is as +innocent of harm as the lilies we have just seen left to die in the +darkness of St. Cecilia's tomb. The fact is, she came to Rome to escape +the libertinage and amorous persecution of Fontenelle; and she never +knew till the day she heard of his death, that he had followed her. Nor +did I. In fact, I asked him to be my escort to Rome, and he refused. +Naturally I imagined he was still in Paris. So we were all in the +dark,--and as often happens in such cases, when the world does not know +whom to blame for a disaster, it generally elects to punish the +innocent. All the Saints we have heard about this morning, bear witness +to THAT truth!" + +Aubrey lifted his eyes and looked yearningly at the sylph-like figure +of Sylvie walking a little ahead of him with her friend Angela. + +"I thought," he said hesitatingly,--"I confess, I thought there might +have been something between her and the late Marquis . . ." + +"Of course there was something!" answered the Princesse impatiently, +"Oh, mon Dieu! Plus de sottises! There always IS something where Sylvie +is, Mr. Leigh! She cannot smile or sing, or turn her head, or raise her +eyes, or smell a bunch of violets, without some one of your audacious +sex conceiving the idea of making himself agreeable and indispensable +to her. And when she will not compromise herself--(is that not your +convenient little phrase?)--she is judged much more severely than if +she had done so! And do you know why? Because you men can never endure +defeat in love-matters! You would rather spread abroad the rumour that +you had conquered, than confess that your libertinism had been +perceived and repulsed with indignation and scorn! And I will tell you +another thing if you do not know it. In the frequent destruction of an +innocent woman's reputation. it is a rejected suitor who generally +starts the first rumour and hands the lie over to debased women, +knowing that THEY may be trusted to keep it up!" + +Aubrey flushed, and winced under the lash of her cutting words. "You +are very cruel, Princesse!" he said, "Surely unnecessarily bitterly +cruel!" + +"Cher philosophe, I have loved!" she replied, "And that is why I am +cruel. I have loved and have been deceived in love,--and that kind of +thing often turns the most patient Griselda into an exceptionally +fierce tiger-cat! I am not quite a tiger-cat,--but I confess I do not +like one-sidedness in anything, Nature's tendency being to +equalise--equalise--till we are all flattened down into one level,--the +grave! At the present moment we are treading on a mixture of kings and +saints and heroes,--all one soil you see, and rather marshy,--badly in +need of draining at all times!" She laughed a little. "Frankly, I +assure you, it is to me the most deplorable arrangement that a true +woman should be destined to give all the passion and love of her life +to one man, while the same man scatters his worthless affections about +like halfpence among dozens of drabs! My dear Mr. Leigh, do not frown +at me in that tragic way! I am not blaming YOU! I am not in the least +inclined to put you in the general category,--at least not at present. +You do not look like the ordinary man, though you may be for all that! +Expression is very deceptive!" She laughed again, then added, "Think of +our sweet Angela, for instance! Unless a merciful Providence +intervenes, she will marry Florian Varillo,--and no doubt he will make +her invite Mademoiselle Pon-Pon to her house to dine and sleep!" + +"She loves him!" said Aubrey simply. + +"Yes, she loves him, because she deludes herself with the idea that he +is worthy of love. But if she were to find him out her whole soul would +indignantly repulse him. If she knew all _I_ know of him, she would +rather embrace the mildewy skeleton of San Carlo Borromeo, with the +great jewels glistening in his ghastly eye-sockets, than the well-fed, +fresh coloured Florian Varillo!" + +"If you fear for her happiness, why not warn her?" asked Aubrey. + +"Warn her against the one creature she loves in the world?" said the +Princesse, "Thanks very much! I would rather not. She would never speak +to me again, and I should lose every chance of comforting or helping +her when affliction comes--as of course it is bound to come! Each +individual man or woman makes his or her own life,--we poor 'friends' +can only stand and look on, waiting till they get into the muddle that +we have always foreseen, and then doing our best to drag them out of +it; but God Himself I think, could not save them from falling into the +muddle in the first place. As for Sylvie, I have advised her to leave +Rome and go back to Budapest at once." + +Aubrey started. + +"Why?" + +"Why? Can you ask? Because she is misjudged here on account of +Fontenelle's death, and calumniated and wronged; because the women hate +her for her beauty and wealth, and the men hate her too because she +will not flatter them by accepting their ridiculous attentions. She +will be much happier in her own home,--such a grand old castle it +is!--a cluster of towers and broad battlements, with purple mountains +in the background, and tall pine-trees everywhere . . ." + +"It must be lonely for her!" said Aubrey quickly, "She is so +mignonne--so caressable--so made for love and care and tenderness--" +Here he broke off, vexed with himself for having said so much,--and his +face flushed warmly. The Princesse stopped in her walk and looked at +him straightly. + +"Mr. Leigh," she said, "I think--I hope you are an honest man! And do +you know the best advice I can give you?" + +He answered no word, but his eyes questioned her meaning. + +"Remain honest!" she said, smiling an answer to his look, "Be true to +your own instincts and highest impulses. Do not allow yourself to be +swayed by opinion or rumour; stand clear of both,--and treat even a +woman as you would treat a man!--squarely--candidly--faithfully!" + +She moved on and rejoined her companions, and Aubrey followed. The +Comtesse Hermenstein's carriage was waiting for her, and the Comtesse +herself was just entering it with Angela Sovrani as he came up. + +"Good-bye, Mr. Leigh," she said gently, extending her hand, "I may not +see you again perhaps. I am going home to Buda this week." + +"Must you go?" he asked, looking earnestly into the lovely eyes, +lovelier than ever in their present sorrowful languor. + +"I think so," she answered, "I may wait to see Angela's great picture, +but--" + +"Do not hurry your departure," said Aubrey, speaking in a softer +tone--"Tell me--may I come and see you this evening,--just for a few +moments?" + +His eyes rested on her tenderly, and at the passion of his glance her +own fell. + +"If you like--yes," she murmured. And just then the Princesse +D'Agramont approached. + +"May I drive you home, Mr. Leigh?" she asked. + +"Thank you!" And Aubrey smiled as he accepted the invitation. + +And presently the carriages started, Sylvie's light victoria leading, +and the Princesse D'Agramont's landeau following. Half way back to Rome +a picturesque little beggar, whose motley-coloured rags scarcely +clothed his smooth brown limbs, suddenly sprang out of a corner where +he had been in hiding with a great basket of violets, and threw the +whole fragrant heap dexterously into Sylvie's carriage, crying out, + +"Bellissima Signora! Bellissima! Bellissima! Un soldo! Un soldo!" + +Laughingly Sylvie threw out four or five francs, but Aubrey, carried +beyond all prudence by catching a glimpse of Sylvie's pretty head +gleaming above the great purple cluster of violets she had caught and +held, tossed a twenty-franc piece to the clever little rascal who had +by "suiting the action to the word, and the word to the action" as +Italians so often do, gained a week's earnings in one successful +morning. + +And the evening came, misty but mild, with the moon peering doubtfully +through a fleecy veil of fine floating vapour, which, gathering flashes +of luminance from the silver orb, turned to the witch-lights of an +opal,--and Aubrey made his way to the Casa D'Angeli, which in his own +mind he called the "Palais D'lffry," in memory of the old Breton song +Sylvie had sung. On giving his name he was at once shown up into the +great salon, now made beautiful by the picturesque and precious things +accumulated there, and arranged with the individuality and taste of the +presiding spirit. She was quite alone, seated in a deep easy chair near +the fire,--and her dress, of some faint shell-pink hue, clung about her +in trailing soft folds which fell in a glistening heap of crushed +rose-tints at her feet, making a soft rest for her tiny dog who was +luxuriously curled therein. The firelight shed a warm glow around +her,--flickering brightly on her fair hair, on her white arms, and +small hands where one or two diamonds flashed like drops of dew,--and +Aubrey, as he entered, was conscious of an overpowering sense of +weakness, poverty of soul, narrowness of mind, incompetency of +attainment,--for the tranquillity and sweet perfection of the picture +his eyes rested upon--a picture lovelier than even the Gretchen which +tempted Goethe's Faust to Hell,--made him doubtful of his own +powers--mistrustful of his own worth. In his life of self-renunciation +among the poorer classes, he had grown accustomed to pity women,--to +look upon them more or less as frail, broken creatures needing help and +support,--sometimes to be loved, but far more often to be despised and +neglected. But Sylvie, Comtesse Hermenstein, was not of these,--he +knew, or thought he knew that she needed nothing. Beauty was hers, +wealth was hers, independence of position was hers; and if she had +given a smile or nod of encouragement, lovers were hers to command. +What was he that he should count himself at all valuable in her sight, +even as the merest friend? These despondent thoughts were doubly +embittered by the immense scorn he now entertained for himself that he +should have been such a fool as to listen for a moment to the silly and +malignant gossip circulated among the envious concerning a woman who +was admittedly the superior of those who calumniated her. For clearest +logic shows that wherever superiority exists, inferiority rises up in +opposition, and the lower endeavours to drag the higher down. Such +vague reflections, coursing rapidly through his, brain, gave him an air +of embarrassment and awkwardness not by any means common to him, as he +advanced, and Sylvie, half rising from her chair, greeted him in her +turn with a little touch of shyness which sent a wave of soft colour +over her face, and made her look ten times prettier than ever. + +"I am glad to find you alone--" he began. + +"Yes? I am generally alone," answered Sylvie with a little +smile--"except for Katrine--she would be here to welcome you this +evening, but she has a very bad neuralgic headache--" + +"I am very sorry," murmured Aubrey, with hypocritical earnestness, all +the while devoutly blessing Madame Bozier's timely indisposition. "She +is a great sufferer from neuralgia, I believe?" + +"Yes . . ." and Sylvie, to divert the cloud of embarrassment that +seemed to be deepening rather than dispersing for them both, rang the +bell with a pretty imperativeness that was rather startling to Aubrey's +nerves. + +"What is that for?" he enquired irrelevantly. + +"Only for coffee!" + +Their eyes met,--the mutual glance was irresistible, and they both +laughed. Sylvia's Arab page entered in response to her summons, a +pretty dusky-skinned lad of some twelve years old, picturesquely +arrayed in scarlet, and bearing a quaintly embossed gilt salver with +coffee prepared in the Arabian fashion. + +"Do you like coffee made in this way?" asked Sylvie, as she handed +Aubrey his cup. + +Aubrey's eyes were fixed on the small white hand that looked so dainty, +curled over the trifle of Sevres china that was called a +coffee-cup,--and he answered vaguely, + +"This way? Oh, yes--of course--any way!" + +A faint smile lifted the rosy corners of Sylvie's mouth as she heard +this incoherent reply--and the Arab page rolled his dark eyes up at his +fair mistress with a look of dog-like affectionate enquiry, as to +whether perhaps some fault in his serving had caused that little +playful enigmatical expression on the face which he, in common with +many others of his sex, thought the fairest in the world. The coffee +dispensed and the page gone, there followed a spell of silence. The +fire burned cheerily in the deep chimney, and the great logs cracked +and spluttered as much as to say, "If these two curious people can find +nothing to talk about, we can!" And then, just as luck would have it, a +burning ember suddenly detached itself from the rest and fell out +blazing on the hearth--Sylvie sprang up to push it back, and Aubrey to +assist her,--and then, strange to relate--only the occult influences of +attraction know how it happened--the little difficulty of the burning +ember brought those two other burning embers of humanity together--for +Aubrey, hardly conscious of what he did, caught Sylvie's swaying, +graceful figure as she rose from bending over the fire, closely in his +arms, with a passion which mounted like a wave to tempest height, and +knew no further hesitation or obstacle. + +"Sylvie! Sylvie! I love you!--my darling! I love you!--" + +No answer came, for there was none needed. Her face was hidden on his +breast--but he felt rather than saw the soft white arms and dainty +hands moving tremblingly upwards, till they closed round him in the +dear embrace which meant for him from henceforth the faith and love and +devotion of one true heart through all the sorrows and perplexities as +well as the joys and triumphs of life. And when, with his heart +beating, and all his pulses thrilling with the new ecstacy that +possessed him, he whispered a word or two that caused the pretty golden +head to raise itself timidly--the beautiful dark blue eyes to grow +darker with the tenderness that overflowed the soul behind them, and +the sweet lips to meet his own in a kiss, as soft and fragrant as +though a rose had touched them, it was small blame to him that for a +moment he lost his self-possession, and drawing her closer in his arms, +showered upon her not only kisses, but whispered words of all that +tender endearment which is judged as "foolish" by those who have never +had the privilege of being made the subject of such priceless and +exquisite "fooling." And when they were calmer, and began to think of +the possibility of the worthy Bozier suddenly recovering from her +neuralgia and coming to look after her pupil,--or the undesired but +likely entrance of a servant to attend to the lamps, or to put fresh +wood on the fire, they turned each from the other, with reluctance and +half laughing decorum,--Sylvie resuming her seat by the fire, and +Aubrey flinging himself with happy recklessness in a low fauteuil as +near to her as could be permitted for a gentleman visitor, who might be +considered as enthusiastically expounding literature or science to a +fascinating hostess. And somehow, as they talked, their conversation +did gradually drift from passionate personalities into graver themes +affecting wider interests, and Aubrey, warming into eloquence, gave +free vent to his thoughts and opinions, till noticing that Sylvie sat +very silent, looking into the fire somewhat gravely, he checked himself +abruptly, fancying that perhaps he was treading on what might be +forbidden ground with her whose pleasure was now his law. As he came to +this sudden pause, she turned her soft eyes towards him tenderly, with +a smile. + +"Well!" she said, in the pretty foreign accent which distinguished her +almost perfect English, "And why do you stop speaking? You must not be +afraid to trust me with your closest thoughts,--because how can our +love be perfect if you do not?" + +"Sweetheart!" he answered, catching the white hand that was so +temptingly near his own, "Our love IS perfect!--and so far as I am +concerned there shall never be a cloud on such a dazzling sky!" + +She smiled. + +"Ah, you talk romance just now!" she said, "But Aubrey, I want our love +to be something more than romance--I want it to be a grand and helpful +reality! If I am not worthy to be the companion of your very soul, you +will not, you cannot love me long. Now, no protestations!" For he had +possessed himself of the dear little hand again, and was covering it +with kisses--"You see, it is very sweet just now to sit by the fire +together, and look at each other, and feel how happy we are--but life +does not go on like that. And your life, my Aubrey, belongs to the +world . . ." + +"To you!--to you!" said Aubrey passionately, "I give it to you! You +know the song?--I set my life in your hand Mar it or make it sweet,--I +set my life in your hand, I lay my heart at your feet!" + +Sylvie rose impulsively, and leaning over his chair kissed his forehead. + +"Yes, I know! And I know you mean what you say! I could not imagine you +telling an untruth,--not even in making love!" and she laughed, "Though +there are many of your sex who think any amount of lies permissible +under similar circumstances! And it is just because I have found men +such practised liars, that I have the reputation of being heartless. +Did you ever think me heartless?" + +Aubrey hesitated a moment. + +"Yes," he admitted at last, frankly, "I did till I knew better. I was +told--" + +"Stop! I know all you were told!" said Sylvie, drawing her slim figure +up with a pretty dignity as she moved back to her place by the +fire--"You were told that I was the cause of the death of the Marquis +Fontenelle. So I was, unhappily--but not through my own fault. The +actor Miraudin,--known to be one of the most coarse-minded and brutal +of men,--slandered me in public,--the Marquis defended me. Hence the +combat and its fatal end, which no one has deplored more bitterly than +I. Miraudin was never a gentleman,--Fontenelle could have been one had +he chosen. And I confess I cared very much for him at one time!" + +"You loved him," said Aubrey, trying to master a pang of jealousy. + +"Yes! I loved him!--till he proved himself unworthy of love." + +There was a silence. + +"I tell you all this," said Sylvie then slowly and emphatically, "that +you may know me at once as I am. I wish to hide nothing from you. I +have read all your books--I know your views of life--your hatred of +dissimulation--your contempt of a lie! In your love for me, you must +have complete knowledge of my nature, and confidence in my truth. I +would never give my life to any man unless he trusted me +absolutely,--unless I was sure he felt I was a real helpmate for him. I +love you--but I also love your work and your aims; and I go with all +your thoughts and wish to share all your responsibilities. But I must +feel that you will never misjudge me,--never set me down on the level +of mean and small-natured women, who cannot sacrifice themselves or +their personal vanities for another's sake. It is not for me to say +that the calumnies circulated concerning me are untrue,--it is for my +life to show and PROVE they are not! But I must be trusted--not +suspected; and if you give me your life as you say, I will give mine to +help make yours happier, asking from you in return just your +faith--your FAITH as well as your love!" + +Like a fair queen she stood, royal in her look, bearing and attitude, +and Aubrey bent his head low in reverence before her as he once more +kissed her hand. + +"My wife!" he said simply. + +And the silence that followed was as that of God's benediction on that +perfect marriage which is scarcely ever consummated in all the +world,--the marriage of two souls, which like twin flames, unite and +burn upward clear to Heaven, as One. + + + + +XXVII. + +Society soon learned the news of the Countess Hermenstein's betrothal +to the "eccentric Englishman," Aubrey Leigh,--and with its million +tongues discussed the affair in all tones,--most people preferring to +say, with the usual "society" kindness, that--"Leigh was not quite such +a self-sacrificing idealist as he seemed to be,--he was going to marry +for money." Some few ventured to remark that Sylvie Hermenstein was +charming in herself and well worth winning,--but the more practical +pooh-poohed this view of the case at once. "Pretty women are to be had +by the score," they said, "It is the money that tells!" Aubrey Leigh +caught these rumours, and was in a manner stung by them,--he said very +little however, and to all the congratulations he received, merely gave +coldly civil thanks. And so the gossips went to work again in their own +peculiar way, and said, "Well! She will have an iceberg for a husband, +that is one thing! A stuck up, insolent sort of chap!--not a bit of go +in him!" Which was true,--Aubrey had no "go." "Go" means, in modern +parlance, to drink oneself stupid, to bet on the most trifling passing +events, and to talk slang that would disgrace a stable-boy, as well as +to amuse oneself with all sorts of mean and vulgar intrigues which are +carried on through the veriest skulk and caddishness;--thus Aubrey was +a sad failure in "tip-top" circles. But the "tip-top" circles are not a +desirable heaven to every man;--and Aubrey did not care much as to what +sort of comments were passed on himself, provided he could see Sylvie +always "queen it" over her inferiors in that graceful, gracious way of +conquest which was her special peculiarity and charm. Among her friends +no one perhaps was happier in Sylvie's happiness than Angela Sovrani; +her nature was of that rare quality which vibrates like a harp to every +touch, and the joy of others swept over her with a gladness which made +her more glad than if she had received some priceless boon for her own +benefit. Florian Varillo was exceedingly angry at the whole +affair,--and whenever Sylvie's betrothal was spoken of he assumed an +expression of pained and personal offence which was almost grotesque. + +"Such a marriage is ridiculous!" he declared,--"Everyone can see how +utterly unsuited the two are in tastes, habits and opinions! They will +rue the day they ever met!" + +And not all the gentle remonstrances of his own fiancee Angela, could +soothe his ruffled humour, or make him accept the inevitable with +grace. Angela was exceedingly troubled and puzzled by his almost +childish waywardness,--she did not yet understand the nature of a man +who was to himself all in all, and who could not endure the idea that +any woman whom he personally condescended to admire should become the +possession of another, no matter how completely that woman might be +beyond his own reach. Poor Angela! She was very simple--very foolish +indeed;--she never imagined it could be possible for a man to carry on +five or six love-affairs at once, and never be found out. Yet this was +the kind of life her "ideal" found the most suitable to his habit and +temperament,--and he had made a mental note of Sylvie Hermenstein as +one whom he proposed to add to his little list of conquests. So that +her engagement of marriage to one who, though reserved in manner and +without "go," was yet every inch a gentleman, and a determined opposer +of sophistry and humbug, had considerably disturbed his little plans, +and the unsettlement of anything he had set his heart upon greatly +displeased him. He generally had his own way in most things, and could +not at all comprehend why he was not to have it now. But among all the +people who discussed the intended marriage there were two who were so +well satisfied as to be almost jubilant, and these were the Monsignori +Moretti and Gherardi. These worthies met together in one of the private +chambers set apart for the use of the Papal court in the Vatican, and +heartily congratulated each other on the subjugation and enthralment of +Aubrey Leigh, which meant, as they considered, the consequent removal +of a fierce opponent to the Roman Catholic movement in England. + +"Did I not tell you," said Moretti, as he untied some papers he had +been carrying, and sat down at a table to glance over them, "Did I not +tell you that when all other arguments fail, the unanswerable one of +woman can be brought in to clinch every business?" + +Gherardi, though in a way contented, was not altogether so sure of his +goal. He remembered, with an uncomfortable thrill of doubt, the little +skirmish of words he had had with the fair Sylvie in the Pamphili woods. + +"You take your thoughts for deeds, and judge them as fully accomplished +while they are still in embryo!" he said, "It is true that the +engagement of marriage is settled,--but can you be certain that in +religious matters the wife may not go with her husband?" + +"What!" exclaimed Moretti, opening his dark eyes quickly, as a flash of +hell-fire illumined them at the very idea, "Do you suggest that Sylvie +Hermenstein,--the last of her race--a race which, back to its earliest +source, has been distinguished for its faithful allegiance to +Mother-Church, and has moreover added largely to the Papal +revenues--could be otherwise than our obedient and docile daughter? Per +la Santissima Madonna!--if I thought she could turn against us her +marriage should never take place!" + +And he brought his fist down with a fierce blow on the papers before +him. + +"The marriage should never take place!" echoed Gherardi, "How could you +prevent it?" + +"The Pope himself should intervene!" said Moretti, with increasing +fury, losing a little of his self-control, "Gran Dio! Conceive for a +moment the wealth of the Hermensteins being used to promulgate the +reformer Leigh's threadbare theories, and feed his rascal poor! Do you +know what Sylvie Hermenstein's fortune is? No, I suppose you do not! +But I do! She tries to keep it a secret, but I have made it my business +to find out! It is enormous!--and it is ever increasing. With all the +fanciful creature's clothes and jewels and unthinking way of living her +life, she spends not a quarter, nor half a quarter of her income,--and +yet you actually venture to suggest that her power is so slight over +the man who is now her promised husband, that she would voluntarily +allow him to use all that huge amount of money as he pleased, OUTSIDE +the Church?" + +Moretti spoke with such passionate insistence that Gherardi thought it +prudent not to irritate him further by argument. So he merely said, + +"You expect her to persuade him to embrace our faith?" + +"Naturally!" answered Moretti, "And she can, and will do so. If she +cannot or will not, she must be MADE to do so!" + +He bent over his papers again and rustled them impatiently, but his +hand trembled. The pale December sunlight glittered through a +stained-glass window above him, and cast deep violet rays about his +chair,--Gherardi stood where the same luminance touched his pale face +with a crimson glow as of fire. + +"This is a busy morning with us," said Moretti, without looking up, +"The excommunication of Denis Vergniaud will be pronounced +to-day,--and, what is even more important,--Cardinal Bonpre is summoned +by His Holiness's command to wait upon him this afternoon, bringing the +boy,--that boy who is always with him--" + +"Ah, there is a history there!" interrupted Gherardi, "It should be +remembered that this boy was a witness of the miracle in Rouen, and he +was also present at the Vergniaud scandal in Paris--he should have been +sent for ere now. He, more than anyone, must surely know how the +miracle was accomplished,--for the worthy Felix tells me he is 'wise +beyond his years'!" + +"So! His wisdom will be put to the test to-day!" said Moretti coldly, +"Do you not think it strange"--here he raised his eyes from his papers, +"and somewhat incriminating too--always supposing the miracle is a case +of conspiracy--that no trace has been discovered of the man Claude +Cazeau?" + +Gherardi had moved to a book-case, and was standing close to it, +turning over a vellum-bound manuscript. + +"Yes--the whole business looks as black as murder!" he said. + +Moretti looked at him sharply. + +"Murder? You suppose--" + +"That Claude Cazeau has been murdered? Certainly I suppose it! It is +more than a week now since we heard that he had mysteriously +disappeared, and still there is no news. What can it be but murder? But +I do not for a moment suppose that our good Saint Felix is concerned in +it!" + +And he smiled, turning over the vellum volume carelessly. + +Moretti knitted his dark brows. + +"No--no!" he said musingly, "That would not be possible! Cardinal +Bonpre is not that kind of man--he would rather bear the heaviest +weight of punishment for himself than allow another to suffer. That I +KNOW of him;--and though I do not admire his extreme views on this +point, and do not think them politic, I give him full credit for this +particular and uncommon form of--eccentricity!" + +"Or Christianity!" said Gherardi, still smiling. + +Moretti pushed aside his papers, and leaning his head on one hand +frowned meditatively at the amethyst light which streamed radiantly +through the jewel-like window above him. "Yes--or Christianity, if you +like!" he said, "For Christianity pur et simple, WOULD be eccentricity. +In its primitive simplicity it is an impossible creed. Founded by the +Divine it needs divine beings to comprehend and follow it,--beings not +of this world nor addicted to the things of this world. And to exist in +the world, made of the world's clay, and the world's inherited +associations, and yet not be of it, is to be judged crazed! True, there +have been saints and martyrs,--there are saints and martyrs now, +unknown and unheard of, but nevertheless consumed by flames more cruel +perhaps than those which physically burn the flesh;--idealists, +thinkers, dreamers, heralds of future progress,--and how are they +estimated? As madmen all! To be human, and yet above humanity, is the +supreme sin! For that very affront the multitude cried out, 'Not this +man, but Barabbas!' And to this day we all prefer Barabbas to Christ. +Hence the power of the Church!" + +Gherardi put back the volume he had been glancing at, on its shelf, and +looked at his confrere with a certain amount of admiring respect. He +had been long an interested student of the various psychological +workings of Moretti's mind,--and he knew that Moretti's scheming brain +was ever hard at work designing bold and almost martial plans for +securing such conversions to the Church as would seriously trouble the +peace of two or three great nations. Moretti was in close personal +touch with every crowned head in Europe; he was acquainted more closely +than anyone alive with the timidities, the nervous horrors, the sudden +scruples, the sickening qualms of conscience, and the overwhelming +fears of death which troubled the minds of certain powerful personages +apparently presenting a brave front to the world,--and he held such +personages in awe by the very secrets which they had, in weak moments, +entrusted to him. Gherardi even was not without his own fears,--he +instinctively felt that Moretti knew more about himself than was either +safe or convenient. + +"We all live for Barabbas," pursued Moretti, an ironical smile playing +on his thin lips, "Not for Christ! Barabbas, in the shape of the +unscrupulous millionaire, robs the world!--and we share the spoils, +pardon his robberies, and set him free. But whosoever lives outside +Dogma, serving God purely and preaching truth,--him we crucify!--but +our Robber,--our murderer of Truth, we set at liberty! Hence, as I said +before, the power of the Church!" + +Carried away by his thoughts, he rose, and pacing the room, talked more +to himself than to Gherardi. + +"The Church supports the robber, because he is always a coward and +cannot stand alone. The murderer of his fellow-men's good name is +naturally a liar, and fears lest his lies should find him out. Fear! +That is the keynote on which we of Rome play our invincible march of +triumph! The Church appeals to the ignorant, the base, the sensual, the +false, and the timorous; and knowing that they never repent, but are +only afraid, retains them by fear!--fear, not love! Christ taught +love--but hate is the more popular virtue! Hence again, the power of +the Church!" + +"Your argument is perfectly orthodox!" said Gherardi, with a smile. + +"Hate is a grand, a strong quality!" went on Moretti, "It makes +nations, it builds up creeds! If men loved one another what should they +need of a Church? But Hate!--the subtle sense which makes the +ultra-respectable thank God that he is not as other men are!--the +fierce emotion which almost touches ecstacy when the wronged individual +thinks his enemy will go to hell!--the fine fever which sets father +against son, creed against creed, nation against nation!--hate is the +chief mainspring of human motives! From hate and envy spring emulation +and conquest--and we of the Church encourage the haters to hate on! +They make Us!--they emulate each other in the greed of their gifts to +us, which give them notoriety and advertise their generosity,--WE fan +the flame and encourage the fury! For the world must have a +religion--it crucified Christ, but the Church, built up in His name, +takes just and daily revenge for His murder! We do not save--we kill! +We do not rescue--we trample down! We humiliate,--we crush wherever we +can, and it is well and fitting we should do so! For Humanity is a +brute beast, and serves us best under the lash. Rome made many a +blunder in the old days of barbarity and ignorance--but now we have a +thousand forces put into our hands instead of one or two,--forces to +terrorise--forces to compel!--and the power of Rome wielded by the +Popes of the days to come, shall be indeed a power irresistible!" + +He stood enrapt,--his hand upraised, his eyes flashing, then recalling +himself, turned abruptly on Gherardi with an impatient gesture. + +"You can repeat all this," he said sarcastically, "in your next +eloquent discourse with Aubrey Leigh! It will save you the trouble of +thinking! His influence with the English masses will be but a brief +phenomenon,--the blind and brutal stupidity of the people he seeks to +serve will soon dishearten and discourage him, and then he will come to +us through his wife, and his conversion will be a triumph worth +winning,--a step in the right direction. And now to other matters. +These papers," and he sat down at the table once more, "are, I think, +sufficiently in order to be placed before His Holiness. But you may as +well look through them with me first. Later on, the affair of Cardinal +Bonpre will occupy all our time . . ." + +"It is an 'affair' then?" asked Gherardi, "The 'saint' is in trouble?" + +"All 'saints' get into trouble!" answered Moretti, "It is only sinners +who receive honour! Cardinal Bonpre has made the fatal mistake of +reading Jesus Christ's Gospel instead of Church Doctrine! His creed is +Love,--his duty, as I have just explained to you, if he would be a +faithful son of the Church, is Hate!" + +"Love forms no part of your nature then?" asked Gherardi, hardly +knowing why he put the question, yet curious as to the answer. + +"I am of the world!" replied Moretti coldly, "And I hate accordingly. I +hate, and in my hate, aspire to crush those who in turn hate me! That +is the human code, and one that must be strictly practised by all who +would rule mankind. Never do anything for those who can do nothing for +you! Firmly oppose those who oppose you! Revenge yourself on those who +despitefully use you! We do revenge ourselves,--and we reward all who +help us to our revenge! For example, Denis Vergniaud has cast +opprobrium on his calling, and made a scandal and a shame of the Church +before his congregation in Paris;--we excommunicate him! It is no use, +but we do it on principle. And we are still unable to explain away, or +offer any excuse for Cardinal Bonpre's mistake in condoning and +pardoning his offence. Therefore it follows as you say, that the +'saint' is in trouble!" + +"Notwithstanding the miracle?" + +"Notwithstanding the miracle!" echoed Moretti, "For the miracle is +doubtful. The Holy Father is not satisfied of its truth. Yes--there is +no doubt about it, Saint Felix is in trouble! It would be better for +him had he never come out of his long retirement. But perhaps he was +compelled to look after his Rouen foundling!" + +A smile flickered faintly over Gherardi's face, but he said not a word +in answer. Discovering an error in one of the documents he was +examining, he called Moretti's attention to it, and the conversation +drifted to everyday trivial subjects. But the thoughts of both men were +elsewhere, and not even the news received that morning of the bequest +of one hundred thousand pounds to the Shrine of Lourdes from a deluded +believer in the miraculous Virgin there, absorbed so much of their +reflective brain powers as the imminent trial--for it was little +else--of Cardinal Bonpre, in the presence of the boy to whom he so +openly gave his confidence and protection. + +Meanwhile, the good Felix himself was very sorely troubled. During his +sojourn in Rome, he had grown thinner and paler, and the fine, +spiritual delicacy of his features had become more intensified, while +his clear blue eyes shone from under their deeply arched brows with a +flashing luminance that was almost unearthly. Often, when about to +enter his room with unthinking haste, his brother-in-law, Prince +Pietro, would see him kneeling before his crucifix absorbed, one might +almost say entranced, in prayer. And he would softly move away again +with a deep sense of awe, and a feeling that some higher power than any +on earth, sustained the venerable prelate, and inspired both his words +and actions. But with all his patient, sometimes passionate prayer, +earnest meditations, and constant study of the Gospels, the Cardinal +himself was more or less heavy-hearted,--and his Master's phrase--"My +soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death!" was one which he often +breathed in the solitude and extremity of his own position. The news of +the disappearance of Claude Cazeau had materially added to his +difficulties--and now he had been commanded, with a certain +peremptoriness in the summons, to wait upon the Sovereign Pontiff in a +private audience, bringing with him the boy who could, or would give no +further account of himself than that of a world's waif and stray. +Prepared for this visit and arrayed in all the splendour befitting his +rank in the Church, the gentle old man looked paler and more fragile +than ever, and the vague trouble he felt at the express injunction laid +upon him concerning Manuel, showed itself in the deep furrows of +anxiety marked upon his brow, and the pain in his thoughtful eyes. +Prince Pietro's own man-servant had assisted him to dress for the +impending ceremonial, and just as the last folds of his regal attire +were being set in place a knock was heard at the door of his apartment, +and Prince Pietro himself entered. + +"A telegram for you, brother Felix," he said, "I have brought it +myself, thinking it may perhaps immediately concern your visit to the +Pope to-day." + +The Cardinal, with a gentle word of thanks, opened the envelope handed +to him. + +"Praise be to God!" he said simply, as he read its contents, "Vergniaud +has passed to the Higher tribunal!" + +And he crossed himself reverently on brow and breast. + +"Dead?" exclaimed Sovrani. + +"To this world, yes!" answered Bonpre, "He died peacefully last night. +This message is from his son." + +A faint ironical smile flickered over Sovrani's dark features. + +"The ban of excommunication has not been declared!" he said, "It will +be a somewhat belated announcement!" + +Cardinal Bonpre folded the telegram, ready to take with him to the +Vatican. + +"The Church can excommunicate even the dead!" he said sorrowfully, "If +such an extreme measure is judged politic it will doubtless be carried +out!" + +"Wonderful Christian charity," murmured Sovrani under his breath, "to +excommunicate a corpse! For that is all they can do. The Soul of the +man is God's affair!" + +Cardinal Bonpre answered nothing, for just then the young Manuel +entered the room, in readiness to accompany his venerable protector and +friend to the Vatican, and the old man's eyes rested upon him with a +wistful, wondering trouble and anxiety which he could not conceal. +Manuel smiled up at him--that rare and beautiful smile which was like +sunshine in darkness--but the Cardinal's sad expression did not alter. + +"The Abbe Vergniaud is no more," he said gently, as the boy drew near, +"His sins and sufferings are ended!" + +"And his joys have begun!" answered Manuel, "For he set his life right +with the world before he left it!" + +"Child, you talk as a very wise man might!" said Prince Sovrani, his +rugged brows smoothing into a kindly smile. "But the unfortunate Abbe +is not likely to be judged in that way. It will be said of him that he +scandalized the world before he left it!" + +"When truth is made scandal, and right is made wrong," said Manuel, "It +will surely be a God-forgotten world!" + +"WILL be? I think it is already!" said Prince Pietro. "It is said that +the patience of the Almighty is unwearied,--but I do not feel sure of +that in my own mind. Science teaches us that many a world has been +destroyed before now,--and sometimes I feel as if our turn were soon +coming!" + +Here the man-servant having completely finished arranging the +Cardinal's attire, made respectful obeisance and left the room, and the +Cardinal himself proceeded into the adjoining salon, where he found his +niece Angela waiting to see him. + +"Dearest uncle," she said, making her pretty genuflection as he +approached her, "I must ask you to forgive me for coming to your rooms +just now when your time is so much taken up, and when I know you have +to go to the Vatican,--but I want to tell you one thing that may +perhaps please you,--my picture is finished!" + +"Finished!" echoed the Cardinal--then tenderly taking her hands, he +added, "I congratulate you, dear child, with all my heart!--and I pray +that the reward of your long and patient toil may be worthy of you. And +when are we to see your work?" + +"To-morrow!" answered Angela, and her cheeks flushed, and her eyes +sparkled, "I shall be busy all today arranging it for exhibition in the +best light. To-morrow morning Florian is to see it first,--then my +father will come, and you--and Manuel!" and she smiled as she met the +boy's gentle look,--"And Queen Margherita has promised to be here at +mid-day." + +"Florian first! And then your father!" said Prince Pietro, with a touch +of melancholy in his tone, "Ah well, Angela mia!--I suppose it must +always be so! The lover's love--the stranger's love,--is greater than +the love of years, the love of home! Yet sometimes, I fancy that the +lover's love often turns out to be a passing impulse more than a real +truth, and that the home-love reasserts itself afterwards with the best +and the holiest power!" + +And not trusting himself to say more, he abruptly left the room. Angela +looked after him, a little troubled. The Cardinal took her hand. + +"He is your father, dear girl!" he said gently, "And he cannot but feel +it hard--at first--to be relegated to a second place in your +affections." + +Angela sighed. + +"I cannot help it!" she said, "Florian is my very life! I should have +no ambition--no joy in anything if he did not love me!" + +Over the Cardinal's fine open face there came an expression of great +pain. + +"That is idolatry, Angela!" he said gravely, "We make a grievous +mistake when we love human beings too deeply,--for they are not the +gods we would make of them. Like ourselves, they are subject to sin, +and their sins often create more unhappiness for us than our own!" + +"Ah! But we can save our beloved ones from sin!" answered Angela, with +a beautiful upward look of exaltation,--"That is love's greatest +mission!" + +"It is a mission that cannot always be fulfilled"--said the Cardinal +sorrowfully,--then, after a pause he added--"The Abbe Vergniaud is +dead." + +"Dead!" And Angela turned very pale. "His son--" + +"His son sends the message--" and he handed her the telegram he had +received. She read it, and returned it to him,--then made the sign of +the cross. + +"May he rest in peace!" He died true!" + +"Yes, he died true. But remember, child, neither Truth nor Love are +spared their crown of thorns. Love cannot save--would that it could! It +may warn--it may pray--it may watch--it may hope,--but if despite its +tenderness, the sinner sins, what can love do then?" + +"It can pardon!" said Angela softly. + +Deeply moved, the good Felix took her hand and patted it gently. + +"Dear child, God grant your powers of forgiveness may never be put to +the test!" he ejaculated fervently. "The one unforgivable sin according +to our Lord, is treachery;--may THAT never come your way!" + +"It can never come my way through Florian!" answered Angela +smiling,--"and for the rest--I do not care!" + +Manuel stood by silently, with thoughtful, downcast eyes--but at these +last words of hers he raised his head and looked full at her with a +touch of melancholy in his straight regard. + +"Ah, that is wrong!" he said, "You SHOULD care!--you MUST care for the +rest of the world. We must all learn to care for others more than +ourselves. And if we will not learn, God sometimes takes a hard way of +teaching us!" + +Angela's head drooped a little. Then she said, + +"I DO care for others,--I think perhaps my picture will prove that for +me. But the tenderness I have for the sorrows of the world is +impersonal; and perhaps if I analysed myself honestly, I feel even that +through my love for Florian. If he were not in the world, I am afraid I +should not love the world so much!" + +The Cardinal said no more, for just then a servant entered and +announced that His Eminence's carriage was in waiting. Angela bending +low once more before her uncle, kissed his apostolic ring, and said +softly--"To-morrow!" + +And Manuel echoed the word, "To-morrow!" as she bade them both a +smiling "addio" and left the apartment. When she had gone, and he was +left alone with his foundling, the Cardinal stood for a few minutes +absorbed in silent meditation, mechanically gathering his robes about +him. After a pause of evident hesitancy and trouble, he approached the +boy and gently laid a hand upon his shoulder. + +"Manuel," he said, "Do you understand whom it is that you are going to +see?" + +"Yes," replied Manuel quickly, "The Head of the Church. One who holds +an office constituted by man long after Christ. It was founded upon the +name and memory of the Apostle Peter, who publicly denied all knowledge +of His Master. That is how I understand the person I am to see to-day!" + +Cardinal Bonpre's face was a study of varying expressions as he heard +these words. + +"My child, you must not say these things in the Pope's presence!" + +Manuel lifted his radiant eyes with a look of calm confidence. + +"Dear friend, you must trust me!" he said, "They have sent for me, have +they not, to this place you call the Vatican? They desire to see me, +and to question me. That being so, whatever God bids me say, I will +say; fearing nothing!" + +A strong tremour shook the Cardinal's nerves,--he essayed to find words +of wisdom and instruction, but somehow language failed him,--he felt +blinded and strengthless, and warned by this impending sense of +feebleness, made an instant effort to brace himself up and master the +strange fainting that threatened to overwhelm him as it had frequently +done before. He succeeded, and without speaking again to Manuel, but +only bending one earnest look upon him, he quitted his rooms and +proceeded slowly down the great marble staircase of the Palazzo +Sovrani,--a staircase famous even in Rome for its architectural +beauty--Manuel stepping lightly at his side--and reaching his carriage, +entered it with his foundling, and was rapidly driven away. + +Arrived at the Vatican, the largest palace in the world, which +contains, so historians agree in saying, no less than eleven thousand +different apartments with their courts and halls and corridors, they +descended at the Portone di Bronzo,--the Swiss Guard on duty saluting +as the Cardinal passed in. On they went into the vestibule, chilly and +comfortless, of the Scala Pia;--and so up the stone stairs to the +Cortile do San Damaso, and thence towards the steps which lead to the +Pope's private apartments. Another Guard met them here and likewise +saluted,--in fact, almost at every step of the way, and on every +landing, guards were on duty, either standing motionless, or marching +wearily up and down, the clank, clank of their footsteps waking dismal +echoes from the high vaulted roofs and uncarpeted stone corridors. At +last they reached the Sala Clementina, a vast unfurnished hall, rich +only with mural decorations and gilding, and here another Guard met +them who, without words, escorted the Cardinal and his young companion +through a number of waiting-rooms, made more or less magnificent by +glorious paintings, wonderful Gobelin tapestries, and unique +sculptures, till they reached at last what is called the anti-camera +segreto, where none but Cardinals are permitted to enter and wait for +an audience with the Supreme Pontiff. At the door of this "Holy of +Holies" stood a Guarda Nobile on sentry duty,--but he might have been a +figure of painted marble for all the notice he took of their approach. +As they passed into the room, which was exceedingly high and narrow, +Monsignor Gherardi rose from a table near the window, and received the +Cardinal with a kind of stately gravity which suitably agreed with the +coldness and silence of the general surroundings. A small lean man, +habited in black, also came forward, exchanging a few low whispered +words with Gherardi as he did so, and this individual, after saluting +the Cardinal, mysteriously disappeared through a little door to the +right. He was the Pope's confidential valet,--a personage who was +perhaps more in the secrets of everybody and everything than even +Gherardi himself. + +"I am afraid we shall have to keep you waiting a little while," said +Gherardi, in his smooth rich voice, which despite its mellow ring had +something false about it, like the tone produced by an invisible crack +in a fine bell, "Your young friend," and here he swept a keen, +inquisitive glance over Manuel from face to feet, and from feet to face +again, "will perhaps be tired?" + +"I am never tired!" answered Manuel. + +"Nor impatient?" asked Gherardi with a patronising air. + +"Nor impatient!" + +"Wonderful boy! If you are never tired or impatient, you will be +eminently fitted for the priesthood," said Gherardi, his lip curling +with a faint touch of derision, "For even the best of us grow sometimes +weary in well-doing!" + +And turning from him with a movement which implied both hauteur and +indifference, he addressed himself to Bonpre, whose face was clouded, +and whose eyes were troubled. + +"The unfortunate affair of our friend Vergniaud will be settled +to-day," he began, when the Cardinal raised one hand with a gentle +solemnity. + +"It is settled!" he returned, "Not even the Church can intervene +between Vergniaud and his Maker now!" + +Gherardi uttered an exclamation of undisguised annoyance. + +"Dead!" he ejaculated, his forehead growing crimson with the anger he +inwardly repressed--"Since when?" + +"Last night he passed away," replied the Cardinal. "according to the +telegram I have just received from--his son. But he has been dying for +some time, and what he told me in Paris was no lie. I explained his +exact position to you quite recently, on the day you visited my niece +at her studio. He had a serious valvular disease of the heart,--he +might, as the doctors said, have lived, at the utmost, two years--but +the excitement of recent events has evidently proved too much for him. +As I told you, he felt that his death might occur at any moment, and he +did not wish to leave the world under a false impression of his +character. I trust that now the Holy Father may be inclined to pardon +him, in death, if not in life!" + +Gherardi walked up and down the narrow room impatiently. + +"I doubt it!" he said at last, "I very much doubt it! The man may be +dead, but the scandal he caused remains. And his death has made the +whole position very much more difficult for you, my lord Cardinal! For +as Vergniaud is not alive to endure the penalty of his offence, it is +probable YOU may have to suffer for having condoned it!" + +Felix Bonpre bent his head gently. + +"I shall be ready and willing to suffer whatever God commands!" he +answered, "For I most faithfully believe that nothing can injure my +soul while it rests, as I humbly place it, in His Holy keeping!" + +Gherardi paused in his pacing to and fro, and gazed at the frail +figure, and fine old face before him, with mingled compassion and +curiosity. + +"You should have lived in the early days of the Faith," he said, "You +are too literal--too exact in your following of Christian ethics. That +sort of thing does not work nowadays. Dogma must be maintained!" + +"What is dogma?" asked Manuel suddenly. + +Gherardi gave him a careless glance. + +"Cardinal Bonpre must teach you that in extenso!" he replied, with a +little smile--"But briefly,--dogma is an opinion or theory derived from +the Gospels, and formulated as doctrine, by the Church." + +"An opinion or theory of man, founded on the words of Christ?" said +Manuel. + +"Just so!" + +"But if Christ was divine, should any man presume to formulate a theory +on what He Himself said?" asked Manuel. "Are not his own plain words +enough?" + +Gherardi stared at the young speaker half angrily. + +"His own plain words enough?" he repeated mechanically. "What do you +mean, boy?" + +"I mean," answered Manuel simply, "that if He were truly a +Manifestation of God in Himself, as the Church declares Him to be, _I_ +WONDER THAT MAN CAN DARE TO FORMULATE MERE DOGMA ON GOD'S OWN +UTTERANCE!" + +There was a dead pause. After a few minutes of chill silence Gherardi +addressed the Cardinal. + +"Your young friend has a dangerous tongue!" he said sternly, "You had +best warn or command him that he set a guard upon it in the Holy +Father's presence!" + +"There is no need to either warn or command me!" said Manuel, a smile +irradiating his fair face as he met the angry eyes of Gherardi with the +full calmness of his own--"I have been sent for, and I am here. Had I +not been sent for I should not have come. Now that I have been called +to answer for myself I will answer,--with truth and without fear. For +what can any man cause me to suffer if I am to myself true?" + +Another heavy pause ensued. An invisible something was in the air,--a +sense of that vast supernatural which is deeply centered at the core of +the natural universe,--a grave mystery which seemed to envelop all +visible things with a sudden shadow of premonitory fear. The silence +prevailing was painful--almost terrible. A great ormolu clock in the +room, one of the Holy Father's "Jubilee" gifts, ticked the minutes +slowly away with a jewel-studded pendulum, which in its regular +movements to and fro sounded insolently obtrusive in such a stillness. +Gherardi abstractedly raised his eyes to a great ivory crucifix which +was displayed upon the wall against a background of rich purple +velvet,--Manuel was standing immediately in front of it, and the +tortured head of the carven Christ drooped over him as though in a +sorrow-stricken benediction. A dull anger began to irritate Gherardi's +usually well-tempered nerves, and he was searching in his mind for some +scathing sentence wherewith to overwhelm and reprove the confident ease +of the boy, when the door leading to the Pope's apartments was slowly +pushed open to admit the entrance of Monsignor Moretti. Cardinal Bonpre +had not seen him since the day of the Vergniaud scandal in Paris,--and +a faint colour came into his pale cheeks as he noted the air of +overbearing condescension and authority with which Moretti, here on his +own ground, as one of the favorites of the Pope, greeted him. + +"The Holy Father is ready to receive you," he said, "But I regret to +inform your Eminence that His Holiness can see no way to excuse or +condone the grave offence of the Abbe Vergniaud,--moreover, the fact of +the sin-begotten son being known to the world as Gys Grandit, makes it +more than ever necessary that the ban of excommunication should be +passed upon him. Especially, as those uninstructed in the Faith, are +under the delusion that the penalty of excommunication has become more +or less obsolete, and we have now an opportunity for making publicly +known the truth that it still exists, and may be used by the Church in +extreme situations, when judged politic and fitting." + +"Then in this case the Church must excommunicate the dead!" said the +Cardinal quietly. + +Moretti's face turned livid. + +"Dead?" he exclaimed, "I do not believe it!" + +Silently Bonpre handed him the telegram received that morning. Moretti +read it, his eyes sparkling with rage. + +"How do I know this is not a trick?" he said, "The accursed atheist of +a son may have telegraphed a lie!" + +"I hardly think he would condescend to that!" returned the Cardinal +calmly, "It would not be worth his while. You must remember, that to +one of his particular views, Church excommunication, either for his +father or himself, would mean nothing. He makes himself responsible for +his conduct to God only. And whatever his faults he certainly believes +in God!" + +Moretti read through the telegram again. + +"We must place this before His Holiness," he said, "And it will very +seriously annoy him! I fear your Eminence," here he gave a quick +meaning look at Bonpre, "will be all the more severely censured for +having pardoned the Abbe's sins." + +"Is it wrong to forgive sinners?" asked Manuel, his clear young voice +breaking through the air like a silver bell rung suddenly,--"And when +one cannot reach the guilty, should one punish the innocent?" + +Moretti scowled fiercely at the fair candid face turned enquiringly +near his own. + +"You are too young to ask questions!" he said roughly--"Wait to be +questioned yourself--and think twice--aye three times before you +answer!" + +The bright expression of the boy's countenance seemed to become +intensified as he heard. + +"'Take no thought how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you +in that same hour what ye shall speak!'" he said softly--"'For it is +not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in +you!'" + +Moretti flushed angrily, and his hand involuntarily clenched. + +"Those words were addressed by our Lord to His Apostles," he +retorted--"Apostles, of whom our Holy Father the Pope is the one +infallible representative. They were not spoken to an ignorant lad who +barely knows his catechism!" + +"Yet were not the Apostles themselves told," went on Manuel steadily, +"to be humble as ignorant children if they would enter the Kingdom of +Heaven? And did not Christ say, 'Whoso offendeth one of these little +ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were +hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the +sea!' I am sure there are many such little ones who believe in +Christ,--perhaps too, without knowing any catechism,--and even Apostles +must beware of offending them!" + +"Does this boy follow your teaching in the quoting of Scripture with so +glib a tongue?" asked Moretti, turning sharply round upon the Cardinal. + +Bonpre returned his angry look with one of undisturbed serenity. + +"My son, I have taught him nothing!" he replied, "I have no time as +yet--and I may add--no inclination, to become his instructor. He speaks +from his own nature." + +"It is a nature that needs training!" said Gherardi, smiling blandly, +and silencing by a gesture Moretti's threatening outburst of wrath, "To +quote Scripture rashly, without due consideration for the purpose to +which it is to be applied, does not actually constitute an offence, but +it displays a reprehensible disregard and ignorance of theology. +However, theology," here he smiled still more broadly, "is a hard word +for the comprehension of the young! This poor little lad cannot be +expected to grasp its meaning." + +Manuel raised his bright eyes and fixed them steadily on the priest's +countenance. + +"Oh, yes!" he said quietly, "I understand it perfectly! Originally it +meant the Word or Discourse of God,--it has now come to mean the words +or discourses, or quarrels and differences of men on the things of God! +But God's Word remains God's Word--eternally, invincibly! No man can +alter it, and Christ preached it so plainly that the most simple child +cannot fail to understand it!" + +Moretti was about to speak when again Gherardi interrupted him. + +"Patience! Patience!" he said soothingly, "Perchance we must say"--this +with a flash of derision from his dark crafty eyes, "that a prophet +hath arisen in Israel! Listen to me, boy! If Christ spoke as plainly as +you say, and if all He preached could be understood by the people, why +should He have founded a Church to teach His doctrine?" + +"He did not found a Church," answered Manuel, "He tried to make a Human +Brotherhood. He trusted twelve men. They all forsook Him in His hour of +need, and one betrayed Him! When He died and arose again from the dead, +they sought to give themselves a Divine standing on His Divinity. They +preached His Word to the world--true!--but they preached their own as +well! Hence the Church!" + +Moretti's angry eyes rolled in his head with an excess of wrath and +amazement. + +"Surely some evil spirit possesses this boy!" he exclaimed irately, +"Retro me Sathanas! He is a rank heretic--a heathen! And yet he lives +in the companionship of Cardinal Felix Bonpre!" + +Both priests looked at the Cardinal in angry astonishment, but he stood +silent, one wrinkled hand holding up the trailing folds of his scarlet +robe,--his head slightly bent, and his whole attitude expressive of +profound patience and resignation. Manuel turned his eyes upon him and +smiled tenderly. + +"It is not the fault of Cardinal Bonpre that I think my own thoughts," +he said, "or that I speak as I have spoken from the beginning. He found +me lost and alone in the world,--and he sheltered me, knowing not whom +he sheltered! Let what blame there is in me therefore be mine alone, +and not his or another's!" + +His young voice, so full of sweetness, seemed to melt the cold and +heavy silence into vibrations of warm feeling, and a sudden sense of +confusion and shame swept over the callous and calculating minds of the +two men, miscalled priests, as they listened. But before they could +determine or contrive an answer, the door was thrown open, and the lean +man in black entered, and pausing on the threshold bowed +slightly,--then raising his hand with a gesture which invited all to +follow him, turned again and walked on in front,--then crossing a small +antechamber, he drew aside a long curtain of purple damask heavily +fringed with gold, and opened a farther door. Here he stood back, and +allowed Cardinal Bonpre to pass in first, attended by +Manuel,--Monsignori Gherardi and Moretti followed. And then the valet, +closing the door behind them, and pulling the rich curtain across, sat +down himself close outside it to be within call when the Holy Father +should summon his attendance by means of a bell which hung immediately +over his head. And to while away the time he pulled from his pocket +that day's issue of a well-known Republican paper,--one of the most +anti-Papal tendency, thereby showing that his constant humble +attendance upon the Head of the Church had not made him otherwise than +purely human, or eradicated from his nature that peculiar quality with +which most of us are endowed, namely, the perversity of spirit which +leads us often to say and do things which are least expected of us. The +Pope's confidential valet was not exempt from this failing. He like the +Monsignori, enjoyed the exciting rush and secret risk of money +speculation,--he also had his little schemes of self-advancement; and, +as is natural to all who are engaged in a certain kind of service, he +took care to read everything that could be said by outsiders against +the person or persons whom he served. Thus, despite the important +capacity he filled, he was not a grade higher than the ordinary butler, +who makes it his business to know all the peccadilloes and failings of +his master. "No man is a hero to his valet" is a very true axiom,--and +even the Head of the Church, the Manifestation of the Divine, the +"Infallible in Council," was a mere Nothing to the little man in black +who had the power to insist on His Holiness changing a soiled cassock +for a clean one. + + + + +XXVIII. + +There are certain moments in life which seem weighted with the history +of ages--when all the past, present and future merge into the one +omnipresent Now,--moments, which if we are able to live through them +with courage, may decide a very eternity of after-glory--but which, if +we fail to comprehend their mission, pass, taking with them the last +opportunity of all good that shall ever be granted to us in this life. +Such a moment appeared, to the reflective mind of Cardinal Bonpre, to +have presented itself to him, as for the second time in ten days, he +found himself face to face with the Sovereign Pontiff, the pale and +aged man with the deep dark eyes set in such cavernous sockets, that as +they looked out on the world through that depth of shadow, seemed more +like great jewels in the head of a galvanised skeleton than the eyes of +a living human being. On this occasion the Pope was enthroned in a kind +of semi-state, on a gilded chair covered with crimson velvet; and a +rich canopy of the same material, embroidered and fringed with gold, +drooped in heavy folds above him. Attired in the usual white,--white +cassock, white skull cap, and white sash ornamented with the emblematic +keys of St. Peter, embroidered in gold thread at the ends,--his +unhandsome features, pallid as marble, and seemingly as +cold,--bloodless everywhere, even to the lips,--suggested with dreadful +exactitude a corpse in burial clothes just lifted from its coffin and +placed stiffly upright in a sitting position. Involuntarily Cardinal +Bonpre, as he made the usual necessary genuflections, thought, with a +shrinking interior sense of horror at the profanity of his own idea, +that the Holy Father as he then appeared, might have posed to a painter +of allegories, as the frail ghost of a dead Faith. For he looked so +white and slender and fragile and transparent,--he sat so rigidly, so +coldly, without a movement or a gesture, that it seemed as if the touch +of a hand might break him into atoms, so brittle and delicate a figure +of clay was he. When he spoke, his harsh voice, issuing from the long +thin lips which scarcely moved, even in utterance, was startling in its +unmelodious loudness, the more so when its intonation was querulous, as +now. + +"It is regrettable, my lord Cardinal," he said slowly, keeping his dark +eyes immovably fixed on the venerable Felix,--"that I should be +compelled to send for you so soon again on the same matters which, +since your arrival in Rome, have caused me so much anxiety. This +miracle,--of which you are declared to be the worker,--though for some +inscrutable reason, you persist in denying your own act,--is not yet +properly authenticated. And, to make the case worse, it seems that the +unfortunate man, Claude Cazeau, whom we entrusted with our instructions +to the Archbishop of Rouen, has suddenly disappeared, leaving no trace. +Naturally there are strong suspicions that he has met with a violent +death,--perhaps at the hands of the Freemasons, who are ever at work +conspiring against the Faith,--or else through the intrigues of the +so-called 'Christian Democrats,' of whom 'Gys Grandit' is a leader. In +any case, it is most reprehensible that you, a Cardinal-prince of the +Church, should have permitted yourself to become involved in such a +doubtful business. The miracle may have taken place,--but if so, you +should have no cause to deny your share in it; and however much you may +be gifted with the power of healing, I cannot reconcile your duty to us +with the Vergniaud scandal! Since you were here last, I have +investigated that matter thoroughly,--I have read a full report of the +blasphemous address the Abbe preached from his pulpit in Paris, and I +cannot, no I cannot"--here the Pope raised his thin white hand with a +gesture of menace that was curiously powerful for one so seemingly +frail--"I cannot forgive or forget the part you have taken in this +deplorable affair!" + +The Cardinal looked up with a touch of pain and protest. + +"Holy Father, I strove to obey the command of Christ--'Forgive that ye +may be forgiven'!--I cannot be sorry that I did so obey it;--for now +the offender is beyond the reach of either punishment or absolution. He +must answer for his deeds to God alone!" + +The Pope turned his eyes slowly round in his waxenlike head to +Gherardi--then to Moretti--and seeing confirmation of the news in their +looks, fixed them again as immovably as before upon the Cardinal. The +faint shadow of a cold smile flickered on his long slit-like mouth. + +"Dead!" he murmured, and he nodded slowly, and beat with one finger on +the back of the other hand, as though keeping time mechanically to some +funeral march in his brain. "Dead! A fortunate thing for him! An escape +from worse than death, so far as this life is concerned! But what of +the next?--'where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched!'" +And here the representative of St. Peter smiled pallidly. "Dead!--but +his works live after him; and his sin-begotten son also lives, to +spread his pernicious writings through the world, and incite the +already disobedient to further license. Therefore the Church must still +publicly condemn his memory, as a warning to the faithful. And you, +Cardinal Bonpre, must receive from us a necessary measure of +correction, for having pardoned one who in his last discourse to +humanity attacked the Church and slandered it. To one of your eminence +and reputation, the lesson may seem hard, but a chastening reproof can +but purify the spirit, and free it from that pride which apes humility!" + +The Cardinal bent his head patiently and remained silent. + +Monsignor Moretti advanced a step towards the Papal throne. + +"The boy"--he began. + +A slight animation warmed the chill lifelessness of the Pope's +features. "True! I had almost forgotten!" he said. Then to the +Cardinal, "Where is the boy you rescued from the streets, who lives +with you, and who witnessed the miracle at Rouen?" + +Manuel had till now stood aside, half hidden in the shadow of the +crimson damask which, falling from ceiling to floor in rich luxurious +folds, draped the corners of the room, but at these words he advanced +at once. + +"I am here!" he said. + +Fronting the Pope, with his fair head thrown back, and his blue eyes +flashing with all the soul-light of a swift, unwarped intelligence, he +stood,--and the white shrunken figure of the old man in the gilded +chair raised itself as if by some interior electric force, slowly, +slowly--higher and higher--the deep-set old eyes staring into the +brilliant youthful ones--staring--staring till they seemed to protrude +and tremble under their shelving brows, like the last sparks of a flame +about to fall into extinction. Gherardi made a quick step forward. + +"My lord Cardinal!" he said significantly, "Should not your waif and +stray have been taught how to comport himself before he came here? He +does not kneel to the Holy Father!" + +The Cardinal opened his lips to speak, but Manuel stayed him by a +slight gesture. + +"I may not kneel to any man!" he said, "But to God only! For it is +written,' Call no man your Father upon the earth, for One is your +Father which is in Heaven. Neither be ye called Masters, for One is +your Master, even Christ.' How then," and he came nearer to the Pope's +foot-stool, "can you be called 'Father'? or 'Holy'? For there is none +Holy but God!" + +The deep silence which had fallen like a spell upon them all in the +antechamber, fell now with redoubled impressiveness. The Pope, gripping +the arms of his gilded chair, forced himself fully upright, and his +lips trembled. + +"Whence came you, and of what parentage are you?" he asked slowly, +enunciating his words with even more than his usual harsh distinctness. + +"That is my own secret!" answered the boy--"The Cardinal accepted me +without question!" + +"Which is but a fresh proof of the Cardinal's unwisdom," said the Pope +severely, "And we shall not follow his example in this or in any other +matter!" And turning to Moretti he enquired, "Does this boy understand +he is here as a witness to the miracle effected at Rouen?" + +"As a witness to the Truth--yes! I understand!" said Manuel quickly, +before Moretti could answer. "The miracle was no miracle!" + +"No miracle!" exclaimed the Pope, moved at last from his usual +inflexibility, "Do you hear that, Domenico?" turning excitedly to +Gherardi, "No miracle!" + +"No miracle!" repeated Manuel, steadily--"Nothing but the law of Nature +working in response to the law of God, which is Love! The child was +healed of his infirmity by the power of unselfish prayer. Are we not +told 'Ask and ye shall receive'? But the asking must be pure! The +prayer must be untainted by self-interest! God does not answer prayer +that is paid for in this world's coin! No miracle was ever wrought for +a fee! Only when perfect love and perfect faith exist between the +creature and the Creator, are all things possible!" + +A nervous twitching of the Pope's features showed his suppressed +irritation at this reply. + +"The boy jests with us!" he said angrily, "He defends his benefactor, +but he either does not understand, or else is regardless of our +authority!" + +"What, do you not also believe?" asked Manuel, placing one foot on the +first step of the Pope's throne, and looking him straightly in the +face, "Do you not even affirm that God answers prayers? Do YOU not +pray? Do you not assert that you yourself are benefited and +helped--nay, even kept alive by the prayers of the faithful? Then why +should you doubt that Cardinal Bonpre has, by his prayer, rescued one +life--the life of a little child? Is not your Church built up for +prayer? Do you not command it? Do you not even insist upon the 'vain +repetitions' which Christ forbade? Do you not summon the people to pray +in public?--though Christ bade all who truly sought to follow Him to +pray in secret? And amid all the false prayers, the unthinking, selfish +petitions, the blasphemous demands for curses and confusion to fall +upon enemies and contradictors, the cowardly cryings for pardon from +sinners who do not repent, that are sent up to the throne of the Most +High,--is it marvellous that one prayer, pure of all self and +sophistry, ascending to God, simply to ask for the life of a child +should be heard and granted?" + +His voice rang through the silence with a pure intonation, unlike any +human voice in the world--and as he spoke, the Pope slowly drew back in +his chair, further and further away from the young, beautiful face that +confronted his own so steadily. The dumb sense of stupefaction that had +before possessed Gherardi and Moretti in the presence of this child, +seized them again now,--and slow tears welled up into the Cardinal's +eyes, as, clasping his withered hands, he waited in fear and awe, +listening and wondering,--overwhelmed by the strangeness of the scene. +Like a shrunken white mummy set in a gilded sarcophagus, the +representative of St. Peter huddled himself together, reflections of +the daylight on the crimson hangings around him casting occasional +gleams of crimson athwart his bony hands and cadaverous +features;--while on the first step of his throne the aerial form of the +beautiful boy, with his fair face, full flashing eyes, and radiant +hair, stood like an Angel suddenly descended at the portal of the +mummy's tomb. + +"Faith must surely be weaker in these days than in the days of Christ," +continued Manuel, "The disciples were not always wise or brave; but +they believed in the power of their Master! You,--with so many +centuries of prayer behind you,--will surely not say as John +did--'Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name, and he +followeth not us!' Because this miracle is unexpected and exceptional, +do you say of your good Cardinal, 'He followeth not us'? Remember how +Christ answered,--'Forbid him not, for there is no man which shall do a +miracle in my name that can speak evil of me!'" + +Still the same silence reigned. A shaft of sunlight falling through the +high oriel window, touched the boy's hair with a Pentecostal flame of +glory. + +"You sent for me," he went on, "and I have come! They say I must be +taught. Will you teach me? I would know many things! Tell me for one, +why are You here, shut away from the cities, and the people? Should you +not be among them? Why do you stay here all alone? You must be very +unhappy!" + +A sudden quivering light illumined the jewel-like dark eyes of the +seeming mummy in the chair--its lips moved--but no sound came from them. + +"To be here all alone!" went on Manuel, "And a whole world outside +waiting to be comforted! To have vast wealth lying about you +unused--with millions and millions of poor, starving, struggling, dying +creatures, near at hand, cursing the God whom they have never been +taught to know or to bless! To be safely sheltered while others are in +danger! To know that even kings and emperors are trembling on their +thrones because of the evil days that are drawing near in punishment +for evil deeds!--to feel the great pulsating ache of the world's heart +beating through every hour of time, and never to stretch forth a hand +of consolation! Surely this must make you very sad! WILL YOU NOT COME +OUT WITH ME?" + +With a strong effort the Pope raised himself and looked into the +pleading Angel-face. With his sudden movement, Gherardi and Moretti +also stirred from their frozen attitudes of speechless amazement, and +would have approached, but that the Pope signed them away with so +fierce and impatient a gesture that they shrank back appalled. And +still he gazed at Manuel as if his very soul were passing through his +eyes. + +"Come out with you!" he said, in a hoarse, faint whisper--"Come out +with you!" + +"Yes!--come out with me!" repeated Manuel, his accents vibrating with a +strange compelling sweetness, "Come out and see the poor lying at the +great gates of St. Peter's--the lame, the halt, the blind--come and +heal them by a touch, a prayer! You can, you must, you shall heal +them!--if you WILL! Pour money into the thin hands of the +starving!--come with me into the miserable places of the world,--come +and give comfort! Come freely into the courts of kings, and see how the +brows ache under the crowns!--and the hearts break beneath the folds of +velvet and ermine! Why stand in the way of happiness, or deny even +emperors peace when they crave it? Your mission is to comfort, not to +condemn! You need no throne! You want no kingdom!--no settled place--no +temporal power! Enough for you to work and live as the poorest of all +Christ's ministers,--without pomp, without ostentation or public +ceremonial, but simply clothed in pure holiness! So shall God love you +more! So shall you pass unscathed through the thick of battle, and +command Brotherhood in place of Murder! Go out and welcome +Progress!--take Science by the hand!--encourage Intellect!--for all +these things are of God, and are God's gifts divine! Live as Christ +lived, teaching the people personally and openly;--loving them, pitying +them, sharing their joys and sorrows, blessing their little children! +Deny yourself to no man;--and make of this cold temple in which you now +dwell selfimprisoned, a home and refuge for the friendless and the +poor! COME OUT WITH ME!" + +As he thus spoke, with a living, breathing enthusiasm of entreaty, +which might have moved even the dry bones in the valley of the +prophet's vision to rise up and become a great standing army, the +Pope's figure seemed to grow more and more attenuated,--his worn white +hands grasping the gilt arms of his chair, looked like the claws of a +dead bird--and his face, shrunken and withered, like a Chinese ivory +carving of some forgotten idol. + +"Come out with me and minister with your own hands to the aged and +dying!" pursued Manuel, "And so shall you grow young! Command that the +great pictures, the tapestries, the jewels, the world's trash of St. +Peter's, be sold to the rich, who can afford to set them in free and +open places where all the poorest may possess them! But do not You +retain them! You do not need them--your treasure must be sympathy for +all the world! Not ONE section of the world,--not ONE form of +creed,--but for all!--if you are truly the Dispenser of Christ's +Message to the earth! Come--unprotected, save by the Cross! Come with +no weapon of defence--'heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the +dead, cast out devils! Freely ye have received, freely give! Provide +neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purse,'--come, and by your +patience--your gentleness--your pardon--your love to all men, show that +'the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!' Walk fearless in the thick of +battles, and your very presence shall engender peace! For the Holy +Spirit shall surround and encompass you; the fiercest warriors shall +bend before you, as they never would if you assumed a world's throne or +a world's sovereignty! Come, uncrowned, defenceless;--but strong in the +Spirit of God! Think of all the evil which has served as the foundation +for this palace in which you dwell! Can you not hear in the silence of +the night, the shrieks of the tortured and dying of the Inquisition? Do +you never think of those dark days, ten and twelve hundred years after +Christ, when no virtue seemed left upon the earth?--when the way to +this very throne was paved by poison and cold steel?--when those who +then reigned here, and occupied Your place, led such infamous lives +that the very dogs might have been ashamed to follow in their +footsteps!--when they professed to be able to sell the Power of the +Holy Ghost for so much gold and silver? Remember the words, 'Whoso +shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him, +either in this world or in the world to come.' Look back upon the +Past--and look out upon the Present! Try to understand the sufferings +of the forsaken people!--the pain--the bewilderment--the groping for +life in death!--and come out with me! Come and preach Christ as He +lived and died, and WAS, and IS! COME OUT WITH ME!" + +The dreadful, dumb spell remained unbroken. The loom seemed invested +with a strange solemnity--the figures of the human beings in it were +like images frozen into rigidity--even Cardinal Bonpre appeared +stricken by this mental paralysis, and not a fold of his rich attire +stirred with so much as a pulsation of natural breath. Only Manuel +seemed truly alive--his slight boyish figure was instinct with +ardour--his face was radiant, and his eyes brilliant as stars. And now, +withdrawing himself a little from the motionless creature seated +stiffly on the Papal throne, with its deep, dark eyes alone giving sign +of life by their unwearied stare and feverish glitter, he raised his +head with a royal gesture of mingled appeal and warning. + +"Come out with me!" he exclaimed, "For there are wonderful things in +the world to-day!--wonderful, beautiful, and terrible! Take your share +in them, and find God in every glory! For with all the wisdom and the +splendour,--with all the flashing light of Heaven poured out upon the +darkness of the Sorrowful Star, its people are weary,--they are lost in +the confusion and clamour of their own desires--they would fain serve +God, but know not where to find Him, because a thousand, aye a million +churches stand in the way!--churches, which are like a forest of dark +trees, blocking out the radiance of the Sun! God, who manifests His +power and tenderness in the making of the simplest leaf, the smallest +bird, is lost to the understanding and affection of humanity in the +multitude of Creeds! Come out with me,--simple and pure, gentle and +strong! Tell all the lost and the wandering that there never was, and +never will be but one God supreme and perfect, whose name is Love, +whose work is Love!--and whose Messenger, Christ, pronounced the New +Commandment Love instead of Hate! Come out with me while it is yet day, +for the night cometh when no man can work! Come and lift up the world +by your very coming! Stretch out your hands in benediction over kings +and beggars alike!--there are other roses to give than Golden ones to +Queens! There are poor women who share half they earn with those still +poorer--there are obscure lives which in their very obscurity, are +forming the angel-nature, and weaving the angel's crown!--look for +these in the world--give THEM your Golden Roses! Leave rulers and +governments alone, for you should be above and beyond all rulers and +governments! You should be the Herald of peace,--the Pardoner of sin, +the Rescuer of the fallen, and the Refuge of the distressed! Come out +with me, and be all this to the world, so that when the Master comes He +may truly find you working in His vineyard!" + +Another dead pause ensued. Not a sound, not a breath disturbed the +heavy silence which seemed to have grown deeper than before. And +Manuel, looking eagerly again and closely into the Pope's face, went on +with increasing ardour and passion. + +"Come out with me!" he said, "Or if you will not come,--then beware of +the evil days which are at hand! The people are wandering to and fro, +crossing all lands, struggling one against the other, hoarding up +useless gold, and fighting for supremacy!--but 'the day of the Lord +shall come like a thief in the night, and blessed is he who shall be +found watching!' Watch! The hour is growing dark and full of +menace!--the nations are as frightened children, losing faith, losing +hope, losing strength! Put away,--put away from you the toys of +time!--quench in your soul the thirst for gold, for of this shall come +nothing but corruption! Why trifle with the Spirit of holy things? Why +let your servants use the Name of the Most High to cover hypocrisy? Why +crave for the power of temporal things which passes away in the dust of +destroyed kingdoms? For the Power of the Spirit is greater than all! +And so it shall be proved! The Spirit shall work in ways where it has +never been found before!--it shall depart from the Churches which are +unworthy of its Divine inspiration!--it shall invest the oaths of +Science!--it shall open the doors of the locked stars! It shall display +the worlds invisible;--the secrets of men's hearts, and of closed +graves!--there will be terror and loss and confusion and shame to +mankind,--and this world shall keep nothing of all its treasures but +the Cross of Christ! Rome, like Babylon, shall fall!--and the Powers of +the Church shall be judged as the Powers of Darkness rather than of +Light, because they have rejected the Word of their Master, and 'teach +for doctrine the commandments of men!' Disaster shall follow swift upon +disaster, and the cup of trembling shall be drained again to its last +dregs, as in the olden days, unless,--unless perchance--you will come +out with me!" + +With the last words a sort of galvanic shock seemed to be imparted to +the rigid figure in the chair. Springing upright suddenly, his voice +rang out like a clarion, discordantly yet clearly. + +"In the name of God," he cried, "Who and what is this boy! How came he +with Cardinal Bonpre? And you, Domenico!--do you stand by and permit +this affront to me!--the living Head of the Church! From a child!--a +tramp of the streets!--who dares to speak to me!--who dares to +reproach, to prophesy--aye, to blaspheme! and teach Me,--" + +"As One having authority,--and not as the Scribes!" said Manuel, with +one swift flashing glance, which like a shaft of lightning seemed to +pierce through flesh and bone,--for, as he met that radiant and +commanding look, the jewel-like eyes of the Pope lost their lustre and +became fixed and glassy,--he put his hand to his throat with a choking +gasp for breath,--and like a dead body which had only been kept in +place by some secret mechanical action, he fell back in his chair +senseless, his limbs stretching themselves out with a convulsive +shudder into stark immovability. + +Gherardi started from his stupor, and rushed to his assistance, ringing +the bell violently which summoned the valet from the antechamber,--and +Moretti, with a fierce oath, pushing Manuel aside, rushed to the chair +in which the Pope's fainting figure lay,--all was confusion;--and in +the excitement and terror which had overwhelmed Cardinal Bonpre at the +unprecedented scene, Manuel suddenly touched him on the arm. + +"Follow me!" he said, "We are no longer needed here! Come!--let us go +hence!" + +Hardly knowing what he did the old man obeyed, trembling in every limb +as Manuel, grasping him firmly by the hand, led him from the apartment, +and on through the winding corridors of the huge building, out into the +open air. No one questioned them,--no one interfered with their +progress. Benediction was being sung in one of the many chapels of St. +Peter's, and the solemn sound of the organ reached them, softened and +mellowed by distance, as they stood on the steps of the Vatican, where +the Cardinal, pausing to recover breath and equanimity, gazed at his +strange foundling in alarm and bewilderment. + +"Manuel!" he murmured feebly, "Child!--what have you done!" + +"Only what I am bound to do!" replied Manuel simply, "I have said no +more than it is right to say, if Christ's words are true! Dear friend, +be at peace! You will not suffer misjudgment long!" + +The music stealing out from the distant chapel, floated round them in +large circles of solemn melody,--and the glow of sunset lit the clear +sky with a warm red radiance, flecked with golden clouds of glory. + +"He would not come with me!" said Manuel, with a slight gesture +backward to the sombre portals they had just passed, "And he will never +come! But YOU will!" + +And smiling,--with his fair face turned to the radiant sky,--he rested +his hand lightly on the Cardinal's arm as they descended the broad +marble steps, and left the great Palace of the Popes together. + + + + +XXIX. + +While the foregoing scene was taking place at the Vatican, Angela +Sovrani, left to herself for some hours, took the opportunity to set +her great picture "on view" for the coming morrow. Locking both doors +of her studio, she began to arrange the room; her huge canvas was +already on a movable easel supplied with wheels, which ran lightly and +easily over the polished floor without making any sound. At its summit +a brass rod was attached, and on this a curtain of golden-coloured silk +was hung, the folds of which at present concealed the painting from +view. The top-light of the studio was particularly good on this special +afternoon, as the weather was clear, and the Roman sky translucent and +bright as an opal, and Angela, as she wheeled her "great work" into +position, sang for pure lightness of heart and thankfulness that all +was done. In her soul she had the consciousness that what she had +produced from her brain and hand was not altogether unworthy. For, +though to the true artist, no actual result can ever attain to the +beauty of the first thought or ideal of the thing to be performed, +there is always the consolation that if one's best and truest feeling +has been earnestly put into the work, some touch, however slight, of +that ideal beauty must remain. The poet's poem is never so fine as the +poet's thought. The thought is from the immortal and invincible +soul,--the poem has to be conveyed through the grosser body, clothed in +language which must always be narrow and inadequate. Hence the artist's +many and grievous limitations. To the eyes of the spirit all things +appear transfigured, because lifted out of the sphere of material +vision. But when we try to put these "beautiful things made new, for +the delight of the sky-children" on paper or canvas, in motionless +marble or flexible rhyme,--we are weighted by grosser air and the +density of bodily feeling. So it was with Angela Sovrani, iwhose +compact little head were folded the splendid dreams of genius like +sleeping fairies in a magic cave;--and thoughtful and brilliant though +she was, she could not, in her great tenderness for her affianced lover +Florian Varillo, foresee that daily contact with his weaker and smaller +nature, would kill those dreams as surely as a frost-wind kills the +buds of the rose,--and that gradually, very gradually, the coarser +fibre of his intelligence mingling with hers, would make a paltry and +rough weaving of the web of life, instead of a free and gracious +pattern. She never thought of such possibilities--she would have +rejected the very idea of them with scorn and indignation. She would +have declared that her love for Florian was the very root and source of +her art,--that for him she worked--for him she lived. So indeed she +believed, in her finely-fervent self-delusion,--but it was not ordained +that this glamour should last,--for hers was a nature too rare and +valuable to be sacrificed, and the Higher destinies had begun to +approve her as precious. Therefore, as is the case with all precious +things, the furnace was preparing for the shaping of the gold,--the +appointed Angel of her Fate was already hovering near, holding ready +the cup of bitterness which all must drain to the dregs, before knowing +what it is to drink of "the new wine in the Kingdom of God." + +"I wonder," thought the girl now, as she stepped lightly from one +corner of her studio to the other, rearranging a vase here--a bust +there--and imparting to the whole room that indefinable air of grace +and luxury which can only be bestowed by the trained hand of a +practised artist,--"I wonder if Florian will be proud? People will +certainly talk of my picture,--some will praise and some will condemn; +and this mixture of praise and condemnation is what is called Fame. But +will my beloved love me more? Will he be glad that I am found worthy in +the world's sight?--or will he think I am usurping his place? Ah!" and +she paused in her work, looking vaguely before her with thoughtful, +wondering eyes, "That is where we women workers have to suffer! Men +grudge us the laurel, but they forget that we are trying to win it only +that we may wear the rose more fittingly! A woman tries to do a great +and a noble thing, not that she may vex of humiliate a man by +superiority,--but that she may be more worthy to be his mate and helper +in the world,--and also, that her children may reverence her for +something more than the mere animal duties of nursing and tenderness. +How proud to-day would be any man or woman who could point to Rosa +Bonheur and say, 'She was my mother!' And yet perhaps this idea of mine +is too fantastic,--the Brownings left a son--and he has nothing of +their genius or their enthusiasm." + +She moved to the grand piano and set it open; as she did so a thought +of Sylvie came across her mind, and she smiled. + +"Dear little rose-bud of a woman!" she mused, "How glad I am that she +is happy! And how delightful it is to see the pride she takes in Aubrey +Leigh!--how she studies his books, and pores over his statistics and +theories! I really believe she knows them all by heart! And what +wonderful schemes she is building up in her mind for the people in whom +he is so interested! What a sensation she will make if she intends to +work with her husband as thoroughly and devotedly as her ideas imply! +Her marriage will be an immense disappointment to certain persons I +could name!" and she smiled, "Dear Sylvie! With all her goodness, and +grace and beauty, her name will sound more obnoxious at the Vatican +than even the name of Gys Grandit!" + +She had lifted a cluster of lilies from a vase to regroup them, and as +her thoughts turned in this direction she bent her eyes upon their +large white blooms meditatively, and a faint rose flush warmed her +cheeks. + +"Ce sont des fleurs etranges, Et traitresses, avec leurs airs de +sceptres d'anges, De thyrses lumineux pour doigts de seraphins, Leurs +parfums sont trop forts, tout ensemble, et trop fins." + +"It is strange," she thought, "that I should have corresponded so many +months with 'Gys Grandit' through my admiration for his books--and that +he should turn out to be the son of poor Abbe Vergniaud! Cyrillon! It +is a pretty name! And since we met--since that terrible scene in the +church in Paris,--since he knew who I was, he has not written. And, and +for his poor father's death . . . I suppose he thought it was +sufficient to telegraph the news of the death to my uncle. But I am +sorry he does not write to me any more!--I valued his letters--they +were such brilliant essays on all the movements and politics of the +time. It was just a little secret of mine;--it was pleasant to think I +was in correspondence with such a genius. However, he has had so much +to think of since then . . ." She set the lilies in their vase again, +inhaling their delicious odour as she did so. + +"The flowers of the saints and martyrs!" she said, "I do not wonder +that the artists chose them for that purpose; they are so white-and +pure-and passionless . . ." + +A slight crash disturbed her self-communion, and she hastened to see +what had fallen. It was a small clay figure of "Eros",--a copy of a +statuette found in the ruins of Pompeii. The nail supporting its +bracket had given way. Angela had been rather fond of this little work +of art, and as she knelt to pick up the fragments she was more vexed at +the accident than she cared to own. She looked wistfully at the pretty +moulded broken limbs of the little god as she put them all in a heap +together. + +"What a pity!" she murmured, "I am not at all superstitious, yet I wish +anything in the room had come to grief rather than this! It is not a +good omen!" + +She moved across the floor again and stood for a moment inert, one hand +resting lightly on the amber silk draperies which veiled her picture. + +"There was no truth at all in that rumour about Florian's +'Phillida';--'Pon-Pon,' as they call her," she thought, "She serves as +a model to half the artists in Rome. Unfortunate creature. She is one +of the most depraved and reckless of her class, so I hear--and Florian +is far too refined and fastidious to even recognise such a woman, +outside his studio. The Marquis Fontenelle only wished to defend +himself by trying to include another man in the charge of libertinage, +when he himself was meditating the most perfidious designs on Sylvie. +Poor Fontenelle! One must try and think as kindly as possible of him +now--he is dead. But I cannot think it was right of him to accuse my +Florian!" + +Just then she heard a soft knocking. It came from the door at the +furthest end of the studio, one which communicated with a small stone +courtyard, which in its turn opened out to a narrow street leading down +to the Tiber. It was the entrance at which models presented themselves +whenever Angela needed them. + +"Angela!" called a melodious voice, which she recognised at once as the +dearest to her in the world. "Angela!" + +She hurried to the door but did not open it. + +"Florian!" she said softly, putting her lips close to the panel, +"Florian, caro mio! Why are you here?" + +"I want to come in," said Florian, "I have news, Angela! I must see +you!" + +She hesitated a moment longer, and then she undid the bolt, and +admitted him. He entered with a smiling and victorious air. + +"I am all alone here," she said at once, before he could speak, "Father +is at Frascati on some business--and my uncle the Cardinal is at the +Vatican. Will you not come back later?" + +For all answer, Florian took her in his arms with quite a reverent +tenderness, and kissed her softly on brow and lips. + +"No, I will stay!" he said, "I want to have you all to myself for a few +minutes. I came to tell you, sweetest, that if I am to be the first to +see your picture and pass judgment on it, I had better see it now, for +I am going away to-morrow!" + +"Going away!" echoed Angela, "Where?" + +"To Naples," he answered, "Only for a little while. They have purchased +my picture 'Phillida et les Roses' for one of the museums there, and +they want me to see if I approve of the position in which it is to be +placed. They also wish to honour me by a banquet or something of the +kind--an absurdly unnecessary affair, but still I think it is perhaps +advisable that I should go." + +He spoke with an affectation of indifference, but any observer of him +whose eyes were not blinded by affection, could have seen that he +exhaled from himself an atmosphere of self-congratulation at the +banquet proposition. Little honours impress little minds;--and a faint +thrill of pain moved Angela as she saw him thus delighted with so poor +and ordinary a compliment. In any other man it would have moved her to +contempt, but in Florian--well!--she was only just a little sorry. + +"Yes, perhaps it might look churlish of you not to accept," she said, +putting away from her the insidious suggestion that perhaps if Florian +loved her as much as he professed, an invitation to a banquet at Naples +would have had no attraction for him as compared with being present at +the first view of her picture on the morning she had herself +appointed--"I think under the circumstances you had better not see the +picture till you come back!" + +"Now, Angela!" he exclaimed vexedly, "You know I will not consent to +that! You have promised me that I shall be the first to see it--and +here I am!" + +"It should be seen by the morning light," said Angela, a touch of +nervousness beginning to affect her equanimity,--"This light is pale +and waning, though the afternoon is so clear. You cannot see the +coloring to the best advantage!" + +"Am I not a painter also?" asked Varillo playfully, putting his arm +round her waist,--"And can I not guess the effect in the morning light +as well as if I saw it? Come, Angela mia! Unveil the great prodigy!" +and he laughed,--"You began it before we were affianced;--think what +patience I have had for nearly two years!" + +Angela did not reply at once. Somehow, his light laugh jarred upon her. + +"Florian," she said at last, raising her truthful, beautiful eyes fully +to his, "I do not think you quite understand! This picture has absorbed +a great deal of my heart and soul--I have as it were, painted my own +life blood into it--for I mean it to declare a truth and convey a +lesson. It will either cover me with obloquy, or crown me with lasting +fame. You speak jestingly, as if it were some toy with which I had +amused myself these three years. Do you not believe that a woman's work +may be as serious, as earnest, and strongly purposeful as a man's?" + +Still clasping her round the waist, Florian drew her closer, and +pressing her head against his breast, he looked down on her smiling. + +"What sweet eyes you have!" he said, "The sweetest, the most trusting, +the most childlike eyes I have ever seen! It would be impossible to +paint such eyes, unless one's brushes were Raffaelle's, dipped in holy +water. Not that I believe very much in holy water as a painter's +medium! "He laughed,--he had a well-shaped mouth and was fond of +smiling, in order that he might show his even pearly teeth, which +contrasted becomingly with his dark moustache. "Yes, my Angela has +beautiful eyes,--and such soft, pretty hair!" and he caressed it +gently, "like little golden tendrils with a beam of the sunlight caught +in it! Is not that a pretty compliment? I think I ought to have been a +poet instead of a painter!" + +"You are both," said Angela fondly, with a little sigh of rest and +pleasure as she nestled in his arms--"You will be the greatest artist +of your time when you paint large subjects instead of small ones." + +His tender hold of her relaxed a little. + +"You think 'Phillida et les Roses' a small subject?" he asked, with a +touch of petulance in his tone, "Surely if a small study is perfect, it +is better than a large one which is imperfect?" + +"Of course it is!" replied the girl quickly--"By smallness I did not +mean the size of the canvas,--I meant the character of the subject." + +"There is nothing small in the beauty of woman!" declared Varillo, with +an enthusiastic air--"Her form is divine! Her delicious flesh +tints--her delicate curves--her amorous dimples--her exquisite +seductiveness--combined with her touching weakness--these qualities +make of woman the one,--the only subject for a painter's brush, when +the painter is a man!" + +Involuntarily Angela thought of "Pon-Pon," who had posed for the +"Phillida," and a little shiver ran over her nerves like a sudden wind +playing on the chords of an AEolian harp. Gently she withdrew herself +from her lover's embrace. + +"And when the painter is a woman, should the only subject for her brush +be the physical beauty of man?" she asked. + +Varillo gave an airy gesture of remonstrance. + +"Carissima mia! You shock me! How can you suggest such a thing! The two +sexes differ in tastes and aspirations as absolutely as in form. Man is +an unfettered creature,--he must have his liberty, even if it reaches +license; woman is his dependent. That is Nature's law. Man is the +conqueror--woman is his conquest! We cannot alter these things. That is +one reason for the prejudice existing against woman's work--if it +excels that of man, we consider it a kind of morbid growth--an +unnatural protuberance on the face of the universe. In fact, it is a +wrong balance of the intellectual forces, which in their action, should +always remain on the side of man." + +"But if man abuses his power, may it not be taken from him altogether?" +suggested Angela tranquilly, "If man, knowing that a life of +self-indulgence destroys his intellectual capacity, still persists in +that career, and woman, studying patiently to perfect herself, refuses +to follow his example of vice, may it not happen that the intellectual +forces may range themselves on the side of right rather than wrong, and +invest woman with a certain supremacy in the end? It is a problem worth +thinking of!" + +Varillo looked sharply at her. Had she heard anything of his private +life in Rome?--a life he kept carefully concealed from everyone who +might be likely to report his little amusements at the Palazzo Sovrani? +A slight, very slight touch of shame pricked him, as he noted the grace +of her figure, the dainty poise of her head on her slim white +throat--the almost royal air of dignity and sweetness which seemed to +surround her,--there was no doubt whatever of her superiority to the +women he generally consorted with, and for a moment he felt +remorseful,--but he soon dismissed his brief compunction with a laugh. + +"No, sweet Angela," he said gaily, "it is not worth thinking of! +Believe me! I will not enter into any such profound discussions with +you. My present time is too short, and your attractions too many! Why +did you slip out of my arms so unkindly just now? Surely you were not +offended? Comeback! Come, and we will go up to the great picture as +lovers should, together--entwined in each other's arms!--and you shall +then draw the mysterious curtain,--or shall I?" + +She still hesitated. Then after a pause, she came towards him once +more, the soft colour alternately flushing and paling her cheeks, as +she laid her hand on his arm. + +"You did not answer me," she said, "when I asked you just now if you +believed that a woman's work could be as purposeful as a +man's--sometimes indeed more so. You evaded the question. Why?" + +"Did I evade it?" and Varillo took her hand in his own and kissed +it,--"Dolcesza mia, I would not pain you for the world!" + +A slight shadow clouded her face. + +"You will not pain me," she answered, "except by not being true to +yourself and to me. You know how I have worked,--you know how high I +have set my ambition for your sake--to make myself more worthy of you; +but if you do honestly think that a woman's work in art must always be +inferior to a man's, no matter how ardently she studies--no matter even +if she has so perfected herself in drawing, anatomy, and colouring as +to be admitted the equal of men in these studies--if the result must, +in your mind, be nevertheless beneath that of the masculine attainment, +why say so,--because then--then--" + +"Then what, my sweet philosopher?" asked Florian lightly, again kissing +the hand he held. + +She fixed her eyes fully on him. "Then," she replied slowly, "I should +know you better--I should understand you more!" + +An unpleasant twinge affected his nerves, and his eyelids quivered and +blinked as though struck by a sudden shaft of the sun. This was the +only facial sign he ever gave of the difficulty he at times experienced +in meeting the straight, clear glance of his betrothed. + +"You would know me more, and love me less? Is that it?" he said +carelessly. "My dear girl, why do you press the point? If you will have +it, I tell you frankly, I think women are growing very clever, much too +clever in fact,--and that the encouragement and impetus given to them +in the Arts is a very great mistake. Because they are not all geniuses +like my Angela! You are one in a thousand--or rather one in a +million,--and for one Angela Sovrani we shall have a world of female +daubers calling themselves artists and entering into competition with +us, as if we had not already quite enough competition among our own +sex! I honestly believe that with very rare exceptions woman's work is +decidedly inferior and mediocre as compared to man's." + +Quickly Angela disengaged herself from his hold, her lips +trembling--her eyes were full of a strange fire and brilliancy,--her +slight figure seemed to grow taller as she stood for a moment like a +queen, regarding him steadfastly from under her fair, level brows. + +"Then come and see!" she said, "I am not proud--I make no boast at all +of what I have done--and no one perceives or deplores the faults of my +work more than I do--but I know I have not altogether failed!" + +She moved away from him and stood opposite her veiled canvas,--then as +Florian followed and joined her, with a swift action which had +something of defiance as well as grace in it, she swept aside the +concealing curtain. Florian recoiled with an involuntary cry,--and then +remained motionless and silent,--stricken dumb and stupid by the +magnificent creation which confronted him. This Angela's masterpiece! A +woman's work! This stupendous conception! This perfect drawing! This +wondrous colouring! Fully facing him, the central glory of the whole +picture, was a figure of Christ--unlike any other Christ ever imagined +by poet or painter--an etherealised Form through which the very light +of Heaven itself seemed to shine,--supreme, majestic, and austerely +God-like;--the face was more beautiful than any ever dreamed of by the +hewers of the classic marbles--it was the face of a great +Archangel,--beardless and youthful, yet kingly and commanding. Round +the broad brows a Crown of Thorns shone like a diadem, every prickly +point tipped with pale fire,--and from the light floating folds of +intense white which, cloud-like, clung about the divine Form, faint +flashes of the lightning gleamed. Above this grand Christ, the heavens +were opened, pouring out a rain of such translucent purity of colour +and radiance as never had been seen in any painted canvas before--but +beneath, the clouds were black as midnight--confused, chaotic, and +drifting darkly on a strong wind as it seemed into weird and witch-like +shapes, wherein there were seen the sun and moon revolving pallidly, +like globes of fire lost from their orbits and about to become extinct. +And among those shifting black films were a crowd of human creatures, +floating and falling into unknown depths of darkness, and striking out +wild arms of appeal and entreaty and despair,--the faces of these were +all familiar, and were the life-like portraits of many of those +pre-eminent in the history of the time. Chief among them was the +Sovereign Pontiff, waxen and wan and dark-eyed,--he was depicted as +fastening fetters of iron round the body of a beautiful youth, +laurel-crowned, the leaves of the laurel bearing faint gold letters +which spelt the word "Science." Huddled beside him was a well-known +leader of the Jesuits, busily counting up heaps of gold,--another +remarkable figure was that of a well-known magnate of the Church of +England, who, leaning forward eagerly, sought to grasp and hold the +garment of the Pope, but was dragged back by the hand of a woman +crowned with an Imperial diadem. After these and other principal +personages came a confusion of faces--all recognisable, yet needing +study to discern;--creatures drifting downwardly into the +darkness,--one was the vivisectionist whose name was celebrated through +France, clutching at his bleeding victim and borne relentlessly onwards +by the whirlwind,--and forms and faces belong to men of every +description of Church-doctrine were seen trampling underneath them +other human creatures scarcely discernible. And over all this blackness +and chaos the supernal figure of the Christ was aerially poised,--one +hand was extended and to this a woman clung--a woman with a beautiful +face made piteous in its beauty by long grief and patient endurance. In +her other arm she held a sleeping child--and mother and child were +linked together by a garland of flowers partially broken and faded. Her +entreating attitude,--the sleeping child's helplessness--her worn +face,--the perishing roses of earth's hope and joy,--all expressed +their meaning simply yet tragically, and as the Divine Hand supported +and drew her up out of the universal chaos below, the hope of a new +world, a better world, a wiser world, a holier world, seemed to be +distantly conveyed. But the eyes of the Christ were full of reproach, +and were bent on the Representative of St. Peter binding the +laurel-crowned youth, and dragging him into darkness,--and the words +written across the golden mount of the picture, in clear black letters, +seemed to be actually spoken aloud from the vivid color and movement of +the painting. "Many in that day will call upon Me and say, Lord, Lord, +have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name cast out devils, +and done many wonderful works?" + +"Then will I say to them, I never knew you! Depart from me all ye that +work iniquity!" + +As an Allegory the picture was a daring yet sublime reproach to the +hypocrisy of the religious world,--as a picture it was consummate in +every detail, and would have been freely admitted as a masterpiece of +Raffaelle had Raffaelle been fortunate enough to paint it. Still +Varillo kept silence. Angela's heart beat so loudly that she could +almost hear it in the deep silence of the room. Every fine little nerve +in her body was strained--to the utmost height of suspense,--she was +afraid to look at her lover, or disturb the poise of his mental +judgment by the lightest movement. And he? Thoughts, black as the chaos +of cloud she had so powerfully portrayed, were stirring in his +soul,--thoughts, base and mean and cowardly, which, gradually gathering +force as he dwelt upon them, began to grow and spring up to a devilish +height worked into life and being by a burning spark of jealousy, +which, long smouldering in his nature, now leaped into a flame. No +trace of the wicked inner workings of his mind, however, darkened the +equanimity of his features, or clouded the serene, soft candour of his +eyes, as he at last turned towards the loving, shrinking woman, who +stood waiting for his approval, as simply and sweetly as a rose might +wait for the touch of the morning sun. Slowly, and like little pellets +of ice, his first words fell from his lips, + +"Did you do it all yourself?" + +The spell was disturbed--the charm broken. Angela turned very +white--she drew a deep breath--and the tension on her nerves +relaxed,--her heart gave one indignant bound--and then resumed its +usual quiet beating, as with a strong effort she gathered all her +dignity and force together, and replied simply, + +"Can you ask?" + +He looked at her. What an embodied insult to the arrogance of man she +was! She!--a mere woman!--and the painter of the finest picture ever +seen since Raffaelle and Michael Angelo left the world to work +elsewhere. "Chaste as ice, pure as snow, thou shalt not escape +calumny!" In his imagination he saw the world crowning her with +imperishable bays--he heard the denunciation of the Vatican and the +condemnation of the Churches, thunder uselessly against the grand +lesson of her work, while crowds gathered adoringly before the most +perfect Christ ever painted!--and he saw her name written up in letters +of gold on the scroll of those whom history numbers as immortal! It +should not be! It should never be! And again he spoke, enunciating his +words with difficulty, for his lips were dry. + +"It is very fine! Quite marvellous, in fact!--almost unprecedented! +That is why I ask, 'did you do it all yourself?' You must not be +offended, Angela! I mean so well! You see the conception--the breadth +of treatment--the gradation and tone of colour--are all absolutely +masculine. Who first suggested the idea to you?" + +Still very pale, breathing quickly yet lightly, and maintaining an air +of calm which was almost matter of fact, she answered,-- + +"No one! Though perhaps, if it is traced to its source, it arose in my +mind from seeing the universal dissatisfaction which most intelligent +people feel with religion, as administered to them by the Churches. +That, and a constant close study of the New Testament, set the thought +in my brain,--a thought which gradually expressed itself in this form. +So far as any work belongs to the worker, it is entirely my own +creation. I am sorry you should have implied any doubt of it!" + +Here her voice trembled a little, but she quickly steadied it. He +smiled--a little difficult smile--and slipping his right hand between +his coat and vest, felt for something he always carried there. It +should never be! + +"My dear Angela!" he said, with a gracious tranquillity that was almost +dignity, "I do not doubt you in the least!--I merely SUGGEST what all +the world will SAY! There is not an art-critic alive who will accept +this--this extraordinary production--as the work of a woman! It is the +kind of thing which might have been produced hundreds of years ago by a +great master setting his pupils to work at different sections of the +canvas,--but that one woman, painting all alone for three years, should +have designed and executed such a masterpiece--yes!--I will admit it is +a masterpiece!--is an unheard of and altogether an extraordinary thing, +and you must not wonder if competent judges reject the statement with +incredulity!" + +"It does not matter to me," said Angela, "what they reject or accept. +You admit it is a masterpiece--that is enough for me. It is my own +work, and you know it is!" + +"Dear little one!" he said, laughing forcedly, "How do I know? You have +never admitted me into the studio once while you were at work!" + +"Florian!" + +The exclamation broke from her lips like a cry of physical pain. + +"That was a mistake of yours!" he went on recklessly, his eyes +beginning to glitter with the fever raging in his mind, "You should not +have shut the doors against your lover, my beloved! Nor would you admit +your father either! That looks very strange!" + +White as a snowflake, yet with blazing eyes, Angela turned upon him. + +"Florian!" she said, "Do you--you of all people in the world--you to +whom I have given all my love and confidence--mean to suggest that my +work is not my own?" + +He looked at her, smiling easily. + +"Sweet Angela, not I! I know your genius--I worship it! See!" and with +a light grace he dropped on one knee, and snatching her hand, kissed +it--then springing up again, he said, "You are a great creature, my +Angela!--the greatest artist in the world,--IF WE CAN ONLY MAKE THE +WORLD BELIEVE IT!" + +Something in his voice, his manner, moved her to a vague touch of +dread. Earnestly she looked at him,--wonderingly, and with a passionate +reproach in her pure, true eyes. And still he smiled, while the fiends +of envy and malice made havoc in his soul. + +"My glorious Angela!" he said, "My bride, my beautiful one! A veritable +queen, to whom nations shall pay homage!" He threw one arm round her +waist and drew her somewhat roughly to him. "You must not be vexed with +me, sweetheart!--the world is a cruel world, and always doubts great +ability in woman! I only prepare you for what most people will say. But +_I_ do not doubt!--I know your power, and triumph in it!" He paused a +moment, breathing quickly,--his eyes were fixed on the picture,--then +he said, "If I may venture to criticise--there is a shadow--there, at +the left hand side of the canvas--do you not see?" + +She disengaged herself from his clasp. + +"Where?" she asked, in a voice from which all spirit and hopefulness +had fled. + +"You are sad? My Angela, have I discouraged you? Forgive me! I do not +find fault,--this is a mere nothing,--you may not agree with me,--but +does not that dark cloud make somewhat too deep a line near the faded +roses? It may be only an effect of this waning light,--but I do think +that line is heavy and might be improved. Be patient with me!--I only +criticise to make perfection still more perfect!" + +Listlessly she moved closer to the picture, turning away from him as +she did so. + +"Just the slightest softening of the tone--the finishing touch!" he +murmured in caressing accents; while to himself he muttered--"It shall +not be! It shall never be!" Then with a swift movement his hand +snatched at the thing he always carried concealed near his breast--a +flash of pointed steel glittered in the light,--and with one stealthy +spring and pitiless blow, he stabbed her full and furiously in the back +as she stood looking at the fault he had pretended to discover in her +picture! One choking cry escaped her lips-- + +"Florian--you! YOU--Florian!" Then reeling, she threw up her arms and +fell, face forwards on the floor, insensible. + +He stood above her, dagger in hand,--and studied the weapon with +strange curiosity. It was crimson and wet with blood. Then he stared at +the picture. A faint horror began to creep over him. The great Christ +in the centre of the painting seemed to live and move, and float +towards him on clouds of blinding glory. His breath came and went in +uneasy gasps. + +"Angela!" he muttered thickly,--"Angela!" She lay prone and horribly +still. He was afraid to touch her. What had he done? Murdered her? Oh +no!--he had done nothing--nothing at all,--she had merely fainted--she +would be well presently! He smiled foolishly at this, still gazing +straight at the picture, and holding the sharp blood-stained blade in +his hand. + +"My love!" he said aloud,--then listened--as though waiting for an +answer. And still he stared persistently at the glorious figure of the +Christ, till the Divine eyes seemed to flash the fire of an everlasting +wrath upon his treacherous soul. + +"To destroy the work? Or claim it?" he mused, "Either would be easy! +That is, if she were dead!--." he paused,--amazed at his own thought. +"If she were dead, it would be easy to swear _I_ had painted the +picture! If she were dead!" Again he listened. "Angela!" he whispered. + +A door banging in the house startled him from his semi-stupor. His eyes +wandered from the picture to the inanimate form lying at his feet. + +"Sweet Angela!" he said, a cold smile flickering on his lips, "You were +always unselfish! You wished me to be the greatest artist of my +time!--and perhaps I shall be!--now YOU are dead! My love!" + +A sudden clatter of horses' hoofs and rolling wheels wakened hollow +echoes from the great stone courtyard below. It was the Cardinal +returning from the Vatican. A panic seized him--his teeth chattered as +with icy cold. He sprang swiftly to the door by which Angela had +admitted him, and opened it cautiously,--then slinking out, locked it +carefully behind him, took the key,--and fled. Once in the street, he +never paused till he reached the corner of a dark projecting wall +over-looking the Tiber, and here, glancing nervously round lest he +should be observed, he flung his murderer's dagger and the key of the +studio both into the water. Again he paused and listened--looking up at +the frowning windows of the Palazzo Sovrani which could be dimly seen +from where he stood. He had not meant to kill Angela. Oh no! He had +come to the studio, full of love, prepared to chide her tenderly for +the faults in her work,--till he saw that it was faultless; to make a +jest of her ambition,--till he realized her triumph! And then,--then +the devil had seized him--then--! A scarlet slit in the western horizon +showed where the sun had sunk,--a soft and beautiful after-glow +trembled over the sky in token of its farewell. A boy came strolling +lazily down the street eating a slice of melon, and paused to fling the +rind over the wall. The innocent, unconscious glance of the stripling's +eyes was sufficient to set up a cowardly trembling in his body,--and +turning round abruptly so that even this stray youth might not observe +him too closely, he hurried away. And the boy, never regarding him at +all, strolled on with the mellow taste of the fruit he had just enjoyed +in his mouth, and presently, as if inspired thereby, awoke the +slumbering echoes of the street with his high, fluting young treble, +singing, "Che faro senza Eurydice!" + + + + +XXX. + +Meanwhile Cardinal Bonpre had once more reached his own apartments, +thankful enough to be there after his difficult experience at the +Vatican. But he was neither fatigued nor depressed by what had +occurred,--on the contrary he was conscious of an extraordinary vigour +and lightness of heart, as though he had suddenly grown young again. +Changing his scarlet robes of office for his every-day cassock, he +seated himself restfully, and with a deep sigh of relief, in his easy +chair near the writing-table, and first of all closing his eyes for a +moment, while he silently prayed for guidance to the Supreme Judge of +all secret intentions, he called Manuel to his side. + +"My child," he said gently, "I want you to listen to me very +attentively. I do not think you quite understand what you have done +to-day, do you?" + +Manuel raised his eyes with a clear look of confidence. + +"Yes. I have spoken to the Head of the Church of Rome," he +answered,--"That is all. I have said to him, as Christ once said to the +very Peter whom he represents, 'Thou savourest not the things that be +of God, but those that be of men.'" + +The Cardinal regarded him straightly. + +"True! But for you, a mere child, to say to the Head of the Church what +Christ said to St. Peter, will be judged as blasphemy. I have never +urged you, as you know, to tell me who you are, or where you came from. +I do not urge you now. For I feel that you have been sent to me for +some special purpose--that young as you are, you have been entrusted by +a Higher Power with some mission to me--for you possess the spirit of +inspiration, prophecy and truth. I dare not question that spirit! +Wherever I find it, in the young, in the old, in the wise or the +ignorant I give it welcome. For you have uttered not only what I have +myself thought, but what half the world is thinking, though you are +only one of those 'babes and sucklings out of whose mouth the Lord hath +ordained wisdom.' But what you have said at the Vatican will be judged +as heresy--and I shall be counted heretic for having permitted you to +speak thus boldly." + +"Your permission was not asked," said Manuel simply, "I was summoned to +the Vatican, but I was not told what to say to the Pope. I spoke as I +felt. No one interrupted me. The Pope listened to all my words. And I +said no more than is true." + +"Truth is judged as libel nowadays in the world," answered the +Cardinal, "And we have to confront the fact that we have incurred the +displeasure, and have also invited the vengeance of the Sovereign +Pontiff. Thus we must expect to suffer." + +"Then he who is called the visible Head of Christianity objects to the +truth, and is capable of vengeance!" said Manuel, "That is a strange +contradiction! But I will suffer whatever he pleases to inflict upon +me. You shall suffer nothing!" + +The Cardinal smiled gravely. + +"My child, I am old, and whatever trouble is in store for me cannot +last long. But I must guard you from harm with all the remaining powers +of my life. Having constituted myself your protector and defender, I +must continue to protect and defend. And so, Manuel, tomorrow or the +next day I shall take you away to England. So far, at least, I will +defy the powers of Rome!" + +His eyes flashed, and his whole person seemed to be invested with +sudden strength, dignity and command. He pointed to the crucifix on the +table before him. + +"He, the Holy One of the Heavens, was crucified for speaking the +truth,--I can do no better than follow His divine example! If my soul +is stretched on the crossbeams of injustice--if every tender emotion of +my heart is tortured and slain--if I am stripped of honour and exposed +to contempt, what matter! My glorious Master suffered likewise." + +Manuel was silent. He stood near the great chimney where the wood fire +burned and crackled, casting a ruddy glow through the room. After a few +minutes he turned his fair head towards the Cardinal with an earnest, +scrutinising gaze in his expressive eyes. + +"Then, dear friend, you are not angry? You do not reproach me for what +I have done?" + +"Reproach you? I reproach no one!" said Bonpre,--"Least of all, a +child! For you speak unconsciously--as genius speaks;--you cannot weigh +the meaning of your words, or the effect of what you say on the worldly +or callous minds which have learned to balance motives and meanings +before coining them into more or less ambiguous language. No!--I have +nothing to reproach you with, Manuel,--I am thankful to have you by my +side!" + +His eyes rested again upon the crucifix for a moment, and he went on, +more to himself than to the boy,-- + +"In the early days of our Lord, He spoke to the wise men in the Temple, +and they were 'astonished at his understanding and answers.' But they +did not reprove Him,--not then,--on the contrary, they listened. How +often in our own days do young children ask us questions to which we +cannot reply, and which they themselves perchance could easily answer +if they but knew how to clothe their thoughts with speech! For the +Spirit of God is made manifest in many ways, and through many +methods;--sometimes it whispers a hint or a warning to us in the petals +of the rose, sometimes in the radiance of the sunset on the sea, +sometimes in the simple talk of a child younger even than you +are,--'Except ye become as little children--!" + +He paused in his dreamy utterance, and turned in his chair listening. +"What is that?" There was a noise of hurrying footsteps and murmuring +voices,--that sort of half-muffled confusion in a household which bodes +something wrong,--and all at once Prince Sovrani threw open the door of +the Cardinal's apartments without ceremony, crying out as he entered,-- + +"Where is Angela?" + +The Cardinal rose out of his chair, startled and alarmed. + +"Angela?" he echoed, "She is not here!" + +"Not here!" Prince Sovrani drew a sharp breath, and his face visibly +paled,--"It is very strange! Her studio is locked at both +entrances--yet the servants swear she has not passed out of the house! +Besides she never goes out without leaving word as to where she has +gone and when she is coming back!" + +"Her studio is locked on both sides!" repeated the Cardinal, "But that +is quite easy to understand--her picture is unveiled, and no one is to +be permitted to see it until to-morrow." + +"Yes--yes--" said the Prince Pietro impatiently, "I know all that,--but +where is Angela herself? There is no sign of her anywhere! She cannot +have gone out. Her maid tells me she was not dressed to go out. She was +in her white working gown when last seen. Santissima Madonna!"--and old +Sovrani gave a wild gesture of despair--"If any harm has happened to +the child . . ." + +"Harm? Why what harm could happen? What harm could happen?" said the +Cardinal soothingly,--"My dear brother, do not alarm yourself +needlessly--" + +"Let us go to the studio," interposed Manuel suddenly--"She may not +have heard you call her." + +He moved in his gentle light way out of the room, and without another +word they followed. Outside the studio door they paused, and Prince +Sovrani tried again and again to open it, calling "Angela!" now loudly, +now softly, now entreatingly, now commandingly, all to no purpose. The +servants had gathered on the landing, afraid of they knew not what, and +one old man, the Prince's valet, shook his head dolefully at the +continued silence. + +"Why not break open the door, Eccellenza?" he asked anxiously, "I know +the trick of those old locks--if the Eccellenza will permit I can push +back the catch with a strong chisel." + +"Do so then," replied his master, "I cannot wait--there is something +horrible in the atmosphere!--something that chokes me! Quick! This +suspense will kill me!" + +The old valet hurried away, and in two or three minutes, during which +time both Prince Sovrani and the Cardinal knocked and called again +outside the door quite uselessly, he returned with a strong iron chisel +which he forced against the lock. For some time it resisted all +efforts--then with appalling suddenness gave way and flew back, the +door bursting wide open with the shock. For one instant the falling +shadows of evening made the interior of the room too dim to see +distinctly--there was a confused blur of objects,--the carved summit of +a great easel,--a gold picture-frame shining round a wonderful mass of +colouring on canvas--then gradually they discerned the outline of a +small figure lying prone at the foot of the easel, stiff and +motionless. With a dreadful cry of despair Sovrani dashed into the room. + +"Angela! Angela!" + +Falling on his knees he raised the delicate figure in his arms,--the +little head drooped inanimate on his shoulder, and with the movement a +coil of golden hair became unbound, and fell in soft waves over his +trembling hands--the fair face was calm and tranquil--the eyes were +closed,--but as the distracted man clasped that inert, beloved form +closer, he saw what caused him to spring erect with a terrible oath, +and cry for vengeance. + +"Murdered!" he exclaimed hoarsely--"Murdered! Brother, come close!--see +here! Will you talk to me of God NOW! My last comfort in life--the last +gift of my Gita, murdered!" + +The affrighted Cardinal tottered forward, and looking, saw that a deep +stain of blood oozed over the soft white garments of the lifeless girl, +and he wrung his hands in despair. + +"My God! My God!" he moaned, "In what have we offended Thee that Thou +shouldst visit us with such heavy affliction? Angela, my child!--my +little girl!--Angela!" + +The servants had by this time clustered round, a pale and terrified +group, sobbing and crying loudly,--only the old valet retained +sufficient presence of mind to light two or three of the lamps in the +studio. As this was done, and the sudden luminance dispersed some of +the darker shadows in the room, the grand picture on the easel was +thrown into full prominence,--and the magnificent Christ, descending in +clouds of glory, seemed to start from the painted canvas and move +towards them all. And even while he wrung his hands and wept, the +Cardinal's glance was suddenly caught and transfixed by this +splendour,--he staggered back amazed, and murmured feebly--"Angela! +THIS is her work!--this her great picture, and she--she is dead!" + +Sovrani suddenly clutched him by the arm, and drew him close to the +couch where he had just laid the body of his daughter down. + +"Now, where was this God you serve, think you, when this happened?" he +demanded, in a hoarse whisper, while his aged eyes glittered +feverishly, and his stern dark face under the tossed white hair was as +a frowning mask of vengeance,--"Is the world so rich in sweet women +that SHE should be slain?" + +Half paralysed with grief, the unhappy Cardinal sank on his knees +beside the murdered girl,--taking the passive hand he kissed it, the +tears flowing down his furrowed cheeks. Her magnificent picture shone +forth, a living presence in the room, but the thoughts of all were for +the dead only, and the distracted Sovrani saw nothing but his child's +pale, set face, closed eyes, and delicate figure, lying still with the +red stain of blood spreading through the whiteness of her garments. +None of them thought of Manuel--and it was with a shock of surprise +that the Cardinal became aware of him, and saw him approaching the +couch, raising his hand as he came, warningly. + +"Hush, hush!" he said, very gently, "It may be that she is not dead! +She will be frightened when she wakes if she sees you weeping!" + +Prince Sovrani caught the words. + +"When she wakes!" he cried, "Poor boy, you do not know what you say! +She will never wake! She is dead!" + +But Manuel was bending closely over the couch, and looking earnestly +into Angela's quiet face. Cardinal Bonpre watched him wonderingly. And +the old Prince stood, arrested as it were in the very midst of his +wrath and sorrow by some force more potent than even the spirit of +vengeance. The sobbing servants held their breath--and all stared as if +fascinated at the young boy, as after a pause, he took Angela's hand +that hung so inertly down, in one of his own, and with the other felt +her heart. Then he spoke. + +"She is not dead!" he said simply,--"She has only swooned. Let someone +fetch a physician to attend her--see!--she breathes!" + +With a wild, half-smothered cry Prince Sovrani sprang forward to see +for himself if this blessed news was true. He and the Cardinal both, +seized with a passionate anxiety, gazed and gazed at the fair beloved +face in hope, in fear and longing,--and still Manuel stood beside the +couch, stroking the small hand he held with thoughtful care and +tenderness. All at once a faint sigh parted the sweet lips,--the bosom +heaved with a struggle for breath. Her father fell on his knees, +overcome, and hiding his face in his hands sobbed aloud in the +intensity of his relief and joy, while the Cardinal murmured a devout +'Thank God!' A few minutes passed, and still the fluttering uncertain +breathings came and went, and still Manuel stood by the couch, quietly +watchful. Presently the closed eyelids quivered and lifted,--and the +beautiful true eyes shone star-like out upon the world again! She +stirred, and tried to raise herself, but sank back exhausted in the +effort. Then seeing the Cardinal, she smiled,--and her gaze wandered +slowly to the bent, white-haired figure crouching beside her, whose +whole frame was shaken by sobs. + +"Father!" she murmured--"Dearest father! What is it?" + +He lifted his tear-stained, agonised face, and seeing that the tender +eyes regarding him were full of fear and wonder as well as love, he +instantly controlled himself, and rising from his knees, kissed her +gently. + +"I thought you were dead, my darling!" he said softly--"Hush now--do +not speak! Lie quite still! You are hurt a little,--you must rest!--you +will be better,--much better presently!" + +But Angela's looks had again wandered, and now they were fixed on +Manuel. Over her whole face there came a sudden life and radiance. + +"Manuel!" she said eagerly--"Manuel, stay with me! Do not leave me!" + +Manuel smiled in answer to her appealing eyes, and came nearer. + +"Do not fear!" he said--"I will stay!" + +She closed her eyes again restfully, and her breathing grew lighter and +easier. Just then one of the servants entered with the physician who +was accustomed to attend the Sovrani household. His arrival roused +Angela completely,--she became quite conscious, and evidently began to +remember something of what had happened. The doctor raised her to see +where she was injured, and quickly cutting away her blood-stained +vesture, tenderly and carefully examined the wound. + +"I cannot understand how it is that she is not dead!" he said at +last--"It is a miracle! This is a stab inflicted with some sharply +pointed instrument,--probably a dagger--and was no doubt intended to be +mortal. As it is, it is dangerous--but there is a chance of life." Then +he addressed himself to Angela, who was looking at him with wide-open +eyes and a most piteous expression. "Do you know me, my child?" + +"Oh, yes, doctor!" she murmured faintly. + +"Do you suffer much pain?" + +"No." + +"Then can you tell me how this happened? Who stabbed you?" + +She shuddered and sighed. + +"No one!--that I can remember!" + +Her eyes closed--she moved her hands about restlessly as though seeking +for something she had lost. + +"Manuel!" + +"I am here!" answered the boy gently. + +"Stay with me! I am so tired!" + +Again a convulsive trembling shook her fragile body from head to foot, +and again she sighed as though her heart were breaking,--then she lay +passively still, though one or two tears crept down her cheeks as they +carried her tenderly up to her own room and laid her down on her simple +little white bed, softly curtained, and guarded by a statue of the +Virgin bending over it. There, when her cruel wound was dressed and +bandaged, and the physician had given her a composing draught, she fell +into a deep, refreshing slumber, and only Manuel stayed beside her as +she slept. + +Meanwhile, down in the studio, Prince Sovrani and the Cardinal stayed +together, talking softly, and gazing in fascinated wonder, +bewilderment, admiration and awe at Angela's work unveiled. All the +lamps in the room were now lit, and the great picture--a sublime Dream +resolved into sublime Reality--shone out as much as the artificial +light would permit,--a jewel of art that seemed to contain within +itself all the colour and radiance of a heaven unknown, unseen yet +surely near at hand. The figure and face of the approaching Saviour, +instinct with life, expressed almost in positive speech the words, +"Then shall ye see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power +and glory"!--and if Cardinal Bonpre had given way to the innermost +emotions of his soul, he could have knelt before the exalted purity of +such a conception of the Christ,--a god-like ideal, brought into +realization by the exalted imagination, the holy thoughts, and the +faithful patient work of a mere woman! + +"This--" he said, in hushed accents--"This must be the cause of the +dastardly attempt made to murder the child! Some one who knew her +secret,--some one who was aware of the wonderful power and magnificence +of her work,--perhaps the very man who made the frame for it,--who can +tell?" + +Prince Pietro meditated deeply, a frown puckering his brows,--his +countenance was still pale and drawn with the stress of the mingled +agony and relief he had just passed through, and the anxiety he felt +concerning Angela's immediate critical condition. + +"I cannot hold the position yet!--" he said, at last--"That is to say, +I am too numb and stricken with fear to realize what has happened! See +you! That picture is marvellous!--a wonder of the world!--it will crown +my girl with all the laurels of a lasting fame,--but what matter is it +to me,--this shouting of the public,--if she dies? Will it console me +for her loss, to call her a Raffaelle?" + +"Nay, but we must not give up hope!"--said the Cardinal +soothingly--"Please God, you will not lose her! Be glad that she is not +dead,--and remember that it is almost by a miracle that she lives!" + +"That is true--that is true!" murmured old Sovrani, ruffling his white +hair with one hand, while he still stared abstractedly at his +daughter's picture--"You are very patient with me, brother!--you have +all the kindness as well as all the faithfulness of your sister,--the +sweetest woman the sun was ever privileged to shine on! Well, well! +What did you say to me? That this picture must have been the cause of +the attempted murder? Maybe,--but the poor hard-working fellow who made +the frame for it, could not have done such a deed,--he has been a +pensioner of Angela's for many a long day, and she has given him +employment when he could not obtain it from others. Besides, he never +saw the picture. Angela gave him her measurements, and when the frame +was finished he brought it to her here. But he had nothing whatever to +do with setting the canvas in it,--that I know, for Angela herself told +me. No, no!--let us not blame the innocent; rather let us try to find +the guilty." + +At that moment a servant entered with a large and exquisitely arranged +basket of lilies-of-the-valley, and a letter. + +"For Donna Sovrani," he said, as he handed both to his master. + +The Prince took the basket of lilies, and moved by a sudden fancy, set +it gently in front of Angela's great work. Glancing at the +superscription of the letter, he said,-- + +"From Varillo. I had better open it and see what he says." + +He broke the seal and read the following: + +"SWEETEST ANGELA,--I am summoned to Naples on business, and therefore, +to my infinite regret, shall not be able to see the great picture +to-morrow. You know,--you can feel how sorry I am to disappoint both +you and myself in a pleasure which we have so long lovingly +anticipated, but as the Queen has promised to make her visit of +inspection, I dare not ask you to put off the exhibition of your work +till my return. But I know I shall come back to find my Angela crowned +with glory, and it will be reserved for me to add the last laurel leaf +to the immortal wreath! I am grieved that I have no time to come and +press my 'addio' on your sweet lips,--but in two or three days at most, +I shall be again at your feet. Un bacio di + +FLORIAN." + +"Then he has left for Naples?" said Bonpre, to whom Prince Pietro had +read this letter--"A sudden departure, is it not?" + +"Very sudden!" + +"He will not know what has happened to Angela--" + +"Oh he will be sure to hear that!" said the Prince--"To-night it will +be in all the newspapers both of Rome and Naples. Angela's light cannot +be hidden under a bushel!" + +"True. Then of course he will return at once." + +"Naturally. If he hears the news on his way, he will probably be back +to-night--" said Sovrani, but his fuzzy brows were still puckered. Some +uncomfortable thought seemed to trouble him,--and presently, as if +moved by a sudden inexplicable instinct, he took the basket of lilies +away from where he had set it in front of his daughter's picture, and +transferred it to a side-table. Cardinal Bonpre, always observant, +noticed his action. + +"You will not leave the flowers there?" he queried. + +"No. The picture is a sacred thing!--it is an almost living Christ!--in +whom Varillo does not believe!" + +The Cardinal lifted his eyes protestingly. + +"Yet you let the child marry him?" + +Sovrani passed one hand wearily across his brows. + +"Let us not talk of marriage," he said--"Death is nearer to us to-day +than life! I am opposed to the match--I always have been,--and who +knows--who knows what may not yet prevent it--" He paused, +thinking,--then turning a solicitous glance on his brother-in-law's +frail figure he said--"Felix, you look weary,--let me attend you to +your own rooms, that you may rest. We need you with us,--it may be that +we shall need you more than we have ever done! Pray for us, +brother!--Pray for my Angela, that she may be spared--" + +His harsh voice broke,--and tears trickled down his furrowed cheeks. + +"See you!" he said, pointing in a kind of despair to the magnificent +"Coming of Christ"--"If Raffaelle or Angelo had dared to paint this in +their day, the world would be taking a lesson from it now! If it were a +modern man's work, that man would be a centre for hero-worship! But +that a WOMAN should create such a masterpiece!--and that woman my +Angela! Do you know what it means, Felix?--what Fame always means, what +it always must mean--for a woman? Just what has already happened,--the +murderous dagger-thrust--the coward stab in the back--and the little +child's cry of the tender broken heart we heard just now--'Stay with +me!--I am so tired!'" + +The Cardinal pressed his hand sympathetically, too profoundly moved +himself to speak. + +"This picture will bring down the thunders of the Vatican!--" went on +Sovrani--"And those thunders will awaken a responsive echo from the +world! But not from the Old World--the New! The New World!--yes--my +Angela's work is for the living present, the coming future--not for the +decayed Past!" + +As he spoke, he dropped the silken curtain before the picture and hid +it from view. + +"We will raise it again when the painter lives--or dies!" he said +brokenly. + +They left the studio, Prince Pietro extinguishing the lights, and +giving orders to his servant to put a strong bar across the door they +had forced open,--and the Cardinal, feeling more lonely than he had +done for many days, owing to the temporary absence of Manuel who was +keeping watch over Angela, returned to his own apartments full of grave +thoughts and anxious trouble. He had meant to leave Rome at once,--but +now, such a course seemed more than impossible. Yet he knew that the +scene which had, through himself indirectly, occurred at the Vatican, +would have its speedy results in some decisive and vengeful action, if +not on the part of the Supreme Pontiff, then through his ministers and +advisers, and Bonpre was sufficiently acquainted with the secret ways +of the Church he served, to be well aware of its relentlessness in all +cases where its authority was called into question. The first step +taken, so he instinctively felt, would be to deprive him of Manuel's +companionship,--the next perhaps, to threaten him with the loss of his +own diocese. He sighed heavily,--yet in his own tranquil and pious mind +he could not say that he resented the position his affairs had taken. +Accustomed as he was always, to submit the whole daily course of his +life to the ruling of a Higher Power, he was framed and braced as +temperately for adversity as for joy,--and nothing seemed to him either +fortunate or disastrous except as concerned the attitude in which the +soul received the announcement of God's will. To resent affliction was, +in his opinion, sinful; to accept it reverently and humbly as a means +of grace, and endeavour to make sweetness out of the seeming bitterness +of the divine dispensation, appeared to him the only right and natural +way of duty,--hence his clear simplicity of thought, his patience, +plain faith, and purity of aim. And even now, perplexed and pained as +he was, much more for the sorrow which had befallen his brother-in-law, +than for any trouble likely to occur personally to himself, he was +still able to disentangle his thoughts from all earthly cares--to lift +up his heart, unsullied by complaint, to the Ruler of all +destinies--and to resign himself with that Christian philosophy, which +when truly practised, is so much more powerful than all the splendid +stoicism of the heroic pagans, to those + + "Glorious God-influences, + Which we, unseeing, feel and grope for blindly, + Like children in the dark, knowing that Love is near!" + +Meanwhile Prince Pietro, moved by conflicting sentiments and +forebodings which he was unable to explain to himself, and only +strongly conscious of the desire to be avenged on his daughter's +cowardly assailant, whoever it might be, muffled himself in a well-worn +"Almaviva" cloak, his favourite out-door garment, pulled his hat down +over his eyes, and so, looking like a fierce old brigand of the +mountains, went out, not quite knowing why he went, but partly impelled +by a sense of curiosity. He wanted to hear something,--to find +something,--and yet he could not agree with himself as to the nature of +the circumstance he sought to discover. There was a lurking suspicion +in his mind to which he would not give a name,--a dark thought that +made him tremble with mingled rage and horror,--but he put it away from +him as a hint offered by the Evil One--an insidious suggestion as +hideous as it was unnatural. The afternoon had now closed into night, +and many stars were glistening bravely in the purple depths of the +clear sky,--the air was mild and balmy,--and as he crossed the road to +turn down the little side street leading to the Tiber, where Florian +Varillo had stood but a few hours previously, a flower-girl met him +with a large basket of white hyacinths and held them up to his eyes. + +"Ecco la primavera, Signor!" she said, with a smile. + +He shook his head, and turned abruptly away,--as he did so, his foot +struck against some slight obstacle. Stooping to examine it, he saw it +was the empty leathern sheath of a dagger. He picked it up, and studied +it intently. It was elaborately adorned with old rococco work, and was +evidently the ornamental covering of one of those small but deadly +weapons which Italians, both men and women, so often wear concealed +about their persons, for the purpose of taking vengeance, when deemed +necessary, on an unsuspecting enemy. Slipping the thing into his +pocket, the Prince looked about him, and soon recognised his +bearings,--he was standing about six yards away from the private +back-entrance to his daughter's studio. He walked up to the door and +tried it,--it was fast locked. + +"Yes--I remember!--the servants told me--both doors were locked,--and +from this they said the key was gone,--" he muttered, then paused. + +Presently, actuated by a sudden impulse, he turned and walked swiftly +with long impatient strides through the more populated quarters of Rome +towards the Corso, and he had not proceeded very far in this direction +before he heard a frenzied and discordant shouting which, though he +knew it did not yet bear the truth in its harsh refrain, yet staggered +him and made his heart almost stand still with an agony of premonitory +fear. + + "Morte di Angela Sovrani!" + "Assassinamento di Angela Sovrani!" + "Morte subito di Angela Sovrani!" + "Assassinamento crudele della bella Sovrani!" + +Prince Pietro held his breath in sharp pain, listening. How horrible +was the persistent cry of the newsvendors!--hoarse and shrill--now +near--now far!-- + + "Morte di Angela Sovrani!" + +How horrible!--how horrible! He put his hands to his ears to try and +shut out the din. He had not expected any public outcry--not so +soon--but ill news travels fast, and no doubt the very servants of his +own household were responsible for having, in the extremity of their +terror, given away the report of Angela's death. The terrible shouts +were like so many cruel blows on his brain,--yet--half-reeling with the +shock of them, he still went on his way,--straight on to the house and +studio of Florian Varillo. There, he rang the bell loudly and +impatiently. A servant opened the door in haste, and stared aghast at +the tall old man with the white hair and blazing eyes, who was wrapped +in a dark cloak, the very folds of which seemed to tremble with the +suppressed rage of the form it enveloped. + +"Il Principe Souvrani!" he stammered feebly, falling back a little from +the threshold. + +"Where is your master?" demanded Sovrani. + +"Eccellenza, he has gone to Naples!" + +"When did he leave?" + +"But two hours ago, Eccellenza!" + +Prince Pietro held up the dagger-sheath he had just found. + +"This--belongs--to--him--does it not?" he asked slowly, detaching his +words with careful directness. + +The man answered readily and at once. + +"Yes, Eccellenza!" + +Sovrani uttered a terrible oath. + +"Let me pass!" + +The servant made a gesture of protest. + +"But--Eccellenza--my master is not here! . . ." + +Prince Pietro paying no heed to him, strode into the house, and +brusquely threw open the door of a room which he knew to be Varillo's +own specially private retreat. A woman with a mass of bright +orange-gold hair, half-dressed in a tawdry blue peignoir trimmed with +cheap lace, was sprawling lazily on a sofa smoking a cigarette. She +sprang up surprised and indignant,--but shrank back visibly as she +recognised the intruder, and met the steady tigerish glare of the old +man's eyes. + +"Where is your lover?" he asked. + +"Eccellensa! You amaze--you insult me--!" + +"Basta!" and Sovrani came a step nearer to her, his wrath seeming to +literally encompass him like a thunder-cloud--"Play me no tricks! This +is not the time for lying! I repeat my question--where is he? You, the +companion of his closest thoughts,--you, his 'model'--you, Mademoiselle +Pon-Pon, his mistress--you must know all his movements. Tell me then, +where he is--or by heaven, if you do not, I will have you arrested for +complicity in murder!" + +She fell back from him trembling, her full red mouth half open,--and +her face paling with terror. + +"Murder!" she whispered--"Dio mio! Dio mio!" + +"Yes--murder!" and the Prince thrust before her wide-opened eyes the +dagger-sheath he held--"What! Have you not heard? Not yet? Not though +the whole city rings with the news? What news? That Angela Sovrani is +dead! That she--my daughter--the sweetest, purest, most innocent and +loving of women as well as the greatest and most gifted--has been +mortally stabbed in her own studio this very day by some cowardly fiend +unknown! Unknown did I say? Not so--known! This sheath belongs to +Florian Varillo. Where is he? Tell me at once--if only to save YOURSELF +trouble!" + +Overcome by fear, and to do her justice, horror as well, the miserable +Pon-Pon threw herself on her knees. + +"I swear he has gone to Naples!" she cried--"On my word!--as I live!--I +swear it!--he has gone! He seemed as usual,--he was not in any +haste--he left no message--he said he would be back in two or three +days--he sent flowers to la Donna Sovrani--he wrote to her + . . . O Santissima Virgine! . . . I swear to you I know nothing!" + +The Prince eyed her with grim attention. + +"They are shouting it in the streets--" he said--"Listen!" He held up +one hand,--she cowered on the floor--she could hear nothing, and she +stared at him in fascinated terror--"They are telling all Rome of the +death of my child! First Rome--and then--the world! The world shall +hear of it! For there is only one Angela Sovrani,--and earth and heaven +cry out for justice in her name! Tell this to the devil who has bought +you for his pleasure! I leave the message with you,--tell him that when +the world clamours for vengeance upon her murderer, I KNOW WHERE TO +FIND HIM!" + +With that, he put the dagger-sheath back in his breastpocket with +jealous care, and left her where she crouched, shivering and moaning. +Walking as in a dream he brushed past the astonished and frightened +servant unseeingly, and went out of the house into the street once +more. There he paused dizzily,--the stars appeared to rock in the sky, +and the houses seemed moving slowly round him in a sort of circular +procession. The shouting of the newsvendors which had ceased for a +while, began again with even louder persistency. + +"Morte di Angela Sovrani!" + +"La bella Sovrani!--Assassinamento crudele!" + +The old man's heart beat in strong hammer-strokes,--he listened +vaguely,--his tall figure shaking a little with the storm pent-up +within him, till all at once as if the full realization of the position +had only just burst upon him, he uttered a sharp cry-- + +"Her lover! Her promised husband! One whom she trusted and loved more +than her own father! The hope of her life!--the man whose praise was +sweeter to her than the plaudits of the whole world!--he--even he--her +MURDERER! For even if she lives in body, he has murdered her soul!" + +He looked up at the deep starlit heavens, his dark face growing livid +in the intensity of his wrath and pain. + +"May God curse him!" he whispered thickly--"May all evil track his +footsteps, and the terrors of a cursed conscience hound him to his +death! May he never know peace by day or night!--may the devils in his +own soul destroy him! God curse him!" + +He clenched his fist and raised it threateningly,--and gathering his +cloak about him tried to walk on,--but there was a black mist before +his eyes . . . he could not see--he stumbled forward blindly, and would +have fallen, had not a strong arm caught him and held him upright. He +turned a dazed and wondering look on the man whose friendly grasp +supported him,--then, with an exclamation, made a trembling attempt to +raise his hat. + +"Il Re!" he murmured feebly--"Il Re!" + +King Humbert--for it was he--held him still more closely. + +"Courage, amico!" he said kindly--"Courage!--yes--yes!--I know--I have +heard the news! All Italy will give you vengeance for your child! We +will spare no pains to discover her murderer. But now--you are ill--you +are weary--do not try to speak--come with me! Let me take you +home--come!" + +A great sob broke from the old man's breast as he yielded to his +Sovereign's imperative yet gentle guidance, and before he could realize +the situation, he was in the King's own carriage, with the King beside +him, being rapidly driven back to his own house. Arrived at the Palazzo +Sovrani, a strange sight greeted them. The great porte-cochere was wide +open, and, pressing through it, and surrounding the stately building at +every point was a vast crowd,--densely packed and almost absolutely +silent. Quite up to the inner portico these waiting thousands +pressed,--though, as they recognised the Royal liveries, they did their +best to make immediate way, and a low murmur arose "Evviva il Re!" But +there was no loud shouting, and the continued hush was more distinctly +recognisable than the murmur. Prince Sovrani gazed bewilderedly at the +great throng as the carriage moved slowly through, and putting his hand +to his head murmured-- + +"What--what is this! I do not understand--why are these people here?" + +The King pressed his hand. + +"All the world honours and loves your daughter, my friend!" he said, +"And Rome, the Mother of Nations, mourns the loss of her youngest child +of genius." + +"No--no, not loss!--she is not dead--" began Sovrani stammeringly,--"I +should have told your Majesty--she is grievously wounded--but not dead +. . ." + +At that moment the carriage stopped. The door of the Sovrani palace was +open, and in the centre of a group of people that had gathered within, +among whom were Aubrey Leigh, Sylvie Hermenstein, and the Princesse +D'Agramont, stood Cardinal Bonpre and Manuel. Manuel was a little in +advance of the rest, and as the King and Prince Sovrani alighted, he +came fully forward, his eyes shining, and a smile upon his lips. + +"She will recover!" he said, "She is sleeping peacefully,--and all is +well!" His voice rang clear and sweet, and was heard by everyone on the +outskirts of the crowd. The good news ran from mouth to mouth, till all +the people caught it up and responded with one brief, subdued, but +hearty cheer. Then, without bidding, they began to disperse, and the +King, baring his head in the presence of Cardinal Bonpre, gave up his +self-imposed charge of old Sovrani, who, faint and feeble, grasped +Aubrey Leigh's quickly proffered arm, and leaned heavily upon it. + +"He needs care," said Humbert gently,--"The shock has moved him +greatly!" + +"Your Majesty is ever considerate of the sorrows of others," said the +venerable Felix with emotion, "And God will bless you as He blesses all +good men!" + +The King bowed reverently to the benediction. Then he looked up with a +slight smile. + +"It is not wise of your Eminence to say so,--in Rome!" he +observed,--"But I thank you, and am grateful!" + +His keen eyes rested for a moment on Manuel,--and the fair aspect of +the boy seemed to move him to a sense of wonder--but he did not speak. +With a light salute to all present he re-entered his carriage and was +driven away--and Aubrey Leigh led Prince Sovrani into his own library +where, when he was seated, they all waited upon him eagerly, the fair +Sylvie chafing his cold hands, and the Princesse D'Agramont practically +making him drink a glass of good wine. Gradually, warmth and colour and +animation came back to his pale features,--his fears were soothed,--his +heart relieved, and a smile crossed his lips as he met Sylvie's +earnest, anxious eyes. + +"What a pretty rosebud it is!" he said softly,--"Full of sunshine--and +love!" + +With returning strength he gathered up the forces of his native pride +and independence and rose from his chair. + +"I am well--quite well again now!" he said, "Where is the boy, Manuel?" + +"Gone back to Angela," replied the Cardinal, "He said he would watch +her until she wakes." + +"An angel watching an angel!" then said the Prince musingly, "That is +as it should be!" He paused a moment, "The King was very kind. And you, +Princesse--and you, bella Contessina!" and he courteously bent over +Sylvie's little hand and kissed it,--"You are all much too good to an +old man like me! I am strong again--I shall be ready to speak--when +Angela bids. But I must wait. I must wait!" He ruffled his white hair +with one hand and looked at them all very strangely. "That was a great +crowd outside--all waiting to hear news of my girl! If--if they knew +who it was that stabbed her--" + +"Do you know?" cried Aubrey quickly. + +"Per Dio!" And Sovrani smiled, "I thought Englishmen were phlegmatic, +and here is one ablaze, and ready to burst like a bomb! No!--I did not +say I knew!--but I say, if the crowd had known, they would have lynched +him! Yes, they would have torn him to pieces! + . . . and he would have deserved it! He will deserve it!--If he is ever +found! Come--we will all sup here together this evening--sorrow +strengthens the bonds of friendship . . . and I will tell you . . ." + +He paused, and again the strange far-off look came into his eyes. + +"I will tell you--" he went on slowly--"how I found my Angela lying +dead, as I thought--dead at the feet of Christ!" + + + + +XXXI. + +Meanwhile Florian Varillo had not gone to Naples. He had been turned +back by a spectre evoked from his own conscience--coward fear. He was +on his way to the station when he suddenly discovered that he had lost +the sheath of his dagger. A cold perspiration broke out on his forehead +as this fact flashed upon him. What had he done with it? Surely he had +drawn the weapon out and left the sheath in his breast pocket as +usual--but no!--search as he would, he could not find it. It must have +dropped on the floor of Angela's studio! If that were so, he would be +traced!--most surely traced--as the sheath was of curious and uncommon +workmanship, and many of his friends had seen it. He had told everybody +he was going to Naples, and of course he would be followed there. Then, +he would not go! But he went to the station as if bent on the journey, +and took a ticket for Naples. Then, setting down his portmanteau on a +bench, he surreptitiously tore off the label on which his name was +written, and tearing it up in small bits scattered the fragments on the +line. After this, he walked away leisurely, leaving the portmanteau +behind him for there was nothing in it by which he could be traced, and +sauntered slowly out of the station into the streets of Rome once more. +Hailing the first fiacre he saw, he told the driver to take him to +Frascati. The man was either lazy or sulky. + +"Why not take the train, Signor?" + +"Because I wish to drive!" replied Varillo. "What is your fare?" + +"Twenty-five francs for half the way!" said the man, showing his white +teeth in a mischievous grin. + +"Good!" + +The driver was surprised, as he had not thought his terms would be +accepted. But he made no further demur, and Varillo jumped into the +vehicle, his teeth chattering with an inward terror he could not +control. "Drive quickly!" he said. + +The man shouted an affirmative, and they clattered away through the +streets, Varillo shrinking back in the carriage overcome by panic. What +a fool he had been!--what a fool! He ought to have told Pon-Pon. If the +dagger-sheath were found and taken to his residence, it would be +recognised instantly! And all Rome would rise against Angela Sovrani's +murderer. Murderer! Yes,--that was what he had chosen to make of +himself! + +"It was all an impulse," he muttered,--"Just a hot impulse, nothing +more! Just a sudden hatred of her which made me stab her! It was enough +to make any man angry to see such a picture as that painted by a woman! +Her fame would have ruined mine! But I never meant to kill her--no--no, +I never meant to kill her!" + +Shuddering and whimpering, he huddled himself in a corner of the +carriage, and did not dare to look out of the window to see which way +he was being driven. He only rallied a little when the wheels moved +more quietly and smoothly, and he knew that he was on the open road, +and out of Rome. Suddenly, after jolting along a considerable time, the +vehicle stopped, and the driver shouted to him. Varillo dashed down the +window and put his head out, almost beside himself with rage. + +"What are you stopping for! What are you stopping for!" he yelled. "Go +on--go on--we are not half way to Frascati yet! Go on, I tell you!" + +"Ma-che! Eccellenza, I only stopped to ask a question!" + +"What question--what? Is this a time for asking questions?" cried +Varillo,--"The night is falling,--I want to get on!" + +"But we are going on as fast as we can!" expostulated the driver,--"It +is only this--there is an albergo on the way--where we can get food and +wine. Would the Eccellenza like to stop there? It is as far as I can +go, for I am wanted to-night in Rome." + +"Very well--stop where you like--only get on now!" said Varillo, +pulling his head in with a jerk. And sinking back in his seat again he +wiped his hot face and cursed his miserable destiny. It would have been +all right if he had only remembered that sheath! No one would have got +on such a track of suspicion as that he, the lover and affianced +husband of Angela, was her brutal assassin! + +"I wrote a loving letter and sent her flowers," he argued with himself, +"when I knew she would be dead! But her father would have got them, and +he would have wired to me in Naples, and I should have come back +overcome with sorrow,--and then I should have told them all how the +picture was a secret between my Angela and myself,--how _I_ had painted +the greater part of it, and how she in her sweetness had wished me to +surprise the world,--the plan was perfect, but it is all +spoiled!--spoiled utterly through that stupid blunder of the sheath!" + +Such a trifle! It seemed to him incredible--unjust--that so slight a +thing could intervene between him and the complete success of his +meditated treachery. For notwithstanding the fact that he had been a +great reader and student of books, he now, in this particular hour of +his own emergency, completely forgot what all the most astute and +learned writers have always expounded to an inattentive world--namely, +the fact that crime holds within itself the seed of punishment. +Sometimes that seed ripens quickly,--sometimes it takes years to +grow,--but it is always there. And it generally takes root in a mere, +slight circumstance, so very commonplace and casual as to entirely +escape the notice of the criminal, till the network of destiny is woven +so closely about him that he can no longer avoid it,--and then he is +shown from what a trifling cause the whole result has sprung. Varillo's +present state of mind was one of absolute torture, for he felt that +whoever found the sheath of his dagger would at once recognise it and +declare the owner. If Angela had only been wounded,--if SHE had found +it--she would never have given up the name of its possessor,--the +miserable man knew her straight, pure soul intimately enough for that! + +"If she heard, she would shield me and defend me at the cost of her own +life!" he said--"She was always like that! SHE would never listen to +anything that was said against me,--and if she lived, she would love me +still, and never say that I had tried to kill her!" and he actually +smiled at the thought. "How strangely some women are +constituted!--especially women like Angela, who set up an exalted +standard of life, and accommodate their daily conduct to it! They are +sublime fools!--and so useful to men! We can do anything we like with +them. We can ruin them--and they bear their shame in silence. We can +laugh away their reputations over a game at billiards, and they are too +pure and proud to even attempt to defend themselves. We can vilify +whatever work they do, and they endure the slander,--we can murder +them--" he paused," Yes, we can murder them, and they die, without so +much as leaving a curse behind them! +Extraordinary!--angelic--superb!--and a wise Fate has ordained that we +men shall never sacrifice ourselves for SUCH women, or go mad for the +love of them! We love the virago better than the saint; we are afraid +of the woman who nags at us and gives us trouble--who screams vengeance +upon us if we neglect her in a trifle--who clamours for our money, and +insists on our gifts--and who keeps our lives in a perpetual fever of +excitement and terror. But the innocent woman we hate--very naturally! +Her looks are a reproach to us, and we like to kill her when we +can--and we often succeed morally,--but THAT is not called murder. The +other way of killing is judged as a crime--and--then--the punishment is +death!" + +As this word passed his lips in a whisper, he trembled violently. +Death! It had a chill sound--yet he had not thought so when he +associated it with Angela. For of course Angela was dead. Was she not? +Surely she must be--he had driven the dagger straight home! + +"She could not possibly live," he muttered--"Not after such a well +directed blow. And that amazing picture! If I could but claim it as my +work, I should be the greatest artist in the world! It would be quite +easy to make out a proof--only that cursed dagger-sheath is in the way!" + +He was startled out of his reverie by another stoppage of the carriage, +and this time the driver jumped down from his box and came to the door. + +"This is as far as I can take you, Signor," he said, looking curiously +at his passenger,--"It is quite half way to Frascati. There is the inn +I told you of--where those lights are," and he pointed towards the +left,--"The carriage road does not go up to it. It is a great place for +artists!" + +"I am not an artist!" said Varillo brusquely. + +"No? But artists are merry company, Eccellenza!--" suggested the +driver, wishing to make up for his previous sulkiness by an excess of +amiability--"And for a night, the albergo is a pleasant resting place +on the way to Frascati, for even the brigands who sup there are +good-natured!" + +"Ah! There are brigands, are there?" said Varillo, getting out of the +fiacre and beginning to recover something of his usual composure,--"And +I daresay you are one of them if the truth were known! Here is your +money." And he gave the man two gold pieces, one of twenty francs, the +other of ten. + +"Eccellenza, I have no change--" + +"I want none!" said Varillo airily,--"You asked twenty-five +francs--there are thirty. And now--as you say you have business in +Rome, be off with you!" + +The man needed no second bidding; delighted with his thirty francs, he +called a gay "Buona notte, Signor!" and turning his horse's head jogged +down the road at a tolerably smart pace. The horse knew as well as the +driver, that the way now lay homeward, and lost no time. Varillo, left +to himself, paused a moment and looked about him. The Campagna! How he +hated it! Should he pass the night at that albergo, or walk on? He +hesitated a little--then made for the inn direct. It was a bright, cosy +little place enough, and the padrona, a cheery, dark-eyed woman seated +behind the counter, bade him smiling welcome. + +Lodging--oh yes! she said, there was a charming room at the Signor's +disposal, with a view from the windows which in the early morning was +superb! The Signor was an artist? + +"No!" said Varillo, almost fiercely--"I am a tourist--travelling for +pleasure!" + +Ah! Then the view would enchant the Signor, because it would be quite +new to him! The room should be prepared at once! Would the Signor take +supper? + +Yes,--the Signor would take supper. And the Signor went and sat in a +remote corner of the common-room, with a newspaper of a week old, +pretending to read its contents. And supper was soon served to him,--a +tasty meal enough, flavoured with excellent wine,--and while he was +drinking his third glass of it, a man entered, tall and +broad-shouldered, wrapped in a heavy cloak, which he only partially +loosened as he leaned against the counter and asked for a cup of +coffee. But as he caught sight of the dark face, Varillo shrank back +into his corner, and put up his newspaper to shield himself from +view,--for he saw that the new-comer was no other than Monsignor +Gherardi. His appearance seemed to create a certain amount of +excitement and vague alarm in the little inn; the padrona evidently +knew him well, and hastened to serve him herself with the coffee he +asked for. + +"Will you not sit down, Eccellentissima?" she murmured deferentially. + +"No, I am in haste!" replied Gherardi, glancing carelessly about +him--"My carriage waits outside. There is strange news in Rome +to-night! The famous artist, Angela Sovrani, has been found in her +studio, murdered!" + +The padrona uttered a little cry. + +"Murdered!" + +"So it seems! Here are the papers from which they cry the news. I will +leave them with you. It is perhaps the judgment of Heaven on the +Sovrani's uncle, Cardinal Bonpre!" + +The mistress of the inn crossed herself devoutly. + +"Guiosto cielo!--Would Heaven punish a Cardinal?" + +"Certainly! If a Cardinal is a heretic!" + +The stout padrona clasped her hands and shuddered. + +"Not possible!" + +"Quite possible!" And Gherardi drained his coffee-cup. "And when so +great a personage of the Church is a renegade, he incurs two +punishments--the punishment of God and the punishment of the Church! +The one comes first--the other comes--afterwards! Buena notte!" + +And throwing down the money for his refreshment, Gherardi cast another +glance around him, muffled himself up in his coat and went out into the +night. Florian Varillo breathed again. But he was not left in peace for +long. The padrona summoned her husband from the kitchen where he +performed the offices of cook, to read the halfpenny sheets of news her +visitor had left with her. + +"Look you!" she said in a low voice, "The wicked Monsignor who has +thee, my poor Paolo, in his clutches for debt, has just passed by and +left evil tidings!--that beautiful girl who painted the famous pictures +in Rome, has been murdered! Do you not remember seeing her once with +her father at Frascati?" + +Paolo, a round-faced, timid-looking little Piedmontese, nodded +emphatically. + +"That do I!" he answered--"Fair as an angel--kind-hearted too,--and +they told me she was a wonder of the world. Che, che! Murdered! And who +could have murdered her? Someone jealous of her fame! Poor thing--she +is engaged to be married too, to another artist named Florian Varillo. +Gran Dio! He will die of this misery!" And they bent their heads over +the paper together and read the brief announcement headed +"Assassinamento di Angela Sovrani!" + +A sudden crash startled them. Varillo had sprung up from his table in +haste and overset his glass. It fell, shivering to atoms on the floor. + +"Pardon!" he exclaimed, laughing forcedly,--"A thousand apologies! My +hand slipped--it was an accident--" + +"Do not trouble yourself, Signor," said the landlord, Paolo, cautiously +going down on his fat knees to pick up the fragments--"It was an +accident as you say. And truly one's nerves get shaken nowadays by all +the strange things one is always hearing! Myself, I tremble to think of +the murder of the Sovrani--the poor girl was so innocent of evil--and +see you!--we might all be murdered in our beds with such villains about +. . ." + +He broke off, surprised at the angry oath Varillo uttered. + +"Per Dio! Can you not talk of something else?" he said +hoarsely,--"There is a murder nearly every day in Rome!" + +Without waiting for a reply he hastily strode out of the inn, banging +the door behind him. He had engaged his room there for the +night--true!--but--after all this foolish gabble he resolved he would +not go back. They would still talk of murder, if he did! Murder was in +the air! Murder seemed written in letters of fire against the clear sky +now luminous with the moon and stars! He was in a fever and a fury--he +walked on and on, little heeding where he went. What the devil had +brought Gherardi to that particular inn at that particular time of +night? He could not imagine. For though he knew most scandals in Rome, +the scandal of the priest's "villa d'amour" at Frascati, was a secret +too closely guarded for anyone save the sharpest of professional +detectives to discover, and he was totally ignorant of it. He wondered +restlessly whether the crafty Vatican spy had seen him while pretending +not to see? If that were so, then he was lost! He could not satisfy +himself as to whether he had really escaped observation, and tormented +by this reflection he walked on and on, the burning impetus of his +thoughts hastening his footsteps. A cold wind began to rise,--a chill, +damp breath of the Campagna, bringing malaria with it. He felt heated +and giddy, and there was a curious sense of fulness in his veins which +oppressed him and made him uncertain of his movements. Presently he +stopped, and stood gazing vaguely from left to right. He was surely not +on the road to Frascati? There was a tall shadowy building not far from +him, surrounded with eucalyptus trees--he tried to locate it, but +somehow though, as a native of Rome and an artist, he was familiar with +most of the Campagna, he did not recognise this part of it. How bright +the stars were! Living points of fire flashing in dense purple!--one +could never paint them! The golden round of the moon spreading wide +reflections on the road, seemed to his excited mind like a magic ring +environing him, drawing him in, pointing him out as the one criminal +for whom all the world was seeking. He had no idea of the time,--his +watch had stopped. He began to count up hours. He remembered that when +he had gone to see Angela, it was about four o'clock. He had known +perfectly well that she was alone, for he had seen the Cardinal drive +past him in the streets on the way to the Vatican, and he had heard at +his "Cercolo" or club, that Prince Sovrani had gone out of Rome for a +few hours. And, thus informed, he had timed his visit to Angela well. +Then, had he meant to kill her? No. He was quite certain that he never +had had any such intention. Then what had been his purpose? First, to +see her picture, and then to condemn it. Not harshly, but gently--with +the chill toleration and faint commiseration of the critic who pretends +to judge everything. He knew--none better--the glowing ardour and +enthusiasm of the genius which was as much a part of Angela as colour +is part of a rose,--his intention had been to freeze all that warmth +with a few apparently kind words. For he had never thought it possible +that she,--a mere woman,--could evolve from her own brain and hand, +such a poetic, spiritual and magnificent conception as "The Coming of +Christ." And when he saw what she had done, he bitterly envied her her +power,--he realized the weakness of his own efforts as compared with +her victorious achievement, and he hated her accordingly, as all men +hate the woman who is intellectually superior to themselves. After all, +there was no way out of it, but the way he had chosen,--to kill her and +make an end! To kill her and make an end! He muttered these words over +and over to himself, as he stood irresolutely watching the broad +patterns of the moonlight, and thinking confusedly about the time. +Yes,--it was four o'clock when he went to Angela's studio,--it must +have been five, or past that hour when he left it,--when he slunk down +the side-street which led to the river, and threw the key and his +dagger together into the muddy tide. After that he had gone home,--and +had superintended his valet, while that individual packed his +portmanteau for Naples--and then--and then? Yes,--then he had written +to Angela,--one of the pretty gracious little notes she was accustomed +to receive from him,--how strange it was to write to a dead girl!--and +he had gone out to the nearest florist's shop, and chosen a basket of +lilies to send to her,--lilies were for dead maidens always,--and he +had sent the flowers and his love letter together. Then surely it must +have been about half-past six? He tried to fix the hour, but could not, +and again his thoughts went rambling on. After sending the lilies, he +had returned to his own house, and Pon-Pon had prepared a "petit cafe" +for him, and he had partaken of it, and had smoked a couple of +cigarettes with her, and then had said a leisurely good-bye, and had +started for the railway-station en route for Naples. What train had he +intended to go by? The eight o'clock express. He remembered that. But +on the way, he had discovered that loss of the dagger-sheath,--an +unforeseen fatality that had turned him back, and brought him to where +he now stood meditating. How long did the driver of that fiacre he +hired, take to bring him to the wayside inn on the road to Frascati? +This he could not determine,--but to his uncertain memory it seemed to +have been an unusually tedious and tiresome journey. And now--here he +was--with no habitation in sight save the solitary building whose walls +loomed darkly through the eucalyptus trees. He went towards it after a +while, walking slowly and almost mechanically;--he was extremely tired, +and an oppressive sense of heat and weariness combined made him anxious +to obtain a night's lodging somewhere,--no matter in what sort of +place. Anything would be better than sleeping out on the Campagna, an +easy prey to the worst form of fever. As he approached more nearly to +the house among the trees, he saw that it was surrounded by a very +high, closely intertwisted iron railing,--and when he came within a few +paces of what appeared to be the entrance, he was startled by the +sudden heavy clang of a bell, which, striking through the still air, +created such harsh clamour that he instinctively shivered at the sound. +He paused,--and again the dismal boom crashed on his ears,--then as its +echo died away another deep monotone, steadily persistent, began to +stir the silence with words,--words, which to Florian Varillo in his +nervous excitation of mind sounded hellish and horrible. + + "Libera me Domine, de morte aeterna!" + "In die ilia tremenda!" + "Quando coeli movendi suntet terra!" + "Dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem!" + +He listened, and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead. With that +strange weakness and effeminacy which often distinguishes the artistic, +and particularly the Italian artistic temperament, he was excessively +superstitious, and this unexpected chanting of a psalm of death seemed +to him at the moment, of supernatural and predetermined origin, devised +on purpose to intensify the growing terrors of his coward conscience. + + "Tremens factus sum ego!" + "Et timeo, dum discussio venerit, atque venerit ira!" + +Once more the great bell tolled heavily, and its discordant tone seemed +to tear his brain. He uttered an involuntary cry,--every weak impulse +in his soul was aroused,--and in the excess of a miserable self-pity he +longed to excuse himself for his crime of treachery and cruelty to the +innocent woman who loved him,--to throw the blame on someone else,--if +he could only find that someone else! Anything rather than own himself +to be the mean wretch and traitor that he was. For he was a cultured +and clever man,--a scholar,--an artist,--a poet;--these things were not +consistent with murder! A man who painted beautiful pictures,--a man +who wrote exquisite verses,--he could never be suspected of stabbing a +helpless trusting woman in the back out of sheer jealousy, like a +common hired assassin! No no! He could never be suspected! Why had he +not thought of his intellectual gifts,--his position in the world of +art, before? No one in their senses could possibly accuse him in the +way he had imagined!--and even if the dagger-sheath were found, some +explanation might be given,--someone else might be found guilty . . . + + "Quando coeli movendi sunt et terra; + Dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem!" + +Again that horrible bell! Moved by a sudden desperate determination to +find out what this mysterious chanting was, and where it came from, he +braced himself up and walked resolutely and quickly on to a great +gateway, cross-barred and surmounted with tall spikes,--and there +seized by fresh panic, he clung to the grating for support and stared +through it affrightedly, his teeth chattering and his whole frame +shaking as with an ague fit. What were those dark terrible figures he +saw? Were they phantoms or men? Gaunt and black and tall, they swayed +to and fro, now bending, now rising, in the misty splendour of the +moonlight,--they were busy with the ground, digging it and casting out +shovels full of earth in heaps beside them. Each ghostly figure stood +by itself apart from its companions,--each one worked at its task +alone,--and only their voices mingled in harsh dismal unison as, with +the next stroke of the solemn bell, they chanted + + "Dies ilia dies irae, + Calamitatis et miseriae!" + +"No!" shrieked Varillo suddenly, shaking the gateway like an infuriated +madman--"What are you doing in there? Who told you to sing my mass or +prepare my grave? I am not ready, I tell you! Not ready! I have done +nothing to deserve death--nothing!--I have not been tried!--you must +wait--you must wait till you know all--you must wait! . . ." + +His voice choked in utterance, and thrusting one hand through the +grating he made frantic gesticulations to the spectral figure nearest +him. It paused in its toil and lifted its head,--and from the dark +folds of a drooping cowl, two melancholy deep-set eyes glittered out +like the eyes of a famished beast. The other spectres paused also, but +only for a moment,--the bell boomed menacingly over their heads once +more, and again they dug and delved, and again they chanted in dreary +monotone-- + + "Dies magna et amara valde, + Dum veneris judicare! + Libera nos Domine, de morte aeterna, in die illa tremenda!" + +Wild with terror Varillo shook the gate more furiously than before. + +"Stop I tell you!" he cried--"It is too soon! You are burying me before +my time. You have no proof against me--none! I am young,--full of life +and strength--the world loves me--wants me!--and I--I will not die!--no +I will not!--not yet! Not yet--I am not ready! Stop--stop! You do not +know what you are doing--stop! You are driving me mad with your +horrible singing!" And he shrieked aloud. "Mad, I tell you!--mad!" + +For one hazy moment he saw some of the dark figures begin to move +towards him--he clutched at them--fought with them--tore at their +garments,--he would have killed them all, he thought, if the moonlight +had not come in between him and them, and shut him up in a cold silver +circle of ice from which he could not escape,--yet he went on +struggling and talking and shrieking, contending sometimes, as he +fancied, with swords and daggers, and trying to find his way through +strange storms of mingled fire and snow--till all at once some strong +invisible force swooped down upon him, lifted him up and carried him +away--and he remembered no more. + + + + +XXXII. + +Away in Paris, a vast concourse of people were assembled round an open +grave in Pere-la-Chaise, wherein the plain coffin of the Abbe Vergniaud +had just been lowered. The day was misty and cold, and the sun shone +fitfully through the wreaths of thin vapour that hung over the city, +occasionally gleaming on the pale fine face of the famous "Gys +Grandit", who, standing at the edge of the grave spoke his oration over +the dead. + +"To this, to this," he cried, "oh people of Paris, we all must come! +Our ambitions, our hopes, our dreams, our grand reforms, our loves and +joys end here, so far as this world is concerned! He whom we have just +laid in the earth was skilled in many devious ways of learning,--gifted +with eloquence, great in scholarship, quick with the tongue as with the +pen, he was a man whom perchance all France would have called famous +had it not been for me! I am the blot on my father's name! I am the sin +for which he has made the last expiation! People of Paris, for years he +lived and worked among you,--outwardly smiling, witty of speech and +popular with you all,--but inwardly a misery to himself in his own +conscience, because he knew his life was not what he professed it to +be. He knew that he did not believe what he asked YOU to accept as +true. He knew that he had guilt upon his soul,--he knew that all the +sins which none of you could guess at, God saw. For there is a God! Not +the God of the priests, but the God of the Universe and of man's +natural and spiritual instinct. He from whom nothing escapes,--He who +ordains where every drop of dew shall fall,--He whose omnipresent +vision perceives the flight of every small bird in the air and +predetermines the building of its nest, and the manner of its end,--He +is the God whom none can deceive. Those who dream they can play false +with Him are mistaken. This dead man, my father, living among you for +years, was contented for years to seem like you,--yes!--for you all +have something which you think you can cover up from the searching eye +of Fate; and many of you pretend to be what you are not,--while many +more wear the aspect of men over the souls of beasts. My father who +rests here to-day at our feet, was a priest of the Roman Church. In +that capacity he should have been clothed with sanctity. Human, yet +removed from common frailty. Yet reckless of his order, heedless of his +vows, he, priest as he was, turned libertine, and betrayed an innocent +woman. He destroyed her name--killed her honour--broke her heart! +Libertines of all classes from kings to commoners, do this kind of +thing every day, and deem it but a small fault of character. +Nevertheless it is a crime!--and for a crime there is always +punishment! For everything that is false,--for everything that is +mean,--for everything that is contemptible and cowardly, punishment +comes,--if not soon, then late. In this case vengeance was +forestalled,--for the sinner, repenting in time, took his vengeance on +himself. He confessed his sin before you all! That was brave! How many +of you here to-day would have such courage! How many of you would throw +off your cloaks of virtue and admit your vices?--or having admitted +them, try to amend them? But this is what my father did. And for this +he should be honoured! He told you all fully and frankly that his +professions of faith were false and vain and conventional; and that he +had seemed to you what he was not. Now the committal of a sin is one +thing,--but the frankly repentant confession of that sin is another. +Some of you will say--Who am I that I should judge my father? Why truly +I am nothing!--and should have been nothing but the avenger of my +mother's life and broken-hearted misery. For that I lived,--for that I +was ready to die! What a trivial object of existence it must seem to +you Parisians nowadays!--to avenge a mother's name! Much better to +fight a duel for some paltry dancer! Yes!--but I am not so constituted. +From my childhood I worked for two things--vengeance and ambition; I +put ambition second, for I would have sacrificed it all to the fiercer +passion. But when I sought to fulfil my vengeance, the man on whom I +would have taken it, himself changed it into respect, pity, admiration, +affection,--and I loved what I had so long hated! So even I, bent on +cruelty, learned to be kind. But not so the Church! The Church of Rome +cannot forgive the dead priest whom we have laid in all-forgiving +Mother Earth to-day! Had he lived, the sentence of excommunication +would have been pronounced against him,--now that he is dead, it is +quite possible it may still be pronounced against his memory. But what +of that? We who know, who feel, who think,--we are not led by the +Church of Rome, but by the Church of Christ! The two things are as +different as this grave differs from high Heaven! For we believe that +when Magdalen breaks a precious box of perfume at the feet of Christ +'she hath wrought a good work'. We also believe that when a man stands +'afar off', saying 'Lord, be merciful to me a sinner!' he goes back to +his house again justified more than he who says 'Lord, I thank Thee I +am not as other men!' We believe that Right is right, and that nothing +can make it wrong! And simply speaking, we know it is right to tell the +truth, and wrong to tell a lie. For a lie is opposed to the working +forces of Nature, and those forces sooner or later will attack it and +overcome it. They are beginning now in our swiftly advancing day, to +attack the Church of Rome. And why? Because its doctrine is no longer +that of Christ, but of Mammon! This is what my father felt and knew, +when he addressed his congregation for the last time in Notre Dame de +Lorette. He knew that he was doomed by disease to a speedy +death,--though he little guessed how soon that death would be. But +feeling the premonition of his end, he resolved to speak out,--not to +condone or excuse himself for having preached what he could not believe +all those years,--but merely to tell you how things were with him, and +to trust his memory to you to be dealt with as you choose. He has left +a book behind him,--a book full of great and noble thoughts expressed +with most pathetic humility; hence I doubt not that when you see the +better soul of him unveiled in his expressed mind, you will yet give +him the fame he merits. His Church judges him a heretic and castaway +for having confessed his sin at last to the people whom he so long +deceived,--but I for this, judge him as an honest man! And I have some +little right to my opinion, for as Gys Grandit I have sought to +proclaim the thoughts of many--" + +He paused till the murmur of enthusiasm at mention of the name by which +he was known through France should have ceased. It rose on the air in a +sort of bee-like humming monotone, and then died away, while many +people stood on tip-toe and craned their necks eagerly over each +other's shoulders to catch a glimpse of the daring writer whose works +threatened to upset a greater power than any throne, the Roman Church. + +"I have tried," he resumed quietly, "as I say, to proclaim the thoughts +of many! The people of France, like the peoples of many other nations, +are losing God in a cloud of priest-craft. Look up to this broad canopy +of heaven,--look up to yonder driving clouds heavy with rain, through +which the great sun gleams like a golden shield,--that is the temple of +the real God! That sparkling roof of air through which the planets roll +in their tremendous orbits, bends over the wise and the foolish, the +just and the unjust; the sun shines as kindly on the face of the street +outcast as on that of the great lady who is often more soiled in soul +than her miserable sister. The rich man can provide for himself no +finer quality of light than is vouchsafed to the poor. The flowers in +the field spring up as graciously under the feet of the beggar as the +king. The Church of the true God is Equality!--the altar, the +sacrament, the final resting-place of the dead, Equality! Your +revolutionary cry was and is still,--Liberty, Equality, and +Fraternity!--but when you shout those words, you know not what you are +calling for. Your demand is instinctive,--the cry of a child for its +parents. It is not for temporal things that you clamouras the foolish +imagine,--it is for eternal things! Liberty of thought,--Equality in +work--Fraternity in faith! But your political leaders, ever at work for +themselves, misread these words for you, even as your priests misread +Christ's Gospel. They make out for you that you want Liberty of +action--Equality of riches, Fraternity in position. These things are by +Nature's law, impossible. They are not wanted,--and reasonable +consideration will prove to you that you do not want them,--otherwise +you would be asking for a disordered universe, a chaos instead of a +world! The strong must always prevail,--but by strong, I do not mean +the strong liar or the strong evil-doer. No! For a lie contains in +itself the germ of rottenness which shall kill--and the evil-doer is +not strong but weak, because cowardly. There is no strength in fear; no +power in disease! Hence I repeat again, the strong must prevail--and by +the strong, I mean the Good! Evil is always weak,--it flourishes for a +day, a month, a year, or if you will, a thousand years, for a thousand +years are but a moment in the sight of Heaven; but for ever and ever +justice is done,--for ever and ever Right comes uppermost, and the +Strong which is God, than whom is none stronger, and who is all +Goodness--prevails! Liberty of thought should be the privilege of every +human creature, but we must never mistake it for Liberty of action. +Liberty of action is restrained by law in the world of nature, and must +be equally restrained in the world of men. But insist on Equality in +work! What do I mean by Equality in work? I mean this,--that every +man's work is entitled to consideration and respect, in every phase of +life. The road-mender works well and makes a smooth way for men and +horses;--he deserves my honour for his skill,--he has it,--he shall +have it,--for I know he can teach me many things of which I am +ignorant. The chief of the State works well,--organizes;--puts grave +matters in order and establishes necessary government--he also shall +have my respect,--he has it,--he deserves his carriage and pair as +fully as the road-mender deserves his dinner. We should not grudge or +envy either man the reward due to their separate positions. The +nightingale has a sweet voice,--the peacock screams--the one is plain +in colour, the other gorgeous,--and there is no actual equality; yet +the one bird does not grudge the other its position, inasmuch as though +there is no Equality there is Compensation. So it is with men. There is +always Compensation in every lot. So it should be; so it must be. +Equality in work means simply, respect for every kind of work done, and +contempt for none except for him who does no work at all! And lastly +the word 'Fraternity.' Glorious word, meaning so much!--holding +suggestions of peace, joy and purity in its mere utterance! Not a +Fraternity of possession--for then should we become lower than the +beasts, who have their own separate holes, their separate mates, their +separate young--but Fraternity of Faith!--the one Faith that teaches us +to cry 'Abba Father,'--that makes us understand Christ as our +Brother--and all of us the children of one family,--one creation moving +on in process of evolvement to greater things! Let any priest tell me +that I am not a child of God, and I will retort that he, by such an +utterance, has proved himself a child of the devil. Ignorant, sinful, +full of miserable imperfections as I am, I am of God as the ant is, the +worm, the fly!--and if I have no more of God in me than such insects, +still I am thankful to have so much! What priest shall dare to say how +much or how little of God there was in the composition of this man +lying in the grave at our feet, who was my father? Excommunication! Who +can excommunicate the soul from its Creator? Who can part the sunbeam +from the sun? Excommunication! The human being who, on what he calls +Church authority, shall thrust his brother away from any form of +communion which he himself judges and accepts as valuable, is one of +those whom Christ declared to be 'in danger of hell-fire.' For there is +no man who can, if he be true to himself, condemn his brother man, or +say to him, 'Stand back! I am holier than thou!' Therefore, for him +whom we lay down to rest to-day, let there be pardon and peace! Let us +remember that for all his sins he atoned, by full confession;--by +publicly branding himself in the sight of that society in whose +estimation he had till then seemed something superior,--by voluntarily +resigning himself to the wrath of the Church of which he was a +professed servant. Cursed by his Creed, he may now perchance be blessed +by his Creator! For he died, clean-souled and true--washed of +hypocrisy,--with no secret vice left unhidden for others to rake up and +expose to criticism. Whatsoever wrong he did, he openly +admitted--whatever false things he said, he retracted. I believe--and I +am sure we all believe, that his spirit thus purified, is acceptable to +God. He has left no lies behind him--no debts--no wrongs to be avenged. +He told you all, people of Paris, what he was before he left you,--and, +looking down into this dark grave, we know what he is. A senseless, +sightless, stiffening form of clay, from which the soul that animated +it into action has fled. Let the Church excommunicate this poor corpse +of my father,--let it muster its forces against his memory as it will, +I swear before you all, that memory shall live! Yes--for I, his son, +will guard it; I whom he so late acknowledged as his own flesh and +blood, will be a shield of defence for his name till I die! If priests +would attack him, they must attack him through me!--and I, despite a +thousand Churches, a thousand Creeds, a thousand Sacraments, will +firmly maintain that a man who frankly repents his sins and is openly +honest with the world before he leaves it, is a better Christian than +he, who for the sake of mere appearances and conventionality, juggles +with death and passes to his Maker's presence in a black cloud of lies! +Better to be crucified with Christ, than live with the High Priests and +Pharisees of the modern Jerusalem of our social conditions! Truth may +seem to perish on the Cross of injustice--it may be buried in a sealed +sepulchre, the entrance to which may be closed up by a great stone of +Mammon-bulk and heaviness--but the moment must come when the Angel +descends from Heaven--when the stone is rolled away--and the eternal, +living God rises again and walks the world in the glory of a new dawn!" + +He ended--and for a moment there was a deep silence. There had been no +funeral service, for no priest would attend the burial of the heretic +Abbe. So, after a brief pause, Cyrillon knelt down by the grave,--and +carried away by the solemnity of the scene, as well as by their own +emotional excitement, more than half the crowd knelt with him, as, +bending his head reverently over his clasped hands, he prayed aloud-- + +"Oh God of Love, whose tenderness and care for Thy creation is +everywhere disclosed to us, from the smallest atom of dust, to the +stupendous majesty of Thy million worlds in the air,--give we beseech +Thee, to this perished clay which once was man, the beauty which +transforms vile things to virtuous, and endows our seeming death with +life! Let Thy eternal Law of Resurrection so work upon this senseless +body that it may pass through Earth to Heaven, and there find finer +grades of being, higher forms of development, greater opportunities of +perfection. And for the Soul, which is Thine own breath of fire, O God, +receive it, purified from sin, and make it worthy of the final purpose +for which Thou hast destined it from the beginning! And grant unto us, +left here to still work out our own salvation on this the planet Thou +hast chosen for our trial, the power to comprehend Thy laws, and +faithfully to obey them,--to forgive as we would be forgiven,--to love +as we would be loved,--and to lift our thoughts from the appearance of +this grave to the Reality of Thy beneficence, which hath ordained Light +out of Darkness, and out of Death, Life, as proved most gloriously to +us by Christ our Brother, our Teacher and our Master! Amen!" + +His prayer finished, the young man rose, and taking a wreath of ivy, +which he had travelled to Touraine himself to bring from the walls of +the simple cottage where his mother had lived and worked and died, he +dropped it gently on the coffin and signed to the grave-diggers to fill +in the earth. Then turning to the crowd, he said, + +"My friends, I thank you all for the sympathy which has brought you +here to-day. 'It is finished.' The dead man is at rest! And now as you +go,--as you return to your own homes,--homes happy or unhappy as the +case may be, I will only ask you to remember that there is no +permanence or virtue in falsehood whether it be falsehood religious or +falsehood political,--and he who dies truthfully dealing with his +fellow-men, lives again with God, and is not, as Scripture says 'dead +in his sins,' but born again to a new and more hopeful existence!" + +With the last words he gave the sign of dismissal. The people began to +disperse slowly and somewhat reluctantly, every member of the crowd +being curious to obtain a nearer view of the young orator who not only +spoke his thoughts fearlessly, but whose pen was as a scythe mowing +down a harvest of shams and hypocrisies, and whose frank utterance from +the heart was so honest as to be absolutely convincing to the public. +But he, after giving a few further instructions to the men who were +beginning to close in his father's grave, walked away with one or two +friends, and was soon lost to sight in one of the many winding paths +that led from the cemetery out into the road, so that many who +anxiously sought to study his features more nearly, were disappointed. +One person there was, who had listened to his oration in wonder and +open-mouthed admiration,--this was Jean Patoux. He had taken the +opportunity offered him in a "cheap excursion" from Rouen to Paris, to +visit a cousin of his who was a small florist owning a shop in the Rue +St. Honore,--and by chance, he and this same cousin, while quietly +walking together down one of the boulevards, had got entangled in the +press of people who were pouring into Pere-la-Chaise on this occasion, +and had followed them out of curiosity, not at all knowing what they +were going to see. But the florist, known as Pierre Midon, soon +realised the situation and explained it all to his provincial relative. + +"It is the Abbe Vergniaud they are burying," he said,--"He was a +wonderful preacher! All fashionable Paris used to go and hear him till +he made that pretty scandal of himself a month or so ago. He was a +popular and a social favourite; but one fine morning he preached a +sermon to his congregation all against the Church, and for that matter +against himself too, for he then and there confessed before everybody +that he was no true priest. And as he preached,--what think you?--a +young man fired a pistol shot at him for his rascality, as everyone +supposed, and when the gendarmes would have taken the assassin, this +same Abbe stopped them, and refused to punish HIS OWN SON! What do you +think of that for a marvel? And something still more marvellous +followed, for that very son who tried to kill him was no other than Gys +Grandit, the man we have just heard speaking, though nobody knew it +till a week afterwards. Such a scene you never saw in a church!--Paris +was wild with excitement for a dozen hours, which is about as long as +its fevers last,--and the two of them, father and son, went straight +away to a famous Cardinal then staying in Paris,--and he, by the way, +was in the church when the Abbe publicly confessed himself--Cardinal +Bonpre--" + +"Ah!" interrupted Patoux excitedly, "This interests me! For that most +eminent Cardinal stayed at my inn in Rouen before coming on here!" + +"So!" And Cousin Pierre looked rather surprised. "Without offence to +thee, Jean, it was a poor place for a Cardinal, was it not?" + +"Poor, truly,--but sufficient for a man of his mind!" replied Patoux +tranquilly,--"For look you, he is trying to live as Christ lived,--and +Christ cared naught for luxury." + +Pierre Midon laughed. + +"By my faith! If priests were to live as Christ lived, Paris might +learn to respect them!" he said,--"But we know that they will not,--and +that few of them are better than the worst of us! But to finish my +story--this Abbe and the son whom he so suddenly and strangely +acknowledged, went to this Cardinal Bonpre for some reason--most +probably for pardon, though truly I cannot tell you what happened--for +almost immediately, the Abbe went out of Paris to the Chateau +D'Agramont some miles away, and his son went with him, and there the +two stayed together till the old man died. And as for Cardinal Bonpre, +he went at once to Rome with his niece, the famous painter, Angela +Sovrani,--I imagine he may have interceded with the Pope, or tried to +do so for the Abbe, but whatever happened, there they are now, for all +I know to the contrary. And we heard that the Church was about to +excommunicate, or had already excommunicated Vergniaud, though I +suppose Cardinal Bonpre had nothing to do with that?" + +"Not he!" said Patoux firmly, "He would never excommunicate or do any +unkind thing to a living soul--that I am pretty sure of. He is the very +Cardinal who performed the miracle in my house that has caused us no +end of trouble,--and he is under the displeasure of the Pope for it +now, if all I hear be true." + +"That is strange!" said Pierre with a laugh,--"To be under the +displeasure of the Pope for doing a good deed!" + +"Truly, it seems so," agreed Patoux,--"But you must remember there was +no paying shrine concerned in it! Mark you that, my Pierre! Even our +Lady of Bon Secours, near to Rouen as she is, was not applied to. The +miracle took place in the poor habitation of an unknown little +inn-keeper,--that is myself,--and there was no solemnity at all about +it--no swinging of incense--no droning of prayers--no lighting of +candles--no anything, but just a good old man with a crippled child on +his knee, praying to the Christ whom he believed was able to help him. +And--and--" + +He broke off suddenly and crossed himself. Pierre Midon stared at the +action. + +"What ails thee, Jean?" he asked brusquely,--"Hast thou remembered a +dead sin, or a passing soul?" + +"Neither," replied Patoux slowly, "But only just the thought of another +child--a waif and stray whom the good Cardinal found in the streets of +Rouen, outside our great Cathedral door. A gentle lad!--my wife was +greatly taken with him;--and he was present in my house too, when the +miracle of healing was performed." + +"And for that, is there any need to cross thyself like a mumbling old +woman afraid of the devil?" enquired his cousin. + +Patoux smiled a slow smile. + +"Gently, Pierre--gently!" he said. "Thou art of Paris,--I of the +provinces. That makes all the difference in the way we look at life. +There are very few holy things in great cities,--but there are many in +the country. Every day when I am at home I go out of the town to work +in my field,--and I feel the clean breath of the wind, the scent of the +earth and the colours of the sky and the flowers,--and I know quite +well there is a God, or these blessings could not be. For if there were +only Chance and a Man to manage the universe, a pretty muddle we should +have of it! And when I see or think of a holy thing, I sign the cross +out of old childhood's habit,--so just now, when I remembered the boy +whom the Cardinal rescued from the streets, I knew I was thinking of a +holy thing; and that explains my action." + +"How dost thou prove a waif of the streets a holy thing?" enquired +Pierre curiously. + +Patoux shrugged his shoulders, and gave a wide deprecatory wave of both +hands. + +"Ah, that is more than I can tell you!" he said,--"It is a matter +beyond my skill. But the boy was a fair-faced boy,--I never saw him +myself--" + +Midon laughed outright. + +"Never saw him thyself!" he cried,--"And yet thou dost make the sign of +the cross at the thought of him! Diantre! Patoux, thou art crazy!" + +"Maybe--maybe," said Patoux mildly,--they were walking together out of +the cemetery by this time in the wake of the rapidly dispersing +crowd,--"But I have always taken my wife's word,--and I take it now. +And she has said over and over again to me that the boy had a rare +sweet nature. And then--the child whom the Cardinal healed,--Fabien +Doucet,--will always insist upon it that it was the touch of that same +boy which truly cured him and not the Cardinal at all!" + +"Mere fancy!" said Pierre carelessly,--"And truly if it were not for +knowing thee to be honest, I should doubt the miracle altogether!" + +"And thou wouldst be of the majority!" said Patoux equably--"For our +house has been a very bee-hive of buzz and trouble ever since a bit of +good was done in it--and Martine Doucet, the mother of the cured child, +has led the life of the damned, thanks to the kindness of her +neighbours and friends! And will you believe me, the Archbishop of +Rouen himself took the trouble to walk into the market-place and assure +her she was a wicked woman,--that she had taught her boy to play the +cripple in order to excite pity,--and I believe he thinks she is +concerned in the strange disappearance of his clerk, Claude Cazeau. For +this same Cazeau came to our house one night when Martine was there, +and told her he had instructions to take her to Rome to see the Pope, +and her child with her, for the purpose of explaining the miracle in +her own words, and giving the full life-history of herself and the +little one. And she was angry,--ah, she can be very angry, poor +Martine!--she has a shrill tongue and a wild eye, and she said out +flatly that she would not go, and furthermore that she would not be +caught in a priest's trap, or words to that effect. And this clerk, +Cazeau,--a miserable little white-livered rascal, crawled away from my +door in a rage with us all, and was never seen again. The police have +hunted high and low for trace of him, but can find none. But I have my +suspicions--" + +"What are they?" enquired Midon,--"That he went out like Judas, and +hanged himself?" + +"Truly he might have done that without loss or trouble to anyone!" said +Patoux tranquilly,--"But he thought too well of himself to be quite so +ready for a meeting with le bon Dieu! No!--I will tell you what I +think. There was a poor girl who used to roam about the streets of our +town, called Marguerite, she was once a sensible, bright creature +enough, the only daughter of old Valmond the saddler, who died from a +kick from his favourite horse one day, and left his child all alone in +the world. She was a worker in a great silk-factory, and was happy and +contented, so it seemed, till--well! It is the old story--a man with a +woman, and the man is most often the devil in it. Anyway, this +Marguerite went mad on her love-affair,--and we called her 'La +Folle,'--not harshly--for all the town was kind to her. I mentioned her +name once in the presence of this man Cazeau, and he started as if an +adder had bitten him. And now--he has disappeared--and strange to say, +so has she!" + +"So has she!" echoed Midon, opening his eyes a little wider--"Then what +do you suppose?--" + +"Just this," said Patoux, emphasizing his words by marking them out +with a fat thumb on the palm of the other hand--"That Cazeau was the +villain of the piece as they say in the theatres, and that she has +punished him for his villainy. She used to swear in her mad speech that +if ever she met the man who had spoilt her life for her, she would kill +him; and that is just what I believe she has done!" + +"But would she kill herself also?" demanded Pierre--"And what has +become of one or both bodies?" + +"Ah! There thou dost ask more than I can answer!" said Patoux. "But +what is very certain is, that both bodies, living or dead, have +disappeared. And as I said to my wife when she put these things into my +head,--for look you, my head is but a dull one, and if my wife did not +put things into it, it would be but an emptiness altogether,--I said to +my wife that if she were right in her suspicions--and she generally is +right--this Marguerite had taken but a just vengeance. For you will not +prove to me that there is any man living who has the right to take the +joy out of a woman's soul and destroy it." + +"It is done every day!" said Midon with a careless shrug,--"Women give +themselves too easily!" + +"And men take too greedily!" said Patoux obstinately--"What virtue +there is in the matter is on the woman's side. For she mostly gives +herself for love's sake,--but the man cares naught save for his own +selfish pleasure. As a man myself, I am on the side of the woman who +revenges herself on her betrayer." + +"For that matter so am I!" said Midon. "Women have a hard time of it in +this world, even under the best of circumstances,--and whatever man +makes it harder for them, should be horse-whipped within an inch of his +life, if I had my way. I have a wife--and a young daughter--and my old +mother sits at home with us, as cheery and bright a body as you would +find in all France,--and so I know the worth of women. If any rascal +were to insult my girl by so much as a look, he would find himself in +the ditch with a sore back before he had time to cry 'Dieu merci!'" + +He laughed;--Patoux laughed with him, and then went on,-- + +"I told thee of the miracle in my house, and of the boy the Cardinal +found in the streets,--well!--these things have had their good effect +in my own family. My two children, Henri and Babette--ah! What +children! God be praised for them! As bright, as kind as the +sunlight,--and their love for me and their mother is a great thing--a +good thing, look you!--one cannot be sufficiently grateful for it. For +nowadays, children too often despise their parents, which is bad luck +to them in their after days; but ours, wild as they were a while ago, +are all obedience and sweetness. I used often to wonder what would +become of them as they grew up--for they were wilful and +angry-tempered, and ofttimes cruel in speech--but I have no fear now. +Henri works well at his lessons, and Babette too,--and there is +something better than the learning of lessons about them,--something +new and bright in their dispositions which makes us all happy. And this +has come about since the Cardinal stayed with us; and also since the +pretty boy was found outside the Cathedral!" + +"That boy seems to have impressed thee more than the Cardinal himself!" +said Midon--"but now I remember well--on the day the Abbe Vergniaud +preached his last sermon, and was nearly shot dead by his own son, +there was a rumour that his life had been saved by some boy who was an +attendant on the Cardinal, and who interposed himself between the Abbe +and the flying bullet,--that must have been the one you mean?" + +"No doubt--no doubt!" said Patoux, nodding gravely--"There was +something about him that seemed a sort of shield against evil--or at +least, so said my wife,--and so say my children. Only the other day, my +boy Henri--he is big and full of mischief as boys will be--was playing +with two or three younger lads, and one of them like a little sneak, +stole up behind him and gave him a blow with a stick, which broke in +two with the force of the way the young rascal went to work with it. +Now, thought I, there will be need for me to step out and stop this +quarrel, for Henri will beat that miserable little wretch into a jelly! +But nothing of the sort! My boy turned round with a bright +laugh--picked up the two pieces of the stick and gave them back to the +little coward with a civil bow "Hit in front next time!" he said. And +the little wretch turned tail and began to boo-hoo in fine +fashion--crying as if he had been hurt instead of Henri. But they are +the best friends in the world now. I asked Henri about it afterwards, +and he turned as red as an apple in the cheeks. 'I wanted to kill him, +father,' he said,--'but I knew that the boy who was with Cardinal +Bonpre would not have done it--and so I did not!' Now look you, for a +rough little fellow such as Henri, that was a great victory over his +passions--and there is no doubt the Cardinal's little foundling was the +cause of his so managing himself." + +Pierre Midon had nothing to say in answer,--the subject was getting +beyond him, and he was a man who, when thought became difficult, gave +up thinking altogether. + +And while these two simple-minded worthies were thus talking and +strolling together home through the streets of Paris, Cyrillon +Vergniaud, having parted from the few friends who had paid him the +respect of their attendance at his father's grave, was making his way +towards the Champs Elysees in a meditative frame of mind, when his +attention was suddenly caught and riveted by a placard set up in front +of one of the newspaper kiosks at the corner of a boulevard, on which +in great black letters, was the name "Angela Sovrani." His heart gave +one great bound--then stood still--the streets of the city reeled round +him, and he grew cold and sick. "Meurtre de la celebre Angela Sovrani!" + +Hardly knowing what he was about, he bought the paper. The news was in +a mere paragraph briefly stating that the celebrated artist had been +found stabbed in her studio, and that up to the present there was no +trace of the unknown assassin. + +Passionate and emotional as his warm nature was, the great tears rushed +to Cyrillon's eyes. In one moment he realized what he had been almost +unconsciously cherishing in his own mind ever since Angela's beautiful +smile had shone upon him. When in the few minutes of speech he had had +with her she admitted herself to be the mysterious correspondent who +had constantly written to him as "Gys Grandit," fervently sympathising +with his theories, and urging him on to fresh and more courageous +effort, he had been completely overcome, not only with surprise, but +also with admiration. It had taken him some time to realize that she, +the greatest artist of her day, was actually his unknown friend of more +than two years' correspondence. He knew she was engaged to be married +to her comrade in art, Florian Varillo, but that fact did not prevent +him from feeling for her all the sudden tenderness, the instinctive +intimacy of spirit with spirit, which in the highest natures means the +highest love. Then,--they had all been brought together so +strangely!--his father, and himself, with Cardinal Bonpre,--and +she--the Cardinal's fair niece, daughter of a proud Roman house,--she +had not turned away from the erring and repentant priest whom the +Church had cast out; she had given him her hand at parting, and had +been as sweetly considerate of his feelings as though she had been his +own daughter. And when he was ill and dying at the Chateau D'Agramont, +she had written to him two or three times in the kindest and tenderest +way, and her letters had not been answered, because the Abbe was too +ill to write, and he, Cyrillon, had been afraid--lest he should say too +much! And now--she was dead?--murdered? No!--he would not believe it! + +"God is good!" said Cyrillon, crushing the paper in his hand and +raising his eyes to the cloudy heavens--"He does nothing that is +unnecessarily cruel. He would not take that brilliant creature away +till she had won the reward of her work--happiness! No!--something +tells me this news is false!--she cannot be dead! But I will start for +Rome to-night." + +He returned to the cheap pension where he had his room, and at once +packed his valise. With all his fame he was extremely poor; he had for +the most part refused to take payment for his books and pamphlets which +had been so freely spread through France, preferring to work for his +daily bread in the fields of an extensive farm near his birthplace in +Touraine. He had begun there as a little lad, earning his livelihood by +keeping the birds away from the crops--and had steadily risen by +degrees, through his honesty and diligence, to the post of +superintendent or bailiff of the whole concern. No one was more trusted +than he by his employers,--no one more worthy of trust. But his wages +were by no means considerable,--and though he saved as much as he +could, and lived on the coarsest fare, it was a matter of some trouble +for him to spare the money to take him from Paris to Rome. What cash he +had, he carried about him in a leathern bag, and this he now emptied on +the table to estimate the strength of his finances. Any possibility of +changing his mind and waiting for further news from Rome did not occur +to him. One of his chief characteristics was the determined way he +always carried through anything he had set his mind upon. In one of his +public speeches he had once said--"Let all the powers of hell oppose +me, I will storm them through and pass on! For the powers of Heaven are +on MY side!"--the audacity and daring of this utterance carrying away +his audience in a perfect whirlwind of enthusiasm. And though it is +related of a certain cynical philosopher, that when asked by one of his +scholars for a definition of hell, he dashed into the face of his +enquirer an empty purse for answer, the lack of funds was no obstacle +to Cyrillon's intended journey. + +"Because if I can go no other way, I will persuade the guard to let me +ride in the van, or travel in company with a horse or dog--quite as +good animals as myself in their way," he thought. + +With a characteristic indifference to all worldly matters he had +entirely forgotten that the father whom he had just buried had died +wealthy, and that his entire fortune had been left to the son whom he +had so lately and strangely acknowledged. And when,--while he was still +engaged in counting up his small stock of money,--a knock came at the +door, and a well-dressed man of business-like appearance entered with a +smiling and propitiatory air, addressing him as "Monsieur Vergniaud," +Cyrillon did not know at all what to make of his visitor. Sweeping his +coins together with one hand, he stood up, his flashing eyes glancing +the stranger over carelessly. + +"Your name, sir?" he demanded--"I am not acquainted with you." + +The smiling man unabashed, sought about for a place to put down his +shiny hat, and smiled still more broadly. + +"No!" he said--"No! You would not be likely to know me. I have not the +celebrity of Gys Grandit! I am only Andre Petitot--a lawyer, residing +in the Boulevard Malesherbes. I have just come from your father's +funeral." + +Cyrillon bowed gravely, and remained silent. + +"I have followed you," pursued Monsieur Petitot affably, "as soon as I +could, according to the instructions I received, to ask when it will be +convenient for you to hear me read your father's will?" + +The young man started. + +"His will!" he ejaculated. He had never given it a thought. "Yes. May I +take a chair? There are only two in the room, I perceive! Thanks!" And +the lawyer sat down and began drawing off his gloves,--"Your father had +considerable means,--though he parted with much that he might have +kept, through his extraordinary liberality to the poor--" + +"God bless him!" murmured Cyrillon. + +"Yes--yes--no doubt God will bless him!" said Monsieur Petitot +amicably--"According to your way of thinking, He ought to do so. But +personally, I always find the poor extremely ungrateful, and God +certainly does not bless ME whenever I encourage them in their habits +of idleness and vice! However, that is not a question for discussion at +present. The immediate point is this--your father made his will about +eighteen months ago, leaving everything to you. The wording of the will +is unusual, but he insisted obstinately on having it thus set down--" + +Here the lawyer drew a paper out of his pocket, fixed a pair of +spectacles on his nose, and studied the document intently--"Yes!--it +reads in this way:--' Everything of which I die possessed to my son, +Cyrillon Vergniaud, born out of wedlock, but as truly my son in the +sight of God, as Ninette Bernadin was his mother, and my wife, though +never so legalised before the world, but fully acknowledged by me +before God, and before the Church which I have served and disobeyed.' A +curious wording!" said Petitot, nodding his head a great many +times--"Very curious! I told him so--but he would have it his own +way,--moreover, I am instructed to publish his will in any Paris paper +that will give it a place. Now this clause is to my mind exceedingly +disagreeable, and I wish I could set it aside." + +"Why?" asked Cyrillon quietly. + +"My dear young man! Can you ask? Why emphasise the fact of your +illegitimacy to the public!" + +"Why disguise it?" returned Cyrillon. "You must remember that I have +another public than the merely social,--the people! They all know what +I am, and who I am. They have honoured me. They shall not despise me. +And they would despise me if I sought to hold back from them what my +father bade me tell. Moreover, this will gives my mother the honour of +wifehood in the sight of God,--and I must tell you, monsieur l'avocat, +that I am one of those who care nothing what the world says so long as +I stand more or less clear with the world's Creator!" + +His great dark eyes were brilliant,--his face warm with the fire of his +inward feeling. Monsieur Petitot folded up his document and looked at +him with an amiable tolerance. + +"Wonderful--wonderful!" he said--"But of course eccentricities WILL +appear in the world occasionally!--and you must pardon me if I venture +to think that you are certainly one of them. But I imagine you have +nograsped the whole position. The money--I should saythe fortune--which +your father has left to you, will make you a gentleman--" + +He paused, affrighted. Drawing himself up to his full height, young +Vergniaud confronted him in haughty amazement. + +"Gentleman!" he cried--"What do you mean by the term? A loafer?--a +lounger in the streets?--a leerer at women? Or a man who works for +daily food from sunrise to sunset, and controls his lower passions by +hard and honest labour! Gentleman! What is that? Is it to live lazily +on the toil of others, or to be up and working one's self, and to eat +no bread that one has not earned? Will you answer me?" + +"My dear sir, you must really excuse me!" said Petitot nervously--" I +am quite unable to enter into any sort of discussion with you on these +things! Please recollect that my life as a lawyer, depends entirely on +men's stupidities and hypocrisies,--if they all entertained your views +I should have to beg in the streets, or seek another profession. In my +present business I should have nothing whatever to do. You perceive the +position? Yes, of course you do!" For Cyrillon with one of the quick +changes of mood habitual to him, smiled, as his temporary irritation +passed like a cloud, and his eyes softened--"You see, I am a +machine,--educated to be a machine; and I am set down to do certain +machine-like duties,--and one of these duties is,--regardless of your +fame, your eccentric theories, your special work which you have chosen +to make for yourself in the world,--to put you in possession of the +money your father left you--" + +"Can you now--at once--" said Cyrillon suddenly--"give me enough money +to go to Rome to-night?" + +Monsieur Petitot stared. + +"To go to Rome to-night?" he echoed--"Dear me, how very extraordinary! +I beg your pardon! . . . of course--most certainly! I can advance you +any sum you want--would ten thousand francs suffice?" + +"Ten thousand francs!" Cyrillon laughed. "I never had so much money in +all my life!" + +"No? Well, I have not the notes about me at the moment, but I will send +you up that sum in an hour if you wish it. Your father's will entitles +you to five million francs, so you see I am not in any way endangering +myself by advancing you ten thousand." + +Cyrillon was quite silent. The lawyer studied him curiously, but could +not determine whether he was pleased or sorry at the announcement of +his fortune. His handsome face was pale and grave,--and after a pause +he said simply-- + +"Thank you! Then I can go to Rome. If you will send me the money you +speak of I shall be glad, as it will enable me to start to-night. For +the rest,--kindly publish my father's will as he instructed you to +do,--and I--when I return to Paris, will consult you on the best way in +which I can dispose of my father's millions." + +"Dispose of them!" began Petitot amazedly. Young Vergniaud interrupted +him by a slight gesture. + +"Pardon me, Monsieur, if I ask you to conclude this interview! For the +present, I want nothing else in the world but to get to Rome as quickly +as possible!--apres ca, le deluge!" + +He smiled--but his manner was that of some great French noble who +gently yet firmly dismisses the attentions of a too-officious +servant,--and Petitot, much to his own surprise, found himself bowing +low, and scrambling out of the poorly furnished room in as much +embarrassment as though he had accidentally stumbled into a palace +where his presence was not required. + +And Cyrillon, left to himself, gathered up all the coins he had been +counting out previous to the lawyer's arrival, and tied them again +together in the old leathern bag; then having closed and strapped his +little travelling valise, sat down and waited. Punctually to the time +indicated, that is to say, in one hour from the moment Petitot had +concluded his interview with the celebrated personage whom he now +mentally called "an impossible young man," a clerk arrived bringing the +ten thousand francs promised. He counted the notes out +carefully,--Cyrillon watching him quietly the while, and taking +sympathetic observation of his shabby appearance, his thread-bare coat, +and his general expression of pinched and anxious poverty. + +"You will perceive it is all right, Monsieur," he said humbly, as he +finished counting. + +"What are you, mon ami?" asked Cyrillon; scarcely glancing at the notes +but fixing a searching glance on the messenger who had brought them. + +"I?" and the clerk coughed nervously and blushed,--"Oh, I am nothing, +Monsieur! I am Monsieur Petitot's clerk, that is all!" + +"And does he pay you well?" + +"Thirty francs a week, Monsieur. It is not bad,--only this--I was young +a few years ago, and I married--and two dear little ones came--so it is +a pull at times to make everything go as it should--not that I am sorry +for myself at all, oh no! For I am well off as the people go--" + +Cyrillon interrupted him. + +"Yes--as the people go! That is what you all say, you patient, brave +souls! See you, my friend, I do not want all this money--"and he took +up a note for five hundred francs--"Take this and make the wife and +little ones happy!" + +"Monsieur!" stammered the astonished clerk--"How can I dare--!" + +"Dare! Nay, there is no daring in freely taking what your brother +freely gives you! You must let me practise what I preach, my friend, +otherwise I am only a fraud and unfit to live. God keep you!" + +The clerk still stood trembling, afraid to take up the note, and unable +through emotion to speak a word, even of thanks. Upon which, Cyrillon +folded up the note and put it himself in the man's pocket. + +"There!--go and make happiness with that bit of paper!" he said--"Who +can tell through what dirty usurer's hand it has been, carrying curses +with it perchance on its way! Use it now for the comfort of a woman and +her little children, and perhaps it will bring blessing to a living man +as well as to a departed soul!" + +And he literally put the poor stupefied fellow outside his door, +shutting it gently upon him. + +That night he left for Rome. And as the express tore its grinding way +along over the iron rails towards the south, he repeated to himself +over and over again as in a dream-- + +"No--Angela Sovrani is not dead! She cannot be dead! God is too good +for that. He will not let her die before she knows--before she knows I +love her!" + + + + +XXXIII. + +The chain of circumstance had lengthened by several links round the +radiant life of Sylvie Hermenstem since that bright winter morning when +she had been startled out of her reverie, in the gardens of the Villa +Borghese, by the unexpected appearance of Monsignor Gherardi. The +untimely deaths of the Marquis Fontenelle and the actor Miraudin in the +duel over her name, had caused so much malicious and cruel gossip, that +she had withdrawn herself almost entirely from Roman society, which +had, with one venomous consent, declared that she was only marrying +Aubrey Leigh to shield herself from her esclandre with the late +Marquis. And then the murderous attack on her friend Angela Sovrani, +which occurred almost immediately after her engagement to Aubrey was +announced, had occupied all her thoughts--so that she had almost +forgotten the promise she had made to grant a private interview to +Gherardi whenever he should seek it. And she was not a little vexed one +morning when she was talking to her betrothed concerning the plans +which were now in progress for their going to England as soon as +possible, to receive a note reminding her of that promise, and +requesting permission to call upon her that very afternoon. + +"How very unfortunate and tiresome!" said Sylvie, with a charming pout +and upward look at her lover, who promptly kissed the lips that made +such a pretty curve of disdain--"I suppose he wants to give me a +serious lecture on the responsibilities of marriage! Shall I receive +him, Aubrey? I remember when I met him last that he had something +important to say about Cardinal Bonpre." + +"Then you must certainly give him an audience," answered Aubrey--"You +may perhaps find out what has happened to bring the good Cardinal into +disfavour at the Vatican, for there is no doubt that he is extremely +worried and anxious. He is strongly desirous of leaving Rome at once +with that gentle lad Manuel, who, from all I can gather, has said +something to displease the Pope. Angela is out of danger now--and I am +trying to persuade the Cardinal to accompany us to England, and be +present at our marriage." + +"That would be delightful!" said Sylvie with a smile,--"But my Aubrey, +where are we going to be married?" + +"In England, as I said--not here!" said Aubrey firmly--"Not here, where +evil tongues have spoken lies against my darling!" He drew her into his +arms and looked at her fondly. "I want you to start for England soon, +Sylvie--and if possible, I should like you to go, not only with the +faithful Bozier, but also in the care of the Cardinal. I will precede +you by some days, and arrange everything for your reception. And then +we will be married--in MY way!" + +Sylvie said nothing--she merely nestled like a dove in the arms of her +betrothed, and seemed quite content to accept whatever ordinance he +laid down for the ruling of her fate. + +"I think you must see Gherardi," he resumed--"Write a line and say you +will be happy to receive him at the hour he appoints." + +Sylvie obeyed--and despatched the note at once to the Vatican by her +man-servant. + +Aubrey looked at her intently. + +"I wonder--Sylvie, I wonder--" he began, and then stopped. + +She met his earnest eyes with a smile in her own. + +"You wonder what, caro mio?" she enquired. + +"I wonder whether you could endure a very great trial--or make a very +great sacrifice for my sake!" he said,--then as he saw her expression, +he took her little hand and kissed it. + +"There! Forgive me! Of course you would!--only you look such a slight +thing--such a soft flower of a woman--like a rose-bud to be worn next +the heart always--that it seems difficult to picture you as an +inflexible heroine under trying circumstances. Yet of course you would +be." + +"I make no boast, my Aubrey!" she said gently. + +He kissed her tenderly,--reverently,--studying her sweet eyes and +delicate colouring with all the fond scrutiny of a love which cannot +tire of the thing it loves. + +"Are you going round to see Angela this morning?" he asked. + +"Yes, I always go. She is much better--she sits up a little every day +now." + +"She says nothing of her assassin?" + +"Nothing. But I know him!" + +"We all know him!" said Aubrey sternly--"But she will never speak--she +will never let the world know!" + +"Ah, but the world will soon guess!" said Sylvie--"For everyone is +beginning to ask where her fiance is--why he has shown no anxiety--why +he has not been to see her--and a thousand other questions." + +"That does not matter! While she is silent, no one dare accuse him. +What a marvellous spirit of patience and forgiveness she has!" + +"Angela is like her name--an angel!" declared Sylvie impulsively, the +tears springing to her eyes--"I could almost worship her, when I see +her there in her sickroom, looking so white and frail and sad,--quiet +and patient--thanking us all for every little service done--and never +once mentioning the name of Florian--the man she loved so passionately. +Sometimes the dear old Cardinal sits beside her and talks--sometimes +her father,--Manuel is nearly always with her, and she is quite easy +and content, one would almost say happy when he is there, he is so very +gentle with her. But you can see through it all the awful sorrow that +weighs upon her heart,--you can see she has lost something she can +never find again,--her eyes look so wistful--her smile is so sad--poor +Angela!" + +Aubrey was silent a moment. "What of the Princesse D'Agramont?" + +"Oh, she is simply a treasure!" said Sylvie enthusiastically--"She and +my dear old Bozier are never weary in well-doing! As soon as Angela can +be moved, the Princesse wants to take her back to Paris,--because then +Rome can be allowed to pour into her studio to see her great picture." + +"What does Angela say to that?" + +"Angela seems resigned to anything!" answered Sylvie. "The only wish +she ever expresses is that Manuel should not leave her." + +"There is something wonderful about that boy," said Aubrey +slowly--"From the first time I saw him he impressed me with a sense of +something altogether beyond his mere appearance. He is a child--yet not +a child--and I have often felt that he commands me without my realising +that I am so commanded." + +"Aubrey! How strange!" + +"Yes, it is strange!--" and Aubrey's eyes grew graver with the +intensity of his thought--"There is some secret--but--" he broke off +with a puzzled air--"I cannot explain it, so it is no use thinking +about it! I went to Varillo's studio yesterday and asked if there had +been any news of him--but there was none. I wonder where the brute has +gone!" + +"It would be well if he had made exit out of the world altogether," +said Sylvie--"But he is too vain of himself for that! However, his +absence creates suspicion--and even if Angela does not speak, people +will guess for themselves what she does not say. He will never dare to +show himself in Rome!" + +Their conversation was abruptly terminated here by the entrance of +Madame Bozier with a quantity of fresh flowers which she had been out +to purchase, for Sylvie to take as usual on her morning visit to her +suffering friend; and Aubrey took his leave, promising to return later +in the afternoon, after Monsignor Gherardi had been and gone. + +But he had his own ideas on the subject of Gherardi's visit to his fair +betrothed,--ideas which he kept to himself, for if his surmises were +correct, now was the time to put Sylvie's character to the test. He did +not doubt her stability in the very least, but he could never quite get +away from her mignonne child-like appearance of woman, to the +contemplation of the spirit behind the pretty exterior. Her beauty was +so riante, so dazzling, so dainty, that it seemed to fire the very air +as a sunbeam fires it,--and there was no room for any more serious +consideration than that of purely feminine charm. Walking dreamily, +almost unseeingly through the streets, he thought again and yet again +of the sweet face, the rippling hair, the laughing yet tender eyes, the +sunny smile. Behind that beautiful picture or earth-phantom of +womanhood, is there that sword of flame, the soul?--the soul that will +sweep through shams, and come out as bright and glittering at the end +of the fight as at the beginning?--he mused;--or is it not almost too +much to expect of a mere woman that she can contend against the anger +of a Church? + +He was still thinking on this subject, when someone walking quickly +came face to face with him, and said-- + +"Aubrey!" He started and stared,--then uttered a cry of pleasure. + +"Gys Grandit!" + +The two men clasped each other's hands in a warm, strong grasp--and for +a moment neither could speak. + +"My dear fellow!" said Aubrey at last--"This is indeed an unexpected +meeting! How glad I am to see you! When did you arrive in Rome?" + +"This morning only," said Cyrillon, recovering his speech and his +equanimity together--"And as soon as I arrived, I found that my hopes +had not betrayed me--she is not dead!" + +"She?" Aubrey started--"My dear Grandit! Or rather I must call you +Vergniaud now--who is the triumphant 'she' that has brought you thus +post haste to Rome?" + +Cyrillon flushed--then grew pale. + +"I should not have spoken!" he said--"And yet, why not! You were my +first friend!--you found me working in the fields, a peasant lad, +untrained and sullen, burning up my soul with passionate thoughts +which, but for you, might never have blossomed into action,--you +rescued me--you made me all I am! So why should I not confess to you at +once that there is a woman I love!--yes, love with all my soul, though +I have seen her but once!--and she is too far off, too fair and great +for me: she does not know I love her--but I heard she had been +murdered--that she was dead--" + +"Angela Sovrani!" cried Aubrey. + +Cyrillon bent his head as a devotee might at the shrine of a saint. + +"Yes--Angela Sovrani!" + +Aubrey looked at his handsome face glowing with enthusiasm, and saw the +passion, the tenderness, the devotion of a life flashing in his fine +eyes. + +"Love at first sight!" he said with a smile--"I believe it is the only +true fire! A glance ought to be enough to express the recognition of +one soul to its mate. Well! Angela Sovrani is a woman among ten +thousand--the love of her alone is sufficient to make a man better and +nobler in every way--and if you can win her--" + +"Ah, that is impossible! She is already affianced--" + +Aubrey took his arm. + +"Come with me, and I will tell you all I know," he said--"For there is +much to say,--and when you have heard everything, you may not be +altogether without hope." + +They turned, and went towards the Corso, which they presently entered, +and where numbers of passers-by paused involuntarily to look at the two +men who offered such a marked contrast to each other,--the one +brown-haired and lithe, with dark, eager eyes,--the other with the slim +well set up figure of an athlete, and the fair head of a Saxon king. +And of the many who so looked after them, none guessed that the one was +destined in a few years' time to create a silent and bloodless French +Revolution, which should give back to France her white lilies of faith +and chivalry,--or that the other was the upholder of such a perfect +form of Christianity as should soon command the following of thousands +in all parts of the world. + +And while they thus walked through the Roman crowd, the two women they +severally loved were talking of them. In Angela's sick-room, softly +shaded from the light, with a cheery wood fire burning, Sylvie sat by +her friend, telling her all she could think of that would interest her, +and rouse her from the deep gravity of mood in which she nearly always +found her. The weary days of pain and illness had given Angela a +strange, new beauty,--her face, delicate and pale, seemed transfigured +by the working of the soul within,--and her eyes, tired as they were +and often heavy with tears, had a serenity in their depths which was +not of earth, but all of Heaven. She was able now to move from her bed, +and lie on a couch near the fire,--and her little white hands moved +caressingly and with loving care among the bunches of beautiful flowers +which Sylvie had laid on her coverlet,--daffodils, anemones, narcissi, +violets, jonquils, and all the sweet-scented flowers of early spring +which come to Rome in December from the blossoming fields of Sicily. + +"How sweet they are!" she said with a half sigh,--"They almost make me +in love with life again!" + +Sylvie said nothing, but only kissed her. + +"How good you are to me, dearest Sylvie!" she then said--"You deserve +to be very happy!" + +"Not half so much as you do!" responded Sylvie tenderly--"I am of no +use at all to the world; and you are! The world would not miss me a +bit, but it would not find an Angela Sovrani again in a hurry!" + +Angela raised a cluster of narcissi and inhaled their fine and delicate +perfume. There were tears in her eyes, but she hid them with a spray of +the flowers. + +"Ah, Sylvie, you think too well of me! To be famous is nothing. To be +loved is everything!" + +Sylvie looked at her earnestly. + +"You are loved," she said. + +"No, no!" she said--"No, I am not loved. I am hated! Hush, Sylvie!--do +not say one word of what is in your mind, for I will not hear it!" + +She spoke agitatedly, and her cheeks flushed a sudden feverish red. + +Sylvie made haste to try and soothe her. + +"My darling girl, I would not say anything to vex you for the world! +You must not excite yourself--" + +"I am not excited," said Angela, putting her arms round her friend and +drawing her fair head down till it was half hidden against her own +bosom--"No--but I must speak--bear with me for a minute, dear! We all +have our dreams, we women, and I have had mine! I dreamt there was such +a beautiful thing in the world as a great, unselfish love,--I fancied +that a woman, if gifted with a little power and ability above the rest +of her sex, could make the man she loved proud of her--not jealous!--I +thought that a lover delighted in the attainments of his beloved--I +thought there was nothing too high, too great, too glorious to attempt +for the sake of proving oneself worthy to be loved! And now--I have +found out the truth, Sylvie!--a bitter truth, but no doubt good for me +to know,--that men will kill what they once caressed out of a mere +grudge of the passing breath called Fame! Thus, Love is not what I +dreamed it; and I, who was so foolishly glad to think that I was loved, +have wakened up to know that I am hated!--hated to the very extremity +of hate, for a poor gift of brair and hand which I wish--I wish I had +never had!" + +Sylvie raised her head and gently put aside the weak trembling little +hands that embraced her. + +"Angela, Angela! You must not scorn the gifts of the gods! No, No!--you +will not let me say anything--you forbid me to express my thoughts +fully, and I know you are not well enough to hear me yet--but one day +you WILL know!--you will hear,--you will even be thankful for all the +sorrow you have passed through,--and meanwhile, dear, dearest Angela, +do not be ungrateful!" + +She said the word boldly yet hesitatingly, bending over the couch +tenderly, her eyes full of light, and a smile on her lips. And taking +up a knot of daffodils she swept their cool blossoms softly across +Angela's burning forehead, murmuring-- + +"Do not be ungrateful!" + +"Ungrateful--!" echoed Angela,--and she moved restlessly. + +"Yes, darling! Do not say you wish you never had received the great +gifts God has given you. Do not judge of things by Sorrow's measurement +only. I repeat--you ARE loved--though not perhaps where you most relied +on love. Your father loves you--your uncle loves you--Manuel loves you +. . ." + +Angela interrupted her with a protesting gesture. + +"Yes--I know," she murmured, "but--" + +"But you think all this love is worthless, as compared with a love that +was no love at all?" said Sylvie. "There! We will not speak about it +any more just now,--you are not strong, and you see things in their +darkest light. Shall I talk to you about Aubrey?" + +"Ah! That is a subject you are never tired of!" said Angela with a +faint smile. "Nor am I." + +"Well, you ought to be," answered Sylvie gaily, "for I am too blindly, +hopelessly in love to know when to stop! I see nothing else and know +nothing else--it is Aubrey, Aubrey all the time. The air, the sunlight, +the whole world, seem only an admirable exposition of Aubrey!" + +"Then how would you feel if he did not love you any more?" asked Angela. + +"But that is not possible!" said Sylvie. "Aubrey could not change. It +is not in him. He is not like our poor friend Fontenelle." + +"Ah! That love of yours was only fancy, Sylvie!" + +"We all have our fancies!" answered the pretty Comtesse, looking very +earnestly into Angela's eyes. "We are not always sure that what we +first call love is love. But I had much more than a fancy for the +Marquis Fontenelle. If he had loved me--as I think he did at the +last--I should certainly have married him. But during all the time I +knew him he had a way of relegating all women to the same +level--servants, actresses, ballet-dancers, and ladies alike,--he would +never admit that there is as much difference between one woman and +another as between one man and another. And this is a mistake many men +make. Fontenelle wished to treat me as Miraudin would have treated his +'leading lady';--he judged that quite sufficient for happiness. Now +Aubrey treats me as his comrade,--his friend as well as his love, and +that makes our confidence perfect. By the way, he spoke to me a great +deal yesterday about the Abbe Vergniaud, and told me all he knew about +his son Cyrillon." + +"Ah, the poor Abbe!" said Angela. "They are angry with him still at the +Vatican--angry now with his dead body! But 'Gys Grandit' is not of the +Catholic faith, so they can do nothing with him." + +"No. He is what they call a 'free-lance,'" said Sylvie. "And a +wonderful personage he is! I You have seen him?" + +A faint colour crept over Angela's pale cheeks. + +"Yes. Once. Just once, in Paris, on the day his father publicly +acknowledged him. But I wrote to him long before I knew who he realty +was." + +"Angela! You wrote to him?" + +"Yes. I admired the writings of Gys Grandit--I used to buy all his +books as they came out, and study them. I wrote to him--as many people +will write to a favourite author--not in my own name of course--to +express my admiration, and he answered. And so we corresponded for +about two years, not knowing each other's identity till that scene in +Paris brought us together--" + +"How VERY curious,--ve--ry!" said Sylvie, with a little mischievous +smile. "And so you are quite friends?" + +"I think so--I believe so--" answered Angela--"but since we met, he has +ceased to write to me." + +Sylvie made a mental note of that fact in her own mind, very much to +the credit of "Gys Grandit," but said nothing further on the subject. +Time was hastening on, and she had to return to the Casa D'Angeli to +receive Monsignor Gherardi. + +"I am going to be lectured I suppose," she said laughingly. "I have not +seen the worthy Domenico since my engagement to Aubrey was announced!" + +Angela looked at her intently. + +"Are you at all prepared for what he will say?" + +"Not in the least. What CAN he say?" + +"Much that may vex you," said Angela. "Considering Aubrey Leigh's +theories, he may perhaps reproach you for your intended marriage--or he +may bring you information of the Pope's objection." + +"Well! What of that?" demanded Sylvie. + +"But you are a devout Catholic--" + +"And you? With a great Cardinal for your uncle you paint 'The Coming of +Christ'! Ah!--I have seen that picture, Angela!" + +"But I am different,--I am a worker, and I fear nothing," said Angela, +her eyes beginning to shine with the latent force in her that was +gradually resuming its dominion over her soul--"I thought long and +deeply before I put my thought into shape--" + +"And _I_ thought long and deeply before I decided to be the companion +of Aubrey's life and work!" said Sylvie resolutely. "And neither the +Pope or a whole college of Cardinals will change my love or prevent my +marriage. A riverderci!" + +"A riverderci!" echoed Angela, raising herself a little to receive the +kiss her friend tenderly pressed on her cheeks. "I shall be anxious to +know the result of your interview!" + +"I will come round early to-morrow and tell you all," promised Sylvie, +"for I mean to find out, if I can, what happened at the Vatican when +Cardinal Bonpre last went there with Manuel." + +"My uncle is most anxious to leave Rome," said Angela musingly. + +"I know. And if there is any plot against him he MUST leave Rome--he +SHALL leave it! And we will help him!" + +With that she went her way, and an hour or so later stood, a perfect +picture of grace and beauty, in the grand old rooms of the Casa +D'Angeli, waiting to receive Gherardi. She had taken more than the +usual pains with her toilette this afternoon, and had chosen to wear a +"creation" of wonderful old lace, with knots of primrose and violet +velvet caught here and there among its folds. It suited her small +lissom figure to perfection, and her only ornaments were a cluster of +fresh violets, and one ring sparkling on her left hand,--a star of rose +brilliants and rubies, the sign of her betrothal. + +Punctual to the hour appointed, Gherardi arrived, and was at once shown +into her presence. There was a touch of aggressiveness and irony in his +manner as he entered with his usual slow and dignified step, and though +he endeavoured to preserve that suavity and cold calmness for which he +was usually admired and feared by women, his glance was impatient, and +an occasional biting of his lips showed suppressed irritation. The +first formal greetings over, he said-- + +"I have wished for some time to call upon you, Contessa, but the +pressure of affairs at the Vatican--" + +He stopped abruptly, looking at her. How provokingly pretty she +was!--and how easily indifferent she seemed to the authoritative air he +had chosen to assume. + +"I should, I know, long ere this have offered you my felicitations on +your approaching marriage--" + +Sylvie smiled bewitchingly, and gave him a graceful curtsey. + +"Will you not sit down, Monsignor?" she then said. "We can talk more at +our ease, do you not think?" + +She seated herself, with very much the air of a queen taking possession +of a rightful throne, and Gherardi was vexedly aware that he had not by +any means the full possession of his ordinary dignity or self-control. +He took a chair opposite to her and sat for a moment perplexed as to +his next move. Sylvie did not help him at all. Ruffling the violets +among the lace at her neck, she looked at him attentively from under +her long golden-brown lashes, but maintained a perfect silence. + +"The news has been received by the Holy Father with great pleasure," he +said at last. "His special benediction will grace your wedding-day." + +Sylvie bent her head. + +"The Holy Father is most gracious!" she replied quietly. "And he is +also more liberal than I imagined, if he is willing to bestow his +special benediction on my marriage with one who is considered a heretic +by the Church." + +He flashed a keen glance at her,--then forced a smile. "Mr. Leigh's +heresy is of the past," he said--"We welcome him--with you--as one of +us!" + +Sylvie was silent. He waited, inwardly cursing her tranquillity. Then, +as she still did not speak, he went on in smooth accents-- "The Church +pardons all who truly repent. She welcomes all who come to her in +confidence, no matter how tardy or hesitating their approach. We shall +receive the husband of our daughter Sylvie Hermenstein, with such joy +as the prodigal son was in old time received--and of his past mistakes +and follies there shall be neither word nor memory!" + +Then Sylvie looked up and fixed her deep blue eyes steadily upon him. + +"Caro Monsignor!" she said very sweetly. "Why talk all this nonsense to +me? Do you not realise that as the betrothed wife of Aubrey Leigh I am +past the Church counsel or command?" + +Gherardi still smiled. + +"Past Church counsel or command?" he murmured with an indulgent air, as +though he were talking to a very small child. "Pardon me if I am at a +loss to understand--" + +"Oh, you understand very well!" said Sylvie. "You know perfectly--or +you should--that a wife's duty is to obey her husband,--and that in +future HIS Church,--not yours,--must be hers also." + +"Surely you speak in riddles?" said Gherardi, preserving his suave +equanimity. "Mr. Leigh is (or was) a would-be ardent reformer, but he +has no real Church." + +"Then I have none!" replied Sylvie. + +There was a moment's silence. A black rage began to kindle in +Gherardi's soul,--rage all the more intense because so closely +suppressed. + +"I am still at a loss to follow you, Contessa," he said coldly. "Surely +you do not mean to imply that your marriage will sever you from the +Church of your fathers?" + +"Monsignor, marriage for me means an oath before God to take my husband +for better or for worse, and to be true to him under all trial and +circumstances," said Sylvie. "And I assuredly mean to keep that oath! +Whatever his form of faith, I intend to follow it,--as I intend to obey +his commands, whatever they may be, or wherever they may lead. For +this, to me, is the only true love,--this to me, is the only possible +'holy' estate of matrimony. And for the Church--a Church which does not +hesitate to excommunicate a dying man, and persecute a good one,--I +will leave the possibility of its wrath, together with all other +consequences of my act--to God!" + +For one moment Gherardi felt that he could have sprung upon her and +throttled her. The next, he had mastered himself sufficiently to +speak,--this woman, so slight, so beautiful, so insolent should not +baffle him, he resolved!--and bending his dark brows menacingly, he +addressed her in his harshest and most peremptory manner. + +"You talk of God," he said, "as a child talks of the sun and moon, with +as little meaning, and less comprehension! What impertinence it is for +a woman like yourself,--vain, weak and worldly,--to assert your own +will--your own thought and opinion--in the face of the Most High! What! +YOU will desert the Church? YOU whose ancestors have for ages been +devout servants of the faith? YOU, the last descendant of the Counts +Hermenstein, a noble and loyal family, will degrade your birth by +taking up with the rags and tags of humanity--the scarecrows of life? +And by your sheer stupidity and obstinacy, you will allow your +husband's soul to be dragged to perdition with your own! You call it +love--to keep him an infidel? You call it marriage--to be united to him +without the blessings of Holy Church? Where is your reason?--Where is +your judgment?--Where your faith?" + +"Not in my bank, Monsignor!" replied Sylvie coldly. "Though that is the +place where you would naturally expect to find these virtues +manifested, and the potency of their working substantially proved! +Pardon!--I have no wish to offend--but your manner to ME is offensive, +and unless you are disposed to discuss this matter temperately, I must +close our interview!" + +Gherardi flushed a dark red, then grew pale. After all, the Countess +Hermenstein was in her own house,--she had the right to command his +exit if she chose. Small and slight as she was, she had a dignity and +power as great as his own, and if anything was to be gained from her it +was necessary to temporize. Among many other qualifications for the +part he had to play in life, he was an admirable actor, and would have +made his fortune on the legitimate stage,--and this "quick change" +ability served him in good stead now. He rose from his chair as though +moved by uncontrollable agitation, and walked to the window, then +turned again and came slowly and with bent head towards her. + +"Forgive me!" he said simply. "I was wrong!" + +Sylvie, easily moved to kindness, was touched by this apparent humility +on the part of a man so renowned for unflinching hauteur, and she at +once gave him her hand. + +"I shall forget your words!" she said gently. "So there is nothing to +pardon." + +"Thank you for your generosity," he said, still standing before her and +preserving his grave and quiet demeanour. "In my zeal for Holy Church, +my tongue frequently outruns my prudence. I confess you have hurt +me,--cruelly! You are a mere child to me--young, beautiful, +beloved,--and I am growing old; I have sacrificed all the joys of life +for the better serving of the faith--but I have kept a few fair +dreams--and one of the fairest was my belief in YOU!" + +Sylvie looked at him searchingly, but his eyes did not flinch in +meeting hers. + +"I am sorry you are disappointed, Monsignor," she began, when he raised +his hand deprecatingly. + +"No--I am not disappointed as yet!" he said, with an affectation of +great kindness. "Because I do not permit myself to believe that you +will allow me to be disappointed! Just now you made a passing +allusion--and I venture to say a hasty and unworthy one--to your +'bank,' as if my whole soul were set on retaining you as a daughter of +the Church for your great wealth's sake only! Contessa, you are +mistaken! Give me credit for higher and nobler motives! Grant me the +right to be a little better--a little more disinterested, than perhaps +popular rumour describes me,--believe me to be at least your friend--" + +He paused--his voice apparently broken by emotion, and turning away his +head he paced the room once more and finally sat down, covering his +eyes with one hand, in an admirably posed attitude of fatigue and +sorrow. + +Sylvie was perplexed, and somewhat embarrassed. She had never seen him +in this kind of humour before. She was accustomed to a certain +domineering authority in his language, rendered all the more difficult +to endure by the sarcasm with which he sometimes embittered his words, +as though he had dipped them in gall before pronouncing them,--but this +apparent abandonment of reserve, this almost touching assumption of +candour, were phases of his histrionical ability which he had never +till now displayed in her presence. + +"Monsignor," she said after a little silence, "I sincerely ask your +pardon if I have wronged you, even in a thought! I had no real +intention of doing so, and if anything I have said has seemed to you +unduly aggressive or unjust, I am sorry! But you yourself began to +scold"--and she smiled--"and I am not in the humour to be scolded! +Though, to speak quite frankly, I have always been more or less +prepared for a little trouble on the subject of my intended marriage +with Mr. Aubrey Leigh,--I have felt and known all along that it would +incur the Pope's displeasure . . ." + +Here Gherardi uncovered his eyes and looked at her fully. + +"But there you are mistaken!" he said gently, with a smile that was +almost paternal. "I know of nothing in recent years that has given the +Holy Father greater satisfaction!" + +She glanced at him quickly but said nothing, whereat he was secretly +annoyed. Why did she not express her wonder and delight at the Pope's +lenity, as almost any other woman in her position would have done? Her +outward appearance was that of child-like ultra-femininity,--how was it +then that he felt as if she were mentally fencing with him, and that +her intellectual sword-play threatened to surpass his own? + +"Nothing," he repeated suavely, "has given the Holy Father greater +satisfaction! For very naturally, he looks upon you as one of his most +faithful children, and rejoices that by the power of perfect love--love +which is an emanation of the Divine Spirit in itself--you have been +chosen by our Lord to draw so gifted and brilliant a man as Aubrey +Leigh out of the error of his ways and bring him into the true fold!" + + + + +XXXIV. + +Still the Countess Sylvie was silent. Bending a quick scrutinising +glance upon her, he saw that her eyes were lowered, and that the +violets nestling near her bosom moved restlessly with her quickened +breath, and he judged these little signs of agitation as the favourable +hints of a weakening and hesitating will. + +"Aubrey Leigh," he went on slowly, "has long been an avowed enemy of +our Church. In England especially, where many of the Protestant clergy, +repenting of their recusancy--for Protestantism is nothing more than a +backsliding from the true faith--are desirous of gradually, through the +gentler forms of Ritualism, returning to the Original source of Divine +Inspiration, he has taken a great deal too much upon himself in the +freedom of his speeches to the people. But we are bound to remember +that it is not against OUR Church only that he has armed himself at all +points, but seemingly against all Churches; and when we examine, +charitably and with patience, into the sum and substance of his work +and aim, we find its chief object is to purify and maintain--not to +destroy or deny--the Divine teaching of Christ. In this desire we are +one with him--we are even willing to assist him in the Cause he has +espoused--and we shall faithfully promise to do so, when we receive him +as your husband. Nay, more--we will endeavour to further his work among +the poor, and carry out any scheme for their better care, which he may +propose to us, and we may judge as devout and serviceable. The Church +has wide arms,--she stretches far, and holds fast! The very fact of a +man like Aubrey Leigh voluntarily choosing as his wife the last scion +of one of the most staunch Roman Catholic families in Europe, proves +the salutary and welcome change which your good influence has brought +about in his heart and mind and manner and judgment,--wherefore it +follows, my dear child, that in his marriage with you he becomes one of +us, and is no longer outside us!" + +With a swift and graceful imperiousness, Sylvie suddenly rose and faced +him. + +"It is time we understood each other, Monsignor," she said quietly. "It +is no good playing at cross purposes! With every respect for you, I +must speak plainly. I am fully aware of all you tell me respecting my +descent and the traditions of my ancestors. I know that the former +Counts Hermenstein were faithful servants of the Church. But they were +all merely half-educated soldiers; brave, yet superstitious. I know +also that my father, the late Count, was apparently equally loyal to +the Church,--though really only so because it was too much trouble for +him to think seriously about anything save hunting. But I--Sylvie--the +last of the race, do not intend to be bound or commanded by the +trammels of any Church, in the face of the great truths declared to the +world to-day! My faith in God is as my betrothed husband's faith in +God,--my heart is his,--my life is his! From henceforth we are +together; and together we are content to go, after death, wherever God +shall ordain, be it Hell or Heaven!" + +"Wait!" said Gherardi in low fierce accents, his eyes glittering with +mingled rage and the admiration of her beauty which he could ill +conceal. "Wait! If you care nothing for yourself in this matter, is it +possible that you care nothing for him? Have you thought of the results +of such rashness as you meditate? Listen!" and he leaned forward in his +chair, his dark brows bent and his whole attitude expressive of a +relentless malice--"Your marriage, without the blessing of the Church +of your fathers, shall be declared illegal!--your children pronounced +bastards! Wherever the ramifications of the Church are spread (and they +are everywhere) you, the brilliant, the courted, the admired Sylvie +Hermenstein, shall find yourself not only outside the Church, but +outside all Society! You will be considered as 'living in sin';--as no +true wife, but merely the mistress of the man with whom you have +elected to wander the world! And he, when he sees the finger of scorn +pointed at you and at his children, he also will change--as all men +change when change is convenient or advantageous to themselves;--he +will in time weary of his miserable Christian-Democratic theories,--and +of you!--yes, even of you!" And Gherardi suddenly sprang up and drew +nearer to her. "Even of YOU, I say! He will weary of your beauty--that +delicate fine loveliness which makes me long to possess it!--me, a +priest of the Mother-Church, whose heart is supposed to beat only for +two things--Power and Revenge! Listen--listen yet a moment!" and he +drew a step nearer, while Sylvie held her ground where she stood, +unflinchingly, and like a queen, though she was pale to the very +lips--"What of the friend you love so well, Angela Sovrani, who has +dared to paint such a picture as should be burnt in the public +market-place for its vile heresy! Do you think SHE will escape the +wrath of the Church? Not she! We in our day use neither poison nor cold +steel--but we know how to poison a name and stab a reputation! What! +You shrink at that? Listen yet--listen a moment longer! And remember +that nothing escapes the vigilant eye of Rome! At this very moment I +can place my hand on Florian Varillo, concerning whom there is a rumour +that he attempted the assassination of his betrothed wife,--an inhuman +deed that no sane man could ever have perpetrated"--here Sylvie uttered +a slight exclamation, and he paused, looking at her with a cold +smile--"Yes, I repeat it!--a deed WHICH NO SANE MAN COULD HAVE +PERPETRATED! The unfortunate, the deeply wronged Florian Varillo, is +prepared to swear, and I AM PREPARED TO SWEAR WITH HIM, that he is +guiltless of any such vile act or treachery--and also that he painted +more than half of the great picture this woman Sovrani claims as her +own work! Whilst strongly protesting against its heresy and begging her +to alter certain figures in the canvas, still he gave her for love's +sake, all his masculine ability. The blasphemous idea is hers--but the +drawing, the colouring, the grouping, are HIS!" + +"He is a liar!" cried Sylvie passionately. "Let him prove his lie!" + +"He shall have every chance to prove it!" answered Gherardi calmly. "I +will give him every chance! I will support what you call his lie! _I_ +SAY IT IS A TRUTH! No woman could have painted that picture! And mark +you well--the mere discussion will be sufficient to kill the Sovrani's +fame!" + +Heedless of his ecclesiastical dignity--reckless of everything +concerning herself-Sylvie rushed up to him and laid one hand on his arm. + +"What! Are you a servant of Christ," she said half-whisperingly, "or a +slave of the devil?" + +"Both," he answered, looking down upon her fair beauty with a wicked +light shining in his eyes. "Both!" and he grasped the little soft hand +that lay on his arm and held it as in a vice. "You are not wanting in +courage, Contessa, to come so close to me!--to let me hold your hand! +How pale you look! If you were like other women you would scream--or +summon your servants, and create a scandal! You know better! You know +that no scandal would ever be believed of a priest attached to the +Court of Rome! Stay there--where you are--I will not hurt you! No--by +all the raging fire of love for you in my heart, I will not touch more +than this hand of yours! Good!--Now you are quite still--I say again, +you have courage! Your eyes do not flinch--they look straight into +mine--what brave eyes! You would search the very core of my intentions? +You shall! Do you not think it enough for me--who am human though +priest--to give you up to the possession of a man I hate!--A man who +has insulted me! Is it not enough, I say, to immolate my own passion +thus, without having to confront the possibility of your deserting that +Church for whose sake I thus resign you? For had this Aubrey Leigh +never met you, I would have MADE you mine! Still silent?--and your +little hand still quiet in mine?--I envy you your nerve! You stand +torture well, but I will not keep you on the rack too long! You shall +know the worst at once--then you shall yourself judge the position. You +shall prove for yourself the power of Rome! To escape that power you +would have, as the Scripture says, to 'take the wings of the morning +and fly into the uttermost parts of the sea.' Think well!--the fame and +reputation of Angela Sovrani can be ruined at my command,--and equally, +the sanctity and position of her uncle, Cardinal Bonpre!" + +With a sudden movement Sylvie wrenched her hand away from his, and +stood at bay, her eyes flashing, her cheeks crimsoning. + +"Cardinal Bonpre!" she cried. "What evil have you in your mind against +him? Are you so lost to every sense of common justice as to attempt to +injure one who is greater than many of the Church's canonized saints in +virtue and honesty? What has he done to you?" + +Gherardi smiled. + +"You excite yourself needlessly, Contessa," he said. "He has done +nothing to me personally,--he is simply in my way. That is his sole +offence! And whatever is in my way, I remove! Nothing is easier than to +remove Cardinal Bonpre, for he has, by his very simplicity, fallen into +a trap from which extrication will be difficult. He should have stopped +in his career with the performance of his miracle at Rouen,--then all +would have been well; he should not have gone on to Paris, there to +condone the crime of the Abbe Vergniaud, and THEN come on to Rome. To +come to Rome under such circumstances, was like putting his head in the +wolf's mouth! But the most unfortunate thing he has done on his +ill-fated journey, is to have played protector to that boy he has with +him." + +"Why?" demanded Sylvie, growing pale as before she had been flushed. + +"Do not ask why!" said Gherardi. "For a true answer would only anger +you. Suffice it for you to know that whatever is in the way of Rome +must be removed,--SHALL be removed at all costs! Cardinal Bonpre, as I +said before, is in the way--and unless he can account fully and frankly +for his strange companionship with a mere child-wanderer picked out of +the streets, he will lose his diocese. If he persists in denying all +knowledge of the boy's origin he will lose his Cardinal's hat. There is +nothing more to be said! But--there is one remedy for all this +mischief--and it rests with YOU!" + +"With me?" Sylvie trembled,--her heart beat violently. She looked as +though she were about to swoon, and Gherardi put out his arm to support +her. She pushed him away indignantly. + +"Do not touch me!" she said, her sweet voice shaken with something like +the weakness of tears. "You tempt me to kill you,--to kill you and rid +the world of a human fiend!" + +His eyes flashed, and narrowed at the corners in the strange snake-like +way habitual to them. + +"How beautiful you are!" he said indulgently, "There are some people in +the world who do not admire slight little creatures like you, all fire +and spirit enclosed in sweetness--and in their ignorance they escape +much danger! For when a man stoops to pick up a small flower half +hidden in the long grass, he does not expect it to half-madden him with +its sweetness--or half-murder him by its sting! That is why you are +irresistible to me, and to many. Yes--no doubt you would like to kill +me, bella Contessa!--and many a man would like to be killed by you! If +I were not Domenico Gherardi, servant of Mother-Church, I would +willingly submit to death at your hands. But being what I am, I must +live! And living, I must work--to fulfil the commands of the Church. +And so faithful am I in the work of our Lord's vineyard, that I care +not how many grapes I press in the making of His wine! I tell you +plainly that it rests with you to save your friend Angela Sovrani, and +the saintly Cardinal likewise. Keep to the vows you have sworn to Holy +Church,--vows sworn for you in infancy at baptism, and renewed by +yourself at your confirmation and first Communion,--bring your husband +to Us! And Florian Varillo's mouth shall be closed--the Sovrani's +reputation shall shine like the sun at noonday; even the rank heresy of +her picture shall be forgiven, and the Cardinal and his waif shall go +free!" + +Sylvie clasped her hands passionately together and raised them in an +attitude of entreaty. + +"Oh, why are you so cruel!" she cried. "Why do you demand from me what +you know to be impossible?" + +"It is not impossible," answered Gherardi, watching her closely as he +spoke. "The Church is lenient,--she demands nothing in haste--nothing +unreasonable! I do not even ask you to bring about Aubrey Leigh's +conversion before your marriage. You are free to wed him in your own +way and in his,--provided that one ceremonial of the marriage takes +place according to our Catholic rites. But after you are thus wedded, +you must promise to bring him to Us!--you must further promise that any +children born of your union be baptized in the Catholic faith. With +such a pledge from you, in writing, I will be satisfied;--and out of +all the entanglements and confusion at present existing, your friends +shall escape unharmed. I swear it!" + +He raised his hand with a lofty gesture, as though he were asserting +the truth and grandeur of some specially noble cause. Sylvie, letting +her clasped hands drop asunder with a movement of despair, stood gazing +at him in fascinated horror. + +"The Church!" he went on, warming with his own inward fervour. "The +Rock, on which our Lord builds the real fabric of the Universe!" And +his tall form dilated with the utterance of his blasphemy. "The +learning, the science, the theoretical discussions of men, shall pass +as dust blown by the breath of a storm-wind--but the Church shall +remain, the same, yesterday, to-day and forever! It shall crush down +kings, governments and nations in its unmoving Majesty! The fluctuating +wisdom of authors and reformers--the struggle of conflicting +creeds--all these shall sink and die under the silent inflexibility of +its authority! The whole world hurled against it shall not prevail, and +were all its enemies to perish by the sword, by poison, by disease, by +imprisonment, by stripes and torture, this would be but even justice! +'For many are called--but few are chosen.'" + +He turned his eyes, flashing with a sort of fierce ecstasy, upon the +slight half-shrinking figure of Sylvie opposite to him. "Yes, bella +Contessa! What the Church ordains, must be; what the Church desires, +that same the Church will have! There is no room in the hearts or minds +of its servants for love, for pity, for pardon, for anything human +merely,--its authority is Divine!--and 'God will not be mocked'! +Humanity is the mere food and wine of sacrifice to the Church's +doctrine,--nations may starve, but the Church must be fed. What are +nations to the Church? Naught but children,--docile or +rebellious;--children to be whipped, and coerced, and FORCED to obey! +Thus for you, one unit out of the whole mass, to oppose yourself to the +mighty force of Rome, is as though one daisy out of the millions in the +grass should protest against the sweep of the mower's scythe! You do +not know me yet! There is nothing I would hesitate to do in the service +of the Church. I would consent to ruin even YOU, to prove the fire of +my zeal, as well as the fire of my love!" + +He made a step towards her,--she drew herself to the utmost reach of +her elfin height, and looked at him straightly. Pale, but with her dark +blue eyes flashing like jewels, she in one sweeping glance, measured +him with a scorn so intense that it seemed to radiate from her entire +person, and pierce him with a thousand arrowy shafts of flame. + +"You have stated your intentions," she said. "Will you hear my answer?" + +He bent his head gravely, with a kind of ironical tolerance in his +manner. + +"There is nothing I desire more!" he replied, "for I am sure that in +the unselfish sweetness of your nature you will do all you can to +serve--and save--your friends!" + +"You are right!" she said, controlling the quickness of her breathing, +and forcing herself to speak calmly. "I will! But not in your way! Not +at your command! You have enlightened me on many points of which I was +hitherto ignorant--and for this I thank you! You have taught me that +the Church, instead of being a brotherhood united in the Divine service +of Christ, who was God-in-Man, is a mere secular system of avarice and +tyranny! You pretend to save souls for God! What do you care for MY +soul! You would have me wed a man with fraud in my heart,--with the +secret intent to push upon him the claims of a Church he abhors,--and +this after he has made me his wife! You would have me tell lies to him +before the Eternal! And you call that the way to salvation? No, +Monsignor! It is the wealth of the Hermensteins you desire!--not the +immortal rescue or heavenly benefit of the last of their children! You +will support the murderer Varillo in his lie to ruin an innocent +woman's reputation! You would destroy the honour and peace of an old +man's life for the sake of furthering your own private interests and +grudges! And you call yourself a servant of Christ! Monsignor, if you +are a servant of Christ, then the Church you serve must be the shadow +of a future hell!--not the promise of a future heaven! I denounce +it,--I deny it!--I swear by the Holy Name of our Redeemer that I am a +Christian!--not a slave of the Church of Rome!" + +Such passion thrilled her, such high exaltation, that she looked like +an inspired angel in her beauty and courage, and Gherardi, smothering a +fierce oath, made one stride towards her and seized her hands. + +"You defy me!" he said in a hoarse whisper. "You dare me to my worst?" + +She looked up at his dark cruel face, his glittering eyes, and +shuddered as with icy cold,--but the spirit in that delicate little +body of hers was strong as steel, and tempered to the grandest issues. + +"I dare you to do your worst!" she said, half-sobbingly,--half-closing +her eyes in the nervous terror she could not altogether control. "You +can but kill me--I shall die true!" + +With a sort of savage cry, Gherardi snatched her round the waist, but +scarcely had he done so when he was flung aside with a force that made +him reel back heavily against the wall, and Aubrey Leigh confronted him. + +"Aubrey!" cried Sylvie. "Oh, Aubrey!" + +He caught her as she sprang to him, and held her fast,--and with +perfect self-possession he eyed the priest disdainfully up and down. + +"So this," he said coldly, "is the way the followers of Saint Peter +fulfil the commands of Christ! Or shall we say this is the way in which +they go on denying their Master? It is a strange way of retaining +disciples,--a still stranger way of making converts! A brave way too, +to intimidate a woman!" + +Gherardi, recovering from the shock of Aubrey's blow, drew himself up +haughtily. + +"I serve the Church, Mr. Leigh!" he said proudly. "And in that high +service all means are permitted to us for a righteous end!" + +"Ah!--the old Jesuitical hypocrisy!" And Aubrey smiled bitterly. "Lies +are permitted in the Cause of Truth! One word, Monsignor! I have no +wish to play at any game of double-dealing with you. I have heard the +whole of your interview with this lady. It is the first time I have +ever played the eavesdropper--but my duty was to protect my promised +wife, if she needed protection--and I thought it was possible she might +need it--from YOU!" + +Gherardi turned a livid paleness, and drew a quick breath. + +"I know your moves," went on Aubrey quietly, "and it will be my +business as well as my pleasure to frustrate them. Moreover, I shall +give your plot into the care of the public press--" + +"You will not dare!" cried Gherardi fiercely. "But--after all, what +matter if you do!--no one will believe you!" + +"Not in Rome, perhaps," returned Aubrey coolly. "But in England,--in +America,--things are different. There are many honest men who dislike +to contemplate even a distant vision of the talons of Rome hovering +over us--we look upon such mischief as a sign of decay,--for only where +the carcasses of nations lie, does the vulture hover! We are not dead +yet! And now, Monsignor,--as your interview with the Countess is +ended--an interview to which I have been a witness--may I suggest the +removal of your presence? You have made a proposition--she has rejected +it--the matter is ended!" + +Civilly calm and cold he stood, holding Sylvie close to him with one +embracing arm, and Gherardi, looking at the two together thus, +impotently wished that the heavy sculptured and painted ceiling above +them might fall and crush them into a pulp before him. No shame, no +sense of compunction moved him,--if anything, he raised his head more +haughtily than before. + +"Aubrey Leigh," he said, "Socialist, reformer, revolutionist--whatever +you choose to call yourself!--you have all the insolence of your race +and class,--and it is beneath my dignity to argue with you. But you +will rue the day you ever crossed my path! Not one thing have I +threatened, that shall not be performed! This unhappy lady whose mind +has been perverted from Holy Church by your heretical teachings, shall +be excommunicated. Henceforth we look upon her as a child of sin, and +we shall publicly declare her marriage with you illegal. The rest can +be left with confidence, to--Society!" + +And with a dark smile which made his face look like that of some +malignant demon, he turned, and preserving his proud inflexibility of +demeanour, without another look or gesture, left the apartment. + +Then Aubrey, alone with his love, drew her closer, and lifted her fair +face to his own, looking at it with passionate tenderness and +admiration. + +"You brave soul!" he said. "You true woman! You angel of the covenant +of love! How shall I ever tell you how I worship you--how I revere +you--for your truth and courage!" + +She trembled under the ardour of his utterance, and her eyes filled +with tears. + +"I was not afraid!" she said. "I should have called Katrine,--only I +knew that if I once did so, she also would be involved, and he would be +unscrupulous enough to ruin my name with a few words in order to defend +himself from all suspicion. But you, Aubrey?--how did it happen that +you were here?" + +"I was here from the first!" he replied triumphantly. "I followed on +Gherardi's very heels. Your Arab boy admitted me--he was in my secret. +He showed me into the anteroom just outside, where by leaving a corner +of the door ajar I could see and hear everything. And I listened to +your every word! I saw every bright flash of the strong soul in your +brave eyes! And now those eyes question me, sweetheart,--almost +reproachfully they seem to ask me why I did not interfere between you +and Gherardi before? Ah, but you must forgive me for the delay! I +wanted to drink all my cup of nectar to the dregs--I could not lose one +drop of such sweetness! To see you, slight fragile blossom of a woman, +matching your truth and courage against the treachery and malice of the +most unscrupulous priestly tool ever employed by the Vatican, was a +sight to make me strong for all my days!" He kissed her passionately. +"My love! My wife! How can I ever thank you!" + +She raised her sweet eyes wonderingly. + +"Did you doubt me, Aubrey?" "No! I never doubted you. But I wondered +whether your force would hold out, whether you might not be +intimidated, whether you might not temporize, which would have been +natural enough--whether you might not have used some little social art +or grace to cover up and disguise the absoluteness of your resolve--but +no! You were a heroine in the fight, and you gave your blows straight +from the hilt, without flinching. You have made me twice a man, Sylvie! +With you beside me I shall win all I might otherwise have lost, and I +thank God for you, dear!--I thank God for you!" + +He drew her close again into his arms, pressing her to his heart which +beat tumultously with its deep rejoicing,--no fear now that they two +would ever cease to be one! No danger now of those miserable so-called +"religious" disputes between husband and wife, which are so eminently +anti-Christian, and which make many a home a hell upon earth,--disputes +which young children sometimes have to witness from their earliest +years, when the mother talks "at" the father for not going to Church, +or the father sneers at the mother for being "a rank Papist"! Nothing +now, but absolute union in spirit and thought, in soul and +intention--the rarest union that can be consummated between man and +woman, and yet the only one that can engender perfect peace and +unchanging happiness. + +And presently the lovers' trance of joy gave way to thought for others; +to a realization of the dangers hovering over the good Cardinal, and +the already ill-fated Angela Sovrani, and Aubrey, raising the golden +head that nestled against his breast, kissed the sweet lips once more +and said-- + +"Now, my Sylvie, we must take the law into our own hands! We must do +all we can to save our friends. The Cardinal must be thought of first. +If we are not quick to the rescue he will be sent 'into retreat,' which +can be translated as forced detention, otherwise imprisonment. He must +leave Rome to-night. Now listen!" + +And sitting down beside her, still holding her hand, he gave her an +account of his meeting with Cyrillon Vergniaud, otherwise "Gys +Grandit," and told her of the sudden passion for Angela that had fired +the soul of that fiery writer of the fiercest polemics against +priestcraft that had as yet startled France. + +"Knowing now all the intended machinations of Gherardi," continued +Aubrey, "what I suggest is this,--that you, my Sylvie, should confide +in the Princesse D'Agramont, who is fortunately for us, an enemy of the +Vatican. Arrange with her that she persuades Angela to return under her +escort at once to Paris. Angela is well enough to travel if great care +be taken of her, and the Princesse will not spare that. Cyrillon can go +with them--I should think that might be managed?" + +He smiled as he put this question. Sylvie smiled in answer and replied +demurely-- + +"I should think so!" + +"But the Cardinal," resumed Aubrey, "and--and Manuel--must go to-night. +I will see Prince Sovrani and arrange it. And Sylvie--will you marry me +to-morrow morning?" + +Her eyes opened wide and she laughed. + +"Why yes, if you wish it!" she said. "But--so soon?" + +"Darling, the sooner the better! I mean to take every possible method +of making our marriage binding in the sight of the world, before the +Vatican has time to launch its thunders. If you are willing, we can be +married at the American Consulate to-morrow morning. You must remember +that though born of British parents, I do not resign my American +citizenship, and would not forego being of the New World for all the +old worlds ever made! The American Consul knows me well, and he will +begin to make things legal for us to-morrow if you are ready." + +"BEGIN to make things legal?" echoed Sylvie smiling. "Will he do no +more than begin?" + +"My sweetheart, he cannot. He will make you mine according to American +law. In England, you will again be made mine according to English law. +And then afterwards we will have our religious ceremony!" + +Sylvie looked at him perplexedly, then gave a pretty gesture of playful +resignation. + +"Let everything be as you wish and decide, Aubrey," she said." I give +my life and love to you, and have no other will but yours!" + +He kissed her. + +"I accept the submission, only to put myself more thoroughly at your +command," he said tenderly,--"You are my queen,--but with powerful +enemies against us, I must see that you are rightfully enthroned!" + +A few minutes' more conversation,--then a hurried consultation with +Madame Bozier, and Sylvie, changing her lace gown for a simple +travelling dress, walked out of the Casa D'Angeli with the faithful +Katrine, and taking the first carriage she could find, was driven to +the Palazzo where the Princesse D'Agramont had her apartments. Allowing +from ten to fifteen minutes to elapse after her departure, Aubrey Leigh +himself went out, and standing on the steps of the house, looked up and +down carelessly, drawing on his gloves and humming a tune. His quick +glance soon espied what he had been almost certain he should see, +namely, the straight black-garmented figure of a priest, walking slowly +along the street on the opposite side, his hands clasped behind his +back, and his whole aspect indicative of devout meditation. + +"I thought so!" said Aubrey to himself. "A spy set on already! No time +to lose--Cardinal Bonpre must leave Rome at nightfall." + +Leisurely he crossed the road, and walking with as slow a step as the +priest he had noticed, came opposite to him face to face. With +impenetrable solemnity the holy man meekly moved aside,--with equally +impenetrable coolness, Aubrey eyed him up and down, then the two passed +each other, and Aubrey walked with the same unhasting pace, to the end +of the street,--then turned--to see that the priest had paused in his +holy musings to crane his neck after him and watch him with the most +eager scrutiny. He did not therefore take a carriage at the moment he +intended, but walked on into the Corso,--there he sprang into a fiacre +and drove straight to the Sovrani Palace. The first figure he saw +there, strolling about in the front of the building, was another +priest, absorbed in apparently profound thoughts on the sublimity of +the sunset, which was just then casting its red glow over the Eternal +City. And with the appearance of this second emissary of the Vatican +police, he realised the full significance of the existing position of +affairs. + +Without a moment's loss of time he was ushered into the presence of the +Cardinal, and there for a moment stood silent on the threshold of the +apartment, overcome by the noble aspect of the venerable prelate, who, +seated in his great oaken chair, was listening to a part of the Gospel +of Saint Luke, read aloud in clear sweet accents by Manuel. + +"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that +which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart +bringeth forth that which is evil; for of the abundance of the heart +his mouth speaketh. + +"And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? + +"Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will +show you to whom he is like: + +"He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the +foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat +vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded +upon a rock. + +"But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a +foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did +beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; AND THE RUIN OF THAT HOUSE +WAS GREAT." + +And emphasizing the last line, Manuel closed the book; then at a kindly +beckoning gesture from the Cardinal, Aubrey advanced into the room, +bowing with deep reverence and honour over the worn old hand the +prelate extended. + +"My lord Cardinal," he said without further preface, "you must leave +Rome to-night!" + +The Cardinal raised his gentle blue eyes in wondering protest. + +"By whose order?" + +"Surely by your own Master's will," said Aubrey with deep earnestness. +"For he would not have you be a victim to treachery!" + +"Treachery!" And the Cardinal smiled. "My son, traitors harm themselves +more than those they would betray. Treachery cannot touch me!" + +Aubrey came a step nearer. + +"Monsignor, if you do not care for yourself you will care for the boy," +he said in a lower tone, with a glance at Manuel, who had withdrawn, +and was now standing at one of the windows, the light of the sunset +appearing to brighten itself in his fair hair. "He will be separated +from you!" + +At this the Cardinal rose up, his whole form instinct with resolution +and dignity. + +"They cannot separate us against the boy's will or mine," he said. +"Manuel!" + +Manuel came to his call, and the Cardinal placed one hand on his +shoulder. + +"Child," he said softly, "they threaten to part me from you, if we stay +longer here. Therefore we must leave Rome!" + +Manuel looked up with a bright flashing glance of tenderness. + +"Yes, dear friend, we must leave Rome!" he said. "Rome is no place for +you--or for me!" + +There was a moment's silence. Something in the attitude of the old man +and the young boy standing side by side, moved Aubrey deeply; a sense +of awe as well as love overwhelmed him at the sight of these two +beings, so pure in mind, so gentle of heart, and so widely removed in +years and in life,--the one a priest of the Church, the other a waif of +the streets, yet drawn together as it seemed, by the simple spirit of +Christ's teaching, in an almost supernatural bond of union. Recovering +himself presently he said, + +"To-night then, Monsignor?" + +The Cardinal looked at Manuel, who answered for him. + +"Yes, to-night! We will be ready! For the days are close upon the time +when the birth of Christ was announced to a world that does not yet +believe in Him! It will be well to leave Rome before then! For the +riches of the Pope's palace have nothing to do with the poor babe born +in a manger,--and the curse of the Vatican would be a discord in the +angels' singing--'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth PEACE, +GOODWILL TOWARDS MEN'!" + +His young voice rang out, silver clear and sweet, and Aubrey gazed at +him in wondering silence. + +"To-night!" repeated Manuel, smiling and stretching out his hand with a +gentle authoritative gesture. "To-night the Cardinal will leave Rome, +and _I_ will leave it too--perchance for ever!" + + + + +XXXV. + +During these various changes in the lives of those with whom he had +been more or less connected, Florian Varillo lay between life and death +in the shelter of a Trappist monastery on the Campagna. When he had +been seized by the delirium and fever which had flung him, first +convulsed and quivering, and then totally insensible, at the foot of +the grim, world-forgotten men who passed the midnight hours in digging +their own graves, he had been judged by them as dying or dead, and had +been carried into a sort of mortuary chapel, cold and bare, and lit +only by the silver moonbeams and the flicker of a torch one of the +monks carried. Waking in this ghastly place, too weak to struggle, he +fell a-moaning like a tortured child, and was, on showing this sign of +life, straight-way removed to one of the cells. Here, after hours of +horrible suffering, of visions more hideous than Dante's Hell, of +stupors and struggles, of fits of strong shrieking, followed by weak +tears, he woke one afternoon calm and coherent,--to find himself lying +on a straight pallet bed in a narrow stone chamber, dimly lighted by a +small slit of window, through which a beam of the sun fell aslant, +illumining the blood-stained features of a ghastly Christ stretched on +a black crucifix directly opposite him. He shuddered as he saw this, +and half-closed his eyes with a deep sigh. + +"Tired--tired!" said a thin clear voice beside him. "Always tired! It +is only God who is never weary!" + +Varillo opened his eyes again languidly, and turned them on a monk +sitting beside him,--a monk whose face was neither old nor young, but +which presented a singular combination of both qualities. His high +forehead, white as marble, had no furrows to mar its smoothness, and +from under deep brows a pair of wondering wistful brown eyes peered +like the eyes of a lost and starving child. The cheeks were gaunt and +livid, the flesh hanging in loose hollows from the high and prominent +bones, yet the mouth was that of a youth, firm, well-outlined and sweet +in expression, and when he smiled as he did now, he showed an even row +of small pearly teeth which might have been envied by many a fair woman. + +"Only God who is never weary!" he said, nodding his head slowly, "but +we--you and I--we are soon tired!" + +Varillo looked at him dubiously; and a moment's thought decided him to +assume a certain amount of meekness and docility with this evident +brother of some religious order, so that he might obtain both sympathy +and confidence from him, and from all whom he might be bound to serve. +Ill and weak as he was, the natural tendency of his brain to scheme for +his own advantage, was not as yet impaired. + +"Ah, yes!" he sighed, "I am very tired!--very ill! I do not know what +has happened to me--nor even where I am. What place is this?" + +"It is a place where the dead come!" responded the monk. "The dead in +heart! the dead in soul--the dead in sin! They come to bury themselves, +lest God should find them and crush them into dust before they have +time to say a prayer! Like Adam and his wife, they hide themselves +'from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden.'" + +Varillo raised himself on one elbow, and stared at the pale face and +smiling mouth of the speaker in fear and wonder. + +"'A place where the dead come!'" he echoed. "But you are alive--and so +am I!" + +"You may be--I am not," said the monk quietly. "I died long ago! People +who are alive say we are men, though we know ourselves to be ghosts +merely. This place is called by the world a Trappist monastery,--you +will go out of it if indeed you are alive--you must prove that first! +But we shall never come out, because we are dead. One never comes out +of the grave!" + +With an effort Varillo tried to control the tremor of his nerves, and +to understand and reason out these enigmatical sentences of his +companion. He began to think--and then to remember,--and by and by was +able to conjure up the picture of himself as he had last been conscious +of existence,--himself standing outside the gates of a great building +on the Campagna, and shaking the iron bars to and fro. It was a +Trappist monastery then?--and he was being taken charge of by the +Trappist Order? This fact might possibly be turned to his account if he +were careful. He lay down once more on his pillow and closed his eyes, +and under this pretence of sleep, pondered his position. What were they +saying of him in Rome? Was Angela buried? And her great picture? What +had become of it? + +"How long have I been here?" he asked suddenly. + +The monk gave a curious deprecatory gesture with his hands. + +"Since you died! So long have you been dead!" + +Varillo surveyed him with a touch of scorn. + +"You talk in parables--like your Master!" he said with a feeble attempt +at a laugh. "I am not strong enough to understand you! And if you are a +Trappist monk, why do you talk at all? I thought one of your rules was +perpetual silence?" + +"Silence? Yes--everyone is silent but me!" said the monk--"I may +talk--because I am only Ambrosio,--mad Ambrosio!--something wrong +here!" And he touched his forehead. "A little teasing demon lives +always behind my eyes, piercing my brain with darts of fire. And he +obliges me to talk; he makes me say things I should not--and for all +the mischief he works upon me I wear this--see!"--And springing up +suddenly he threw aside the folds of his garment, and displayed his +bare chest, over which a coarse rope was crossed and knotted so +tightly, that the blood was oozing from the broken flesh on either side +of it. "For every word I say, I bleed!" + +Varillo gave a nervous cry and covered his eyes. + +"Do not be afraid!" said Ambrosio, drawing his robe together again, "It +is only flesh--not spirit--that is wounded! Flesh is our great +snare,--it persuades us to eat, to sleep, to laugh, to love--the spirit +commands none of these things. The spirit is of God--it wants neither +food nor rest,--it is pure and calm,--it would escape to Heaven if the +flesh did not cramp its wings!" + +Varillo took his hand from his eyes and tossed himself back on his +pillow with a petulant moan. + +"Can they do nothing better for me than this?" he ejaculated. "To place +me here in this wretched cell alone with a madman!" + +Ambrosio stood by the pallet bed looking down upon him with a sort of +child-like curiosity. + +"No better than this?" he echoed. "Would you have anything better? +Safe--safe from the world,--no one can find you or follow you--no one +can discover your sin--" + +"Sin! What sin!" demanded Varillo fiercely. "You talk like a fool--as +you own yourself to be! I have committed no sin!" + +"Good--good!" said Ambrosio. "Then you must be canonized with all the +rest of the saints! And St. Peter's shall be illuminated, and the Pope +shall be carried in to see you and to lay his hands upon you, and they +shall shout to him, 'Tu es Petrus!' and no one will remember what kind +of a bruised, bleeding, tortured, broken-down Head of the Church stood +before the multitude when Pilate cried 'Ecce homo!'" + +Varillo stared at him in unwilling fascination. He seemed carried +beyond himself,--it was as though some other force spoke through him, +and though he scarcely raised his voice, its tone was so clear, +musical, and penetrative that it seemed to give light and warmth to the +cold dullness of the cell. + +"You must not mind me!" he went on softly, "My thoughts have all gone +wrong, they tell me,--so have my words. I was young once--and in that +time I used to study hard and try to understand what it was that God +wished me to do with my life. But there were so many things--so much +confusion--so much difficulty--and the end is--here!" He smiled. "Well! +It is a quiet end,--they say the devil knocks at the gate of the +monastery often at midnight, but he never enters in,--never--unless +perchance you are he!" + +Varillo turned himself about pettishly. + +"If I were he, I should not trouble you long," he said. "Even the devil +might be glad to make exit from such a hole as this! Who is your +Superior?" + +"We have only one Superior,--God!" replied Ambrosio. "He who never +slumbers or sleeps--He who troubles Himself to look into everything, +from the cup of a flower to the heart of a man! Who shall escape the +lightning of His glance, or think to cover up a hidden vileness from +the discovery of the Most High?" + +"I did not ask you for pious jargon," said Varillo, beginning to lose +temper, yet too physically weak to contend with the wordy vagaries of +this singular personage who had evidently been told off to attend upon +him. "I asked you who is the Head or Ruler of this community? Who gives +you the daily rule of conduct which you all obey?" + +Ambrosio's brown eyes grew puzzled, and he shook his head. + +"I obey no one," he said. "I am mad Ambrosio!--I walk about in my +grave, and speak, and sing, while others remain silent. I would tell +you if I knew of anyone greater than God,--but I do not!" + +Varillo uttered an impatient groan. It was no good asking this creature +anything,--his answers were all wide of the mark. + +"God," went on Ambrosio, turning his head towards the light that came +streaming in through the narrow window of the cell, "is in that +sunbeam! He can enter where He will, and we never know when we shall +meet Him face to face! He may possess with His spirit the chaste body +of a woman, as in our Blessed Lady,--or He may come to us in the form +of a child, speaking to the doctors in the temple and arguing with them +on the questions of life and death. He is in all things; and the very +beggar at our gates who makes trial of our charity, may for all we +know, be our Lord disguised! Shall I tell you a strange story?" + +Varillo gave a weary sign of assent, half closing his eyes. It was +better this crazed fool should talk, he thought, than that he should +lie there and listen, as it were, to the deadly silence which in the +pauses of the conversation could be felt, like the brooding heaviness +of a thick cloud hanging over the monastery walls. + +"It happened long ago," said Ambrosio. "There was a powerful prince who +thought that to be rich and strong was sufficient to make all the world +his own. But the world belongs to God,--and He does not always give it +over to the robber and spoiler. This prince I tell you of, had been the +lover of a noble lady, but he was false-hearted; and the false soon +grow weary of love! And so, tiring of her beauty and her goodness, he +stabbed her mortally to death, and thought no one had seen him do the +deed. For the only witness to it was a ray of moonlight falling through +the window--just as the sunlight falls now!--see!" And he pointed to +the narrow aperture which lit the cell, while Florian Varillo, +shuddering in spite of himself, lay motionless. "But when the victim +was dead, this very ray of moonlight turned to the shape of a great +angel, and the angel wore the semblance of our Lord,--and the glory and +the wonder of that vision was as the lightning to slay and utterly +destroy! And from that hour for many years, the murderer was followed +by a ray of light, which never left him; all day he saw it flickering +in his path,--all night it flashed across his bed, driving sleep from +his eyes and rest from his brain!--till at last maddened by remorse he +confessed his crime to a priest, and was taken into a grave like this, +a monastery,--where he died, so they say, penitent. But whether he was +forgiven, the story does not say!" + +"It is a stupid story!" said Varillo, opening his eyes, and smiling in +the clear, candid way he always assumed when he had anything to hide. +"It has neither point nor meaning." + +"You think not?" said Ambrosio. "But perhaps you are not conscious of +God. If you were, that sunbeam we see now should make you careful, lest +an angel should be in it!" + +"Careful? Why should I be careful?" Varillo half raised himself on the +bed. "I have nothing to hide!" + +At this Ambrosio began to laugh. + +"Oh, you are happy--happy!" he exclaimed. "You are the first I ever +heard say that! Nothing to hide! Oh, fortunate, fortunate man! Then +indeed you should not be here--for we all have something to hide, and +we are afraid even of the light,--that is why we make such narrow holes +for it; we are always praying God not to look at our sins,--not to +uncover them and show us what vile souls we are--we men who could be as +gods in life, if we did not choose to be devils--" + +Here he suddenly broke off, and a curious grey rigidity stole over his +features, as if some invisible hand were turning him into stone. His +eyes sparkled feverishly, but otherwise his face was the lace of the +dead. The horrible fixity of his aspect at that moment, so terrified +Varillo that he gave a loud cry, and almost before he knew he had +uttered it, another monk entered the cell. Varillo gazed at him +affrightedly, and pointed to Ambrosio. The monk said nothing, but +merely took the rigid figure by its arm and shook it violently. Then, +as suddenly as he had lost speech and motion, Ambrosio recovered both, +and went on talking evenly, taking up the sentence he had broken +off--"If we did not choose to be as devils, we might be as gods!" Then +looking around him with a smile, he added, "Now you are here, Filippo, +you will explain!" + +The monk addressed as Filippo remained silent, still holding him by the +arm, and presently quietly guiding him, led him out of the cell. When +the two brethren had disappeared, Varillo fell back on his pillows +exhausted. + +"What am I to do now?" he thought. "I must have been here many +days!--all Rome must know of Angela's death--all Rome must wonder at my +absence--all Rome perhaps suspects me of being her murderer! And +yet--this illness may be turned to some account. I can say that it was +caused by grief at hearing the sudden news of her death--that I was +stricken down by my despair--but then--I must not forget--I was to have +been in Naples. Yes--the thing looks suspicious--I shall be tracked!--I +must leave Italy. But how?" + +Bathed in cold perspiration he lay, wondering, scheming, devising all +sorts of means of escape from his present surroundings, when he became +suddenly aware of a tall dark figure in the cell,--a figure muffled +nearly to its eyes, which had entered with such stealthy softness and +silence as to give almost the impression of some supernatural visitant. +He uttered a faint exclamation--the figure raised one hand menacingly. + +"Be silent!" These words were uttered in a harsh whisper. "If you value +your life, hold your peace till I have said what I come to say!" + +Moving to the door of the cell, the mysterious visitor bolted it across +and locked it--then dropped the disguising folds of his heavy mantle +and monk's cowl, and disclosed the face and form of Domenico Gherardi. +Paralysed with fear Varillo stared at him,--every drop of blood seemed +to rush from his heart to his brain, turning him sick and giddy, for in +the dark yet fiery eyes of the priest, there was a look that would have +made the boldest tremble. + +"I knew that you were here," he said, his thin lips widening at the +corners in a slight disdainful smile. "I saw you at the inn on the road +to Frascati, and watched you shrink and tremble as I spoke of the +murder of Angela Sovrani! You screened your face behind a paper you +were reading,--that was not necessary, for your hand shook,--and so +betrayed itself as the hand of the assassin!" + +With a faint moan, Varillo shudderingly turned away and buried his head +in his pillow. + +"Why do you now wish to hide yourself?" pursued Gherardi. "Now when you +are an honest man at last, and have shown yourself in your true colors? +You were a liar hitherto, but now you have discovered yourself to be +exactly as the devil made you, why you can look at me without fear--we +understand each other!" + +Still Varillo hid his eyes and moaned, and Gherardi thereupon laid a +rough hand on his shoulder. + +"Come, man! You are not a sick child to lie cowering there as though +seized by the plague! What ails you? You have done no harm! You tried +to kill something that stood in your way,--I admire you for that! I +would do the same myself at any moment!" + +Slowly Varillo lifted himself and looked up at the dark strong face +above him. + +"A pity you did not succeed!" went on Gherardi, "for the world would +have been well rid of at least one feminine would-be 'genius,' whose +skill puts that of man to shame! But perhaps it may comfort you to know +that your blow was not strong enough or deep enough, and that your +betrothed wife yet lives to wed you--if she will!" + +"Lives!" cried Florian. "Angela lives!" + +"Ay, Angela lives!" replied Gherardi coldly. "Does that give you joy? +Does your lover's heart beat with ecstasy to know that she--twenty +times more gifted than you, a hundred times more famous than you, a +thousand times more beloved by the world than you--lives, to be crowned +with an immortal fame, while you are relegated to scorn and oblivion! +Does that content you?" + +A dull red flush crept over Varillo's cheeks,--his hand flenched the +coverlet of his bed convulsively. + +"Lives!" He muttered. "She lives! Then it must be by a miracle! For I +drove the steel deep . . . deep home!" + +Gherardi looked at him curiously, with the air of a scientist watching +some animal writhing under vivisection. + +"Perhaps Cardinal Felix prayed for her!" he said mockingly, "and even +as he healed the crippled child in Rouen he may have raised his niece +from the dead! But miracle or no miracle, she lives. That is why I am +here!" + +"Why--you--are--here?" repeated Varillo mechanically. + +"How dull you are!" said Gherardi tauntingly. "A man like you with a +dozen secret intrigues in Rome, should surely be able to grasp a +situation better! Angela Sovrani lives, I tell you,--I am here to help +you to kill her more surely! Your first attempt was clumsy,--and +dangerous to yourself, but--murder her reputation, amico, murder her +reputation!--and so build up your own!" + +Slowly Varillo turned his eyes upon him. Gherardi met them +unflinchingly, and in that one glance the two were united in the spirit +of their evil intention. + +"You are a man," went on Gherardi, watching him closely. "Will you +permit yourself to be baffled and beaten in the race for fame by a +woman? Shame on you if you do! Listen! I am prepared to swear that you +are innocent of having attempted the murder of your affianced wife, and +I will also assert that the greater part of her picture was painted by +you, though you were, out of generosity and love for her, willing to +let her take the credit of the whole conception!" + +Varillo started upright. + +"God!" he cried. "Is it possible! Will you do this for me?" + +"Not for you--No," said Gherardi contemptuously. "I will do nothing for +you! If I saw you lying in the road at my feet dying for want of a drop +of water, I would not give it to you! What I do, I do for myself--and +the Church!" + +By this time Varillo had recovered his equanimity. A smile came readily +to his lips as he said-- + +"Ah, the Church! Excellent institution! Like charity, it covers a +multitude of sins!" + +"It exists for that object," answered Gherardi with a touch of ironical +humor. "Its own sins it covers,--and shows up the villainies of those +who sin outside its jurisdiction. Angela Sovrani is one of these,--her +uncle the Cardinal is another,--Sylvie Hermenstein--" + +"What of her?" cried Varillo, his eyes sparkling. "Is her marriage +broken off?" + +"Broken off!" Gherardi gave a fierce gesture. "Would that it were! No! +She renounces the Church for the sake of Aubrey Leigh--she leaves the +faith of her fathers--" + +"And takes the wealth of her fathers with her!" finished Varillo, +maliciously. "I see! I understand! The Church has reason for anger!" + +"It has reason!" echoed Gherardi. "And we of the Church choose you as +the tool wherewith to work our vengeance. And why? Because you are a +born liar!--because you can look straight in the eyes of man or woman, +and swear to a falsehood without flinching!--because you are an +egotist, and will do anything to serve yourself--because you have +neither heart nor conscience--nor soul nor feeling,--because you are an +animal in desires and appetite,-because of this, I say, we yoke you to +our chariot wheels, knowing you may be trusted to drive over and +trample down the creatures that might be valuable to you if they did +not stand in your way!" + +Such bitterness, such scorn, such loathing were in his accents, that +even the callous being he addressed was stung, and made a feeble +gesture of protest. + +"You judge me harshly," he began-- + +Gherardi laughed. + +"Judge you! Not I! No judgment is wanted. I read you like a book +through and through,--a book that should be set on Nature's Index +Expurgatorius, as unfit to meet the eyes of the faithful! You are a low +creature, Florian Varillo,--and unscrupulous as I am myself, I despise +you for meanness greater than even I am capable of! But you are a +convenient tool, ready to hand, and I use you for the Church's service! +If you were to refuse to do as I bid you, I would brand you through the +world as the murderer you are! So realize to the full how thoroughly I +have you in my power. Now understand me,--you must leave this place +to-morrow. I will send my carriage for you, and you shall come at once +to me, to me in Rome as my guest,--my HONOURED guest!" And he +emphasized the word sarcastically. "You are weak and ill yet, they tell +me here,--so much the better for you. It will make you all the more +interesting! You will find it easier to play the part of injured +innocence! Do you understand?" + +"I understand," answered Varillo with a faint shudder, for the strong +and relentless personality of Gherardi overpowered him with a sense of +terror which he could not wholly control. + +"Good! Then we will say no more. Brief words are best on such burning +matters. To-morrow at six in the afternoon I will send for you. Be +ready! Till then--try to rest--try to sleep without dreaming of a +scaffold!" + +He folded his mantle around him again and prepared to depart. + +"Sleep," he repeated. "Sleep with a cold heart and quiet mind! Think +that it is only a woman's name--a woman's work--a woman's honour, that +stand in your way,--and congratulate yourself with the knowledge that +the Church and her Divine authority will help you to remove all three! +Farewell!" + +He turned, and unlocked the door of the cell. As he threw it open, he +was confronted by the monk Ambrosio, who was outside on the very +threshold. + +"What are you doing here?" he demanded suspiciously. "I had a permit +from the Superior to speak to your charge alone." + +"And were you not alone?" returned Ambrosio smiling. "I was not with +you! I was here as sentinel, to prevent anyone disturbing you. Poor +Ambrosio--mad Ambrosio! He is no good at all except to guard the dead!" + +Gherardi looked at him scrutinizingly, and noted the lack-lustre eyes, +the helpless childish expression, of the half-young, half-old face +confronting his own. + +"Guard the dead as much as you please," he said harshly. "But take heed +how you spy on the living! Be careful of the sick man lying yonder--we +want him back with us in Rome to-morrow." + +Ambrosio nodded. + +"Back in Rome--good--good!" he said. "Then he is living after all! I +thought he was dead in his sins as I am,--but you tell me he lives, and +will go back to Rome!--Oh yes--I will take care of him--good care!--do +not fear! I know how to guard him so that he shall not escape you!" + +Gherardi looked at him again sharply, but he was playing with his long +rosary and smiling foolishly, and there seemed no use in wasting +further speech upon him. So, muffling himself in his cloak, he strode +away, and Ambrosio entered the cell. + +"You shall have meat and wine presently," he said, approaching the bed +where Florian lay. "The devil has given orders that you shall be well +fed!" + +Varillo looked up and smiled kindly. He could assume any expression at +command, and it suited his purpose just now to be all gentleness. + +"My poor friend!" he said compassionately. "Your wits are far astray! +Devil? Nay--he who has just left us is more of a saint!" + +Ambrosio's brown eyes flashed, but he maintained a grave and immovable +aspect. + +"The devil has often mocked us in saint's disguise," he said slowly. "I +tell the porter here every night to keep the gates well locked against +him,--but this time it was no use; he has entered in. And now we shall +have great work to get him out!" + +Varillo resting his head on one arm, studied him curiously. + +"You must have lived a strange life in the world!" he said. "That is if +you were ever in the world at all. Were you?" + +"Oh yes, I was in the world," replied Ambrosio calmly. "I was in the +midst of men and women who passed their whole lives in acts of cruelty +and treachery to one another. I never met a man who was honest; I never +saw a woman who was true! I wondered where God was that He permitted +such vile beings to live and take His name in vain. He seemed lost and +gone,--I could not find Him!" + +"Ah!" ejaculated Florian languidly. "And did yon discover Him here? In +this monastery?" + +"No--He is not here, for we are all dead men," said Ambrosio. "And God +is the God of the living, not the God of the dead! Shall I tell you +where I found him?" And he advanced a step or two, raising one hand +warningly as though he were entrusted with some message of doom--"I +found Him in sin! I tried to live a life of truth in a world of lies, +but the lies were too strong for me,--they pulled me down! I fell--into +a black pit of crime--reckless, determined, conscious wickedness,--and +so found God--in my punishment!" + +He clasped his hands together with an expression of strange ecstasy. + +"Down into the darkness!" he said. "Down through long vistas of shadow +and blackness you go, glad and exultant, delighting in evil, and +thinking 'God sees me not!' And then suddenly at the end, a sword of +fire cuts the darkness asunder,--and the majesty of the Divine Law +breaks your soul on the wheel!" + +He looked steadfastly at Varillo. + +"So you will find,--so you must find, if you ever go down into the +darkness." + +"Ay, if I ever go," said Florian gently. "But I shall not." + +"No?--then perhaps you are there already?" said Ambrosio smiling, and +playing with his rosary. "For those who say they will never sin have +generally sinned!" + +Varillo held the same kind look of compassion in his eyes. He was fond +of telling his fellow-artists that he had a "plastic" face,--and this +quality served him well just now. He might have been a hero and martyr, +from the peaceful and patient expression of his features, and he so +impressed by his manner a lay-brother who presently entered to give him +his evening meal, that he succeeded in getting rid of Ambrosio +altogether. + +"You are sure you are strong enough to be left without an attendant?" +asked the lay-brother solicitously, quite captivated by the gentleness +of his patient. "There is a special evening service to-night in the +chapel, and Ambrosio should be there to play the organ--for he plays +well--but this duty had been given to Fra Filippo--" + +"Nay, but let Ambrosio fulfil his usual task," said Varillo +considerately. "I am much better--much stronger,--and as my good friend +Monsignor Gherardi desires me to be in Rome to-morrow, and to stay with +him till I am quite restored to health, I must try to rest as quietly +as I can till my hour of departure." + +"You must be a great man to have Domenico Gherardi for a friend!" said +the lay-brother wistfully. + +Here Ambrosio suddenly burst into a loud laugh. + +"You are right! He is a great man!--one of the greatest in Rome, or for +that matter in the world! And he means to be yet greater!" And with +that he turned on his heel and left the cell abruptly. + +Varillo, languidly sipping the wine that had been brought to him with +his food, looked after him with a pitying smile. + +"Poor soul!" he said gently. + +"He was famous once," said the lay-brother, lowering his voice as he +spoke. "One of the most famous sculptors in Europe. But something went +wrong with his life, and he came here. It is difficult to make him +understand orders, or obey them, but the Superior allows him to remain +on account of his great skill in music. On that point at least he is +sane." + +"Indeed!" said Varillo indifferently. He was beginning to weary of the +conversation, and wished to be alone. "It is well for him that he is +useful to you in some regard. And now, my friend, will you leave me to +rest awhile? If it be possible I shall try to sleep now till morning." + +"One of us will come to you at daybreak," said the lay-brother. "You +are still very weak--you will need assistance to dress. Your clothes +are here at the foot of the bed. I hope you will sleep well." + +"Thank you!" said Varillo, conveying an almost tearful look of +gratitude into his eyes--"You are very good to me! God bless you!" + +The lay-brother made a gentle deprecatory gesture of his hands and +retired, and Varillo was left to his own reflections. He lay still, +thinking deeply, and marvelling at the unexpected rescue out of his +difficulties so suddenly afforded him. + +"With Gherardi to support me, I can say anything!" he mused, his heart +beating quickly and exultingly. "I can say anything and swear anything! +And even if the sheath of my dagger has been found, it will be no +proof, for I can say it is not mine. Any lie I choose to tell will have +Gherardi's word to warrant it!--so I am safe--unless Angela speaks!" + +He considered this possibility for a moment, then smiled. + +"But she never will! She is one of those strange women who endure +without complaint,--she is too lofty and pure for the ways of the +world, and the world naturally takes vengeance upon her. There is not a +man born that does not hate too pure a woman; it is his joy to degrade +her if he can! This is the way of Nature; what is a woman made for +except to subject herself to her master! And when she rises superior to +him--superior in soul, intellect, heart and mind, he sees in her +nothing but an abnormal prodigy, to be stared at, laughed at, +despised--but never loved! The present position of affairs is Angela's +fault, not mine. She should not have concealed the work she was doing +from her lover, who had the right to know all her secrets!" + +He laughed,--a low malicious laugh, and then lay tranquilly on his +pillows gazing at the gradually diminishing light. Day was +departing--night was coming on,--and as the shadows lengthened, the +solemn sound of the organ began to vibrate through the walls of the +monastery like far-off thunder growing musical. With a certain sensuous +delight in the beautiful, Varillo listened to it with pleasure; he had +no mind to probe the true meaning of music, but the mere sound was +soothing and sublime, and seemed in its gravity, to match the "tone" of +the light that was gradually waning. So satisfied was he with that +distant pulse of harmony that he began weaving some verses in his head +to "His Absent Lady,"--and succeeded in devising quite a charming lyric +to her whose honour and renown he was ready to kill. So complex, so +curious, so callous, yet sensuous, and utterly egotistical was his +nature, that had Angela truly died under his murderous blow, he would +have been ready now to write such exquisite verses in the way of a +lament for her loss, as should have made a world of sentimental women +weep, not knowing the nature of the man. + +The last glimpse of day vanished, and the cell was only illuminated by +a flickering gleam which crept through the narrow crevice of the door +from the oil lamp outside in the corridor. The organ music ceased--to +be followed by the monotonous chanting of the monks at their evening +orisons,--and in turn, these too came to an end, and all was silent. +Easily and restfully Florian Varillo, calling himself in his own mind +poet, artist, and lover of all women rather than one, turned on his +pillow and slept peacefully,--a calm deep sleep such as is only +supposed to visit the innocent and pure of conscience, but which in +truth just as often refreshes the senses of the depraved and dissolute, +provided they are satisfied with evil as their good. How many hours he +slept he did not know, but he was wakened at last by a terrible sense +of suffocation, and he sat up gasping for breath, to find the cell full +of thick smoke and burning stench. The flickering reflection of the +lamp was gone, and as he instinctively leaped from his bed and grasped +his clothes, he heard the monastery bell above him swinging to and fro, +with a jarring heavy clang. Weak from the effects of his illness, and +scarcely able to stand, he dragged on some of his garments, and rushing +to the door threw it open, to be met with dense darkness and thick +clouds of smoke wreathing towards him in all directions. He uttered a +loud shriek. + +"Fire!" + +The bell clanged on slowly over his head, but otherwise there was no +response. Stumbling along, blinded, suffocated, not knowing at any +moment whether he might not be precipitated down some steep flight of +stairs or over some high gallery in the building, he struggled to +follow what seemed to be a cooling breath of air which streamed through +the smoke as though blowing in from some open door, and as he felt his +way with his hands on the wall he suddenly heard the organ. + +"Thank God!" he thought, "I am near the chapel! The fire has broken out +in this part of the building--the monks do not know and are still at +prayer. I shall be in time to save them all! . . ." + +A small tongue of red flame flashed upon his eyes--he recoiled--then +pressed forward again, seeing a door in front of him. The organ music +sounded nearer and nearer; he rushed to the door, half choked and +dizzy, and pushing it open, reeled into the organ loft, where at the +organ, sat the monk Ambrosio, shaking out such a storm of music as +might have battered the gates of Heaven or Hell. Varillo leaped +forward--then, as he saw the interior of the chapel, uttered one +agonized shriek, and stood as though turned to stone. For the whole +place was in flames!--everything from the altar to the last small +statue set in a niche, was ablaze, and only the organ, raised like a +carven pinnacle, appeared to be intact, set high above the blazing +ruin. Enrapt in his own dreams, Ambrosio sat, pouring thunderous +harmony out of the golden-tubed instrument which as yet, with its +self-acting machinery, was untouched by the flames, and Varillo +half-mad with terror, sprang at him like a wild beast + +"Stop!" he cried "Stop, fool! Do you not see--can you not +understand--the monastery is on fire!" + +Ambrosio shook him off, his brown eyes were clear and bright,--his +whole expression stern and resolved. + +"I know it," he replied. "And we shall burn--you and I--together!" + +'Oh, mad brute!" cried Varillo. "Tell me which way to go!--where are +the brethren?" + +"Outside!" he answered "Safe!--away at the farther end of the garden, +digging their own graves, as usual! Do you not hear the bell? We are +alone in the building!--I have locked the doors,--the fire is kindled +inside! We shall be dead before the flames burst through!" + +"Madman!" shrieked Varillo, recoiling as the thick volumes of smoke +rolled up from the blazing altar. "Die if you must!--but I will not! +Where are the windows?--the doors?--" + +"Locked and bolted fast," said Ambrosio, with a smile of triumph. +"There is no loophole of escape for you! The world might let you go +free to murder and betray,--but I--Ambrosio,--a scourge in the Lord's +hand--I will never let you go! Pray--pray before it is too late! I +heard the devil tempt you--I heard you yield to his tempting! You were +both going to ruin a woman--that is devil's work. And God told me what +to do--to burn the evil out by flame, and purify your soul! Pray, +brother, pray!--for in the searching and tormenting fire it will be too +late! Pray! Pray!" + +And pressing his hands again upon the organ he struck out a passage of +chords like the surging of waves upon the shore or storm-winds in the +forest, and began to sing, + + "Confutatis maledictis + Flammis acribus addictis + Voci me cum benedictis!" + +Infuriated to madness but too physically weak to struggle with one who, +though wandering in brain, was sound in body, Varillo tried to drag him +from his seat,--but the attempt was useless. Ambrosio seemed possessed +by a thousand electric currents of force and resolution combined. He +threw off Varillo as though he were a mere child, and went on singing-- + + "Oro supplex et acclinis + Cor contritum quasi cinis: + Gere curam mei finis. + . . . . + Lacrymosa dies illa,--" + +Driven to utter desperation, Varillo stood for a moment inert,--then, +suddenly catching sight of a rope hanging from one of the windows close +at hand, he rushed to it and pulled it furiously. The top of the window +yielded, and fell open on its hinge--the smoke rushed up to the +aperture, and Florian, still clinging to the rope, shouted, +"Help!--Help!" with all the force he could muster. But the air blowing +strongly against the smoke fanned the flames in the body of the +chapel,--they leaped higher and higher,--and--seeing the red glow +deepening about him, Ambrosio smiled.--"Cry your loudest, you will +never be heard!" he said--"Those who are busy with graves have done +with life! You had best pray while you have time--let God take you with +His name on your lips!" + +And as the smoke and flame climbed higher and higher and began to +wreathe itself about the music gallery, he resumed his solemn singing. + + "Lacrymosa dies illa, + Qua resurgat ex favilla + Judicandus homo reus + Huic ergo parce, Deus: + Pie Jesu Domine + Dona eis requiem!" + +But Varillo still shrieked "Help!" and his frenzied cries were at last +answered. The great bell overhead ceased ringing suddenly,--and its +cessation created an effect of silence even amid the noise of the +crackling fire and the continued grave music of the organ. Then came a +quick tramp of many feet--a hubbub of voices--and loud battering knocks +at the chapel door. Ambrosio laughed triumphantly. + +"We are at prayers!" he cried--"We admit no one! The devil and I are at +prayers!" + +Varillo sprang at him once more. + +"Madman! Show me the way!" he screamed. "Show me the way down from this +place or I will strangle you!" + +"Find your own way!" answered Ambrosio--"Make it--as you have always +made it!--and follow it--to Hell!" + +As he spoke the gallery rocked to and fro, and a tall flame leaped at +the organ like a living thing ready to seize and devour. Still the +knocking and hammering continued, and still Ambrosio played wild +music--till all at once the chapel door was broken open and a group of +pale spectral faces in monk's cowls peered through the smoke, and then +retreated again. + +"Help!" shrieked Varillo--"Help!" + +But the air rushing through the door and meeting with that already +blowing through the window raised a perfect pyramid of flame which rose +straight up and completely encircled the organ. With a frightful cry +Varillo rushed to Ambrosio's side, and cowering down, clung to his +garments. + +"Oh, God!--Oh, God! Have mercy!--" + +"He will have mercy!" said Ambrosio, still keeping his hands on the +organ-keys and drawing out strange plaintive chords of solemn +harmony--"He will have mercy--be sure of it! Ambrosio will ask Him to +be merciful!--Ambrosio has saved you from crime worse than +death,--Ambrosio has cleansed you by fire! Ambrosio will help you to +find God in the darkness!" + +Smoke and flame encircled them,--for one moment more their figures were +seen like black specks in the wreathing columns of fire--for one moment +more the music of the organ thundered through the chapel,--then came a +terrific crash--a roar of the victorious flames as they sprang up high +to the roof of the building, and then--then nothing but a crimson glare +on the Campagna, seen for miles and miles around, and afterwards +described to the world by the world's press as the "Burning Down of a +Trappist Monastery" in which no lives had been lost save those of one +Fra Ambrosio, long insane, who was supposed to have kindled the +destructive blaze in a fit of mania,--and of a stranger, sick of +malarial fever, whom the monks had sheltered, name unknown. + + + + +XXXVI. + +The same night which saw the red glare of the burning monastery +reflected from end to end of the Campagna, like the glow of some +gigantic pagan funeral pyre, saw also the quiet departure of Cardinal +Bonpre and his "foundling" Manuel from Rome. Innocent of all evil, +their escape was after the manner of the guilty; for the spies of the +Vatican were on guard outside the Sovrani Palace, and one priest after +another "relieved the watch" in the fashion of military sentries. But +like all too cunning schemers, these pious detectives overreached the +goal of their intention, and bearing in mind the fact of the Cardinal's +unsuspecting simplicity, it never occurred to them to think he had been +put on his guard so soon, or that he would take advantage of any secret +way of flight. But the private door of Angela's studio through which +Florian Varillo had fled, and the key of which he had thrown into the +Tiber, had been forced open, and set in use again, and through this the +harmless prelate, with his young companion, passed without notice or +hindrance, and under the escort of Aubrey Leigh and Cyrillon Vergniaud, +reached the railway station unintercepted by any message or messenger +from the Papal court, and started for Paris and London. When the train, +moving slowly at first from the platform, began to rush, and finally +darted swiftly out of sight, Aubrey breathed more easily. + +"Thank God!" he said. "They are safe for the present! England is a free +country!" + +"Is it?" And Vergniaud smiled a little. "Are you sure? England cannot +dispute the authority of the Vatican over its own sworn servants. Are +you not yourself contending against the power of Rome in Great Britain?" + +"Not only against Rome do I contend," replied Aubrey. "My battle is +against all who seek to destroy the true meaning and intention of +Christianity. But so far as Romanism is concerned,--we have a monarch +whose proudest title is Defender of the Faith--that is Defender of the +Faith against Papal interference." + +"Yes? And yet her bishops pander to Rome? Ah, my dear friend!--your +monarch is kept in ignorance of the mischief being worked in her realm +by the Papal secret service! Cardinal Bonpre in London is as much under +the jurisdiction of the Pope as if he still remained in Rome, and +though he may be able to delay the separation between himself and the +boy he cherishes, he will scarcely avert it!" + +"Why should they wish to part that child from him I wonder!" said +Aubrey musingly. + +Cyrillon shrugged his shoulders. + +"Who can tell! They have their reasons, no doubt. Why should they wish +to excommunicate Tolstoi? But they do! Believe me, there is a time of +terror coming for the religious world--especially in your great English +Empire. And when your good Queen dies, the trouble will begin!" + +Aubrey was silent for some minutes. + +"We must work, Cyrillon!" he said at last, laying a hand on his +friend's shoulder. "We must work and we must never leave off working! +One man may do much,--all history proves the conquering force of one +determined will. You, young as you are, have persuaded France to listen +to you,--I am doing my best to persuade England to hear me. We are only +two--but others will follow. I know it is difficult!--it is harassing +and often heartbreaking to insist on Truth when the whole world's press +is at work bolstering up false gods, false ideals, false art, false +sentiment,--but if we are firm--if we hold an unflinching faith, we +shall conquer!" + +"You are brave!" said Cyrillon with a glance of mingled trust and +admiration. "But you are an exception to the majority of men. The +majority are cruel and treacherous, and stupid as well. Dense stupidity +is hard to fight against! Who for example, do you suppose, will +understand the lesson of Donna Sovrani's great picture?" + +"All the New World!" said Aubrey, with enthusiasm,--"It is for the New +World--not the Old. And that reminds me to-day the picture is on view +to the art-critics and experts for the first time. I prophesy it will +be sold at once!" + +"That would make her father happy," said Cyrillon slowly. "But she--she +will not care!" + +Aubrey looked at him attentively. + +"Have you seen her?" + +"Yes. For a moment only. I called at the Sovrani Palace and her father +received me. We talked for some time together. I think he knows who +dealt the murderous blow at his daughter, but he says nothing positive. +He showed me the picture. It is great--sublime! I could have knelt +before it! Then he took me to see Her--and I would have knelt still +more readily! But--she is changed!" + +"And--are you?" asked Aubrey with a slight smile. + +"Changed? I? No--I shall never change. I loved her at first sight--I +love her still more now. Yet I see the truth--she is broken-hearted!" + +"Time and great tenderness will heal the wound," said Aubrey gently. +"Meanwhile have patience!" + +Cyrillon gave him a look more eloquent than speech, and by mutual +consent they said no more on the subject of Angela just then. + +Next morning at the American Consulate, Sylvie, Comtesse Hermenstein, +was quietly married by civil law to Aubrey Leigh. The ceremony took +place in the presence of the Princesse D'Agramont, Madame Bozier, and +Cyrillon Vergniaud. When it was over the wedded lovers and their +friends returned to the Sovrani Palace, there to join Angela who had +come down from her sick room to grace the occasion. She looked as fair +and fragile as the delicate "Killmeny" of the poet's legend, just +returned from wondrous regions of "faery," though the land poor Angela +had wandered away from was the Land of Sweet Delusion, which enchanted +garden she would never enter again. Pale and thin, with her beautiful +eyes drooping wearily under their dreamy tired lids, she was the very +ghost of her former self;--and the child-like way in which she clung to +her father, and kept near her father always, was pathetic in the +extreme. When Sylvie and Aubrey entered, with their three companions, +she advanced to greet them, smiling bravely, though her lips quivered. + +"All happiness be with you, dear!" she said softly, and she slipped a +chain of fine pearls round Sylvie's neck. "These were my mother's +pearls,--wear them for my sake!" + +Sylvie kissed her in silence,--she could not say anything, even by the +way of thanks,--her heart was too full. + +"We shall be very lonely without you, darling," went on Angela. "Shall +we not, father?" Prince Pietro came to her side, and taking her hand +patted it consolingly--"But we shall know you are happy in England--and +we shall try and come and see you as soon as I get strong,--I want to +join my uncle and Manuel. I miss Manuel very much,--he and my father +are everything to me now!" + +She stretched out her hand to Aubrey, who bent over it and kissed it +tenderly. + +"You are happy now, Mr. Leigh?" she said smiling. + +"Very happy!" said Aubrey. "May you be as happy soon!" + +She shook her head, and the smile passed from her eyes and lips, +leaving her face very sorrowful. + +"I must work," she said. "Work brings content--if it does not insure +joy." Her gaze involuntarily wandered to her great picture, "The Coming +of Christ," which now, unveiled in all its splendour, occupied one end +of her studio, filling it with a marvellous colour and glow of light. +"Yes, I must work! That big canvas of mine will not sell I fear! My +father was right. It was a mistake"--and she sighed--"a mistake +altogether,--in more ways than one! And what is the use of painting a +picture for the world if there is no chance to let the world see it?" + +Prince Pietro looked at her benevolently. + +"Your father was right, you think? Well, Angela mia, I think I had +better be the first to own that your father was wrong! The picture is +already sold;--that is if you consent to sell it!" + +Angela turned very white. "If I consent to sell it? Sell it--to whom?" + +Sylvie put a caressing arm around her. "Your father had the news this +morning," she said, "and we all decided to tell it to you as soon as we +came back from the Consulate. A wedding-surprise on our parts, Angela! +You know the picture was on view for the first time yesterday to some +of the critics and experts in Rome?" + +Angela made a faint sign of assent. Her wistful eyes were full of +wonder and anxiety. + +"Well, among them was a purchaser for America--Oh, you need not look at +me, my dear!--I have nothing to do with it! You shall see the letter +your father received--and you shall decide; but the end of the whole +matter is, Angela, that if you consent, the picture will be bought, not +by any private purchaser, but by the American nation." + +"The American nation!" repeated Angela. "Are you really, really sure of +this?" + +"Quite sure!" said Sylvie joyously. "And you must say good-bye to it +and let it go across the wide ocean--out to the New World all alone +with its grand and beautiful message,--unless you go with it and show +the Americans something even more perfect and beautiful in yourself +than the picture!--and you must be content to take twenty thousand +pounds for it, and be acknowledged as the greatest painter of the age +as well! This will be hard work, Angela!--but you must resign yourself!" + +She laughed for pure delight in her friend's triumph,--but Angela +turned at once to her father. + +"Dearest father!" she said softly. "I am glad--for your sake!" + +He folded her in his arms, too deeply moved to speak, and then as he +felt her trembling, he led her to a chair and beckoned to Cyrillon +Vergniaud who had stood apart, watching the little scene in silence. + +"Come and talk to this dear girl!" he said. "She is not at all a good +hostess to-day! She ought to entertain the bride and bridegroom +here,--but it seems as if she needed to be entertained herself!" And +then, as Cyrillon obeyed him, and drew near the idol of his thoughts +with such hesitating reverence as might befit a pilgrim approaching the +shrine of a beloved saint, he turned away and was just about to speak +to the Princesse D'Agramont when a servant entered and said hurriedly-- + +"Monsignor Gherardi desires to see Cardinal Bonpre!" + +There was a dead pause. The group of friends looked at one another in +embarrassment. Angela rose from her chair trembling and glanced +instinctively at her picture--and for a moment no one seemed quite +certain what should be done next. The Princesse D'Agramont was the +first to recover her self-possession. + +"Angela must not be here," she said. "She is not strong enough to stand +a scene. And no doubt Gherardi has come to make one! We will leave him +to you, Mr. Leigh--and to Gys Grandit!" + +She withdrew at once with Angela, and in another moment Gherardi was +ushered in. He glanced quickly around him as he made his formal +salutation,--his eyes rested for a moment on Sylvie and Aubrey +Leigh--then he addressed himself to Prince Pietro. + +"I am sorry to intrude upon you, Prince!" he said. "I have an urgent +matter to discuss with Cardinal Bonpre, and must see him at once." + +"I regret that it is not in my power to gratify your desire, +Monsignor," said Prince Sovrani with stiff courtesy. "My brother-in-law +the Cardinal left Rome last night" + +"Left Rome! Left Rome!" exclaimed Gherardi. "Who gave him permission to +leave Rome!" + +"Was permission necessary?" asked Aubrey, stepping forward. + +"I did not address you, sir," returned Gherardi haughtily. "I spoke to +Prince Sovrani." + +"Prince Sovrani might well decline to answer you," said Aubrey +undauntedly. "Were I to make him acquainted with the fiendish plot you +have contrived against his daughter's fame and honour, he would +scarcely allow you to cross his threshold!" + +Gherardi stood still, breathing quickly, but otherwise unmoved. + +"Plot?" he echoed. "You must be mad! I have no plot against anyone. My +business is to uphold the cause of truth and justice, and I shall +certainly defend the name of the great artist who painted that +picture"--and he pointed to Angela's canvas--"Florian Varillo! Dead as +he is, his memory shall live!" + +"Dead!" cried Prince Sovrani, springing forward. "Dead! Make me sure of +that, and I will praise God even for your lying tongue, if it could for +once speak such a welcome truth!" + +Gherardi drew back amazed, instinctively recoiling from the flashing +eyes and threatening figure of the irate nobleman. + +"Speak!" cried Sovrani again. "Tell me that the murderer of my child's +youth and joy is dead and gone to hell--and I will sing a Laus Deo at +St. Peter's! I will pay you a thousand pounds in masses to keep his +soul safe with the devil to whom it has gone!" + +"Prince Sovrani, you are in ignorance of the facts," said Gherardi +coldly. "And you speak in an anger, which if what you suspect were +true, would be natural enough, but which under present circumstances is +greatly misplaced. The unfortunate Florian Varillo has been ill for +many days at a Trappist monastery on the Campagna. He had gone out +towards Frascati on a matter connected with some business before +starting for Naples, and as he was returning, he was suddenly met by +the news of the assassination of his betrothed wife--" + +"And he knew nothing of it--" interposed Sovrani grimly. "Of course--he +knew nothing!" + +"He knew nothing--how should he know!" responded Gherardi calmly--"The +terrible shock threw him into a delirium and fever--he was found in a +dead swoon and taken into the monastery for shelter. I saw him there +only yesterday." + +He paused. No one spoke. + +"He was to have come to Rome to-day, and a full explanation of his +absence would have been given. But last night the monastery was set on +fire--" + +"Thank God!" said Sovrani. + +Gherardi looked at him with an air of admirably affected sorrowful +reproach. + +"I grieve for your injustice and cruelty, Prince!" he said--"Some +natural regret there should surely be in your mind at the tragic end of +one so highly gifted--one whom you had accepted as your future +son-in-law. He met with a terrible death! The monastery was set on +fire, as I have told you--but the doors had all been previously locked +within, it is supposed by one of the monks named Ambrosio, who was +subject to fits of insanity--with the tragic result that he and Varillo +perished in the flames, there being no possibility of rescue." + +"Then the guillotine is saved unnecessary soiling," said Sovrani +fiercely. "And you, Monsignor Gherardi, should have a special +'Jubilate' sung for the world being well-rid of an exceptionally damned +and damnable villain!" + +There was something terrific in the aspect of Sovrani's face and +threatening attitude, and for a moment Gherardi hesitated to go on with +his prepared sequence of lies. Rallying his forces at last with an +effort he made a very good assumption of his most authoritative manner. + +"Prince, I must ask you to be good enough to hear me patiently," he +said. "Your mind has been grossly abused, and you are not aware of the +true position of affairs. You imagine with some few gossips in Rome, +that Florian Varillo, your daughter's betrothed husband, was guilty of +the murderous attack upon her life--you are mistaken!" + +"Mistaken!" Prince Pietro laughed scornfully. "Prove my mistake!--prove +it!" + +"I give you my word!" said Gherardi. "And I also swear to you that the +picture yonder, which, though offensive to the Church and blasphemous +in its teaching, is nevertheless a great masterpiece of painting, is +the work of the unfortunate dead man you so greatly wrong!" + +"Liar!" And Cyrillon Vergniaud sprang forward, interposing himself +between Sovrani and the priest. "Liar!" + +Gherardi turned a livid white. + +"Who is this ruffian?" he demanded, drawing his tall form up more +haughtily than before. "A servant of yours?" + +"Ay, a servant of his, and of all honest men!" returned Cyrillon. "I am +one whom your Church has learned to fear, but who has no fear of +you!--one whom you have heard of to your cost, and will still hear +of,--Gys Grandit!" + +Gherardi glanced him up and down, and then turned from him in disgust +as from something infected by a loathly disease. + +"Prince Sovrani!" he said. "I cannot condescend to converse with a +street ranter, such as this misguided person, who has most regrettably +obtained admission to your house and society! I came to see your +brother-in-law Cardinal Bonpre,--who has left Rome, you tell +me--therefore my business must be discussed with you alone. I must ask +you for a private audience." + +Sovrani looked at him steadily. + +"And I must refuse it, Monsignor! If in private audience you wish to +repeat the amazing falsehood you have just uttered respecting my +daughter's work--I am afraid I should hardly keep my hands off you! +Believe me you are safest in company!" + +Monsignor Gherardi paused a moment,--then turned towards Sylvie. + +"Contessa," he said very deliberately. "You can perhaps arrange this +matter better than I can. Florian Varillo is dead--as I have told you; +and for stating what I believe to be the truth regarding him I have +been subjected to insult in your presence. I have known you for many +years and I knew your father before you,--I have no wish to either +distress or offend you,--do you understand? I am in your hands!" + +Sylvie looked him full in the face. "My husband will answer you, +Monsignor," she said. "I am in his hands!" Gherardi turned as crimson +as he had before been pale. "Your husband!" He strode forward with a +threatening movement--then stopped short, as he confronted Aubrey +Leigh. "Your husband! So! You are married then!"--and he laughed +fiercely--"Married by the law, and excommunicated by the Church! A +pleasant position for the last of the Hermensteins! Contessa, by your +own act you have ruined the fortunes of your friends! I would have held +my peace at your will,--but now all Rome shall know the truth!" "The +truth according to the convenience of papal Rome?" queried Aubrey +Leigh--"The truth, as expounded to the Comtesse Hermenstein in your +interview with her yesterday?" + +Gherardi looked him over with superb indifference. + +"My interview with the Comtesse Hermenstein was a private one"--he +said,--"And if a spy was present, he must prove himself a spy. And we +of the Church do not accept a spy's testimony!" + +White with indignation Aubrey sprang forward,--but Cyrillon Vergniaud +restrained him. "Patience!" he said in a low tone--"Let him have his +way for the moment--it will then be my turn!" + +"My word is law in Rome!"--went on Gherardi--"Whatsoever I choose to +say will be confirmed and ratified by the greatest authority in the +world--the Pope! I am ready to swear that Florian Varillo painted that +picture,--and the Pope is ready to believe it! Who will admit such a +masterpiece to be a woman's work? No one! Each member of the house of +Sovrani can bear witness to the fact that no one ever saw Angela +Sovrani painting it! But I know the whole story--I was the last to see +Florian Varillo before his death--and he confessed the truth--that he +had worked for his betrothed wife in order to give her the greater +fame! So that he was not, and could not have been her assassin--" + +"Then her assassin must be found!" said Prince Pietro suddenly. "And +the owner of this sheath--the sheath of the dagger with which she was +stabbed--must claim his property!" And holding up the sheath in +question before Gherardi he continued-- + +"This _I_ found! This _I_ traced! Varillo's servant admitted it to be +his master's--Varillo's mistress recognised it as her lover's--a slight +thing, Monsignor!--but an uncomfortable witness! And if you dare to +promulgate your lie against my daughter and her work, I will accuse you +in the public courts of complicity in an attempted murder! And I doubt +whether the Pope will judge it politic, or a part of national +diplomacy, to support you then!" + +For a moment Gherardi was baffled. His dark brows met in a frown of +menace and his lips tightened with his repressed fury. Then,--still +managing to speak with the utmost composure, he said, + +"You will permit me to look at this dagger-sheath--this proof on which +you place so much reliance?" + +In the certainty of his triumph, old Sovrani was ready to place it in +the priest's extended hand, when young Vergniaud interposed and +prevented him. + +"No! You can admire it from a distance, Monsignor! You are capable in +your present humour of tearing it to atoms and so destroying evidence! +As the 'servant' of Prince Sovrani, it is my business to defend him +from this possibility!" + +Gherardi raised his dark eyes and fixed them, full of bitterest scorn, +on the speaker. + +"So YOU are Gys Grandit!" he said in accents which thrilled with an +intensity of hatred. "You are the busy Socialist, the self-advertising +atheist, who, like a yelping cur, barks impotently under the wheels of +Rome! You--Vergniaud's bastard--" + +"Give that name to your children at Frascati!" cried Cyrillon +passionately. "And own them as yours publicly, as my father owned me +before he died!" + +With a violent start, Gherardi reeled back as though he had been dealt +a sudden blow, and over his face came a terrible change, like the grey +pallor of creeping paralysis. White to the lips, he struggled for +breath . . . he essayed to speak,--then failing, made a gesture with +his hands as though pushing away some invisible foe. Slowly his head +drooped on his breast, and he shivered like a man struck suddenly with +ague. Startled and awed, everyone watched him in fascinated silence. +Presently words came slowly and with difficulty between his dry lips. + +"You have disgraced me!" he said hoarsely--"Are you satisfied?" He took +a step or two close up to the young man. "I ask you--are you satisfied? +Or--do you mean to go on--do you want to ruin me?--" Here, moved by +uncontrollable passion he threw up his hands with a gesture of despair. +"God! That it should come to this! That I should have to ask you--you, +the enemy of the Church I serve, for mercy! Let it be enough I +say!--and I--I also will be silent!" + +Cyrillon looked at him straightly. + +"Will you cease to persecute Cardinal Bonpre?" he demanded. "Will you +admit Varillo's murderous treachery?" + +Gherardi bent his head. + +"I will!" he answered slowly, "because I must! Otherwise--" He clenched +his fist and his eyes flashed fire-then he went on--"But beware of +Lorenzo Moretti! He will depose the Cardinal from office, and separate +him from that boy who has affronted the Pope. He is even now soliciting +the Holy Father to intervene and stop the marriage of the Comtesse +Sylvie Hermenstein with Aubrey Leigh,--and--they are married! No +more--no more!--I cannot speak--let me go--let me go--you have won your +way!--I give you my promise!" + +"What is your promise worth?" said Vergniaud with disdain. + +"Nothing!" replied Gherardi bitterly. "Only in this one special +instance it is worth all my life!--all my position! You--even you, the +accursed Gys Grandit!--you have me in your power!" + +He raised his head as he said this,--his face expressed mingled agony +and fury; but meeting Cyrillon's eyes he shrank again as if he were +suddenly whipped by a lash, and with one quick stride, reached the +door, and disappeared. + +There was a moment's silence after his departure. Then Aubrey Leigh +spoke. + +"My dear Grandit! You are a marvellous man! How came you to know +Gherardi's secrets?" + +"Through a section of the Christian-Democratic party here"--replied +Cyrillon--"You must not forget that I, like you, have my disciples! +They keep me informed of all that goes on in Rome, and they have +watched Domenico Gherardi for years. We all know much--but we have +little chance to speak! If England knew of Rome what France knows, what +Spain knows,--what Italy knows, she would pray to be given a second +Cromwell! For the time is coming when she will need him!" + + + + +XXXVII. + +A few days later the fashionable world of Europe was startled by the +announcement of two things. One was the marriage of Sylvie, Countess +Hermenstein, to the "would-be reformer of the clergy," Aubrey Leigh, +coupled with her renunciation of the Church of her fathers. There was +no time for that Church to pronounce excommunication, inasmuch as she +renounced it herself, of her own free will and choice, and made no +secret of having done so. Some of her Hungarian friends were, or +appeared to be, scandalized at this action on her part, but the +majority of them treated it with considerable leniency, and in some +cases with approval, on the ground that a wife's religion ought to be +the same as that of her husband. If love is love at all, it surely +means complete union; and one cannot imagine a perfect marriage where +there is any possibility of wrangling over different forms of creed. +The other piece of news, which created even more sensation than the +first, was the purchase of Angela Sovrani's great picture, "The Coming +of Christ," by the Americans. As soon as this was known, the crowd of +visitors to the artist's studio assumed formidable proportions, and +from early morning till late afternoon, the people kept coming and +going in hundreds, which gradually swelled to thousands. For by-and-by +the history of the picture got about in disjointed morsels of +information and gossip which soon formed a consecutive and fairly +correct narration. Experts criticized it,--critics "explained" it--and +presently nothing was talked of in the art world but "The Coming of +Christ" and the artist who painted it, Angela Sovrani. A woman!--only a +woman! It seemed incredible--impossible! For why should a woman think? +Why should a woman dare to be a genius? It seemed very strange! How +much more natural for her to marry some decent man of established +position and be content with babies and plain needlework! Here was an +abnormal prodigy in the ways of womanhood,--a feminine creature who +ventured to give an opinion of her own on something else than +dress,--who presumed as it were, to set the world thinking hard on a +particular phase of religious history! Then, as one after the other +talked and whispered and commented, the story of Angela's own private +suffering began to eke out bit by bit,--how she had been brutally +stabbed m her own studio in front of her own picture by no other than +her own betrothed husband Florian Varillo, who was moved to his +murderous act by a sudden impulse of jealousy,--and how that same +Varillo had met with his deserts in death by fire in the Trappist +monastery on the Campagna. And the excitement over the great picture +became more and more intense--especially when it was known that it +would soon be taken away from Rome never to be seen there again. Angela +herself knew little of her rapidly extending fame,--she was in Paris +with the Princesse D'Agramont who had taken her there immediately after +Monsignor Gherardi's visit to her father. She was not told of Florian +Varillo's death till she had been some days in the French capital, and +then it was broken to her as gently as possible. But the result was +disastrous. The strength she had slowly regained seemed now to leave +her altogether, and she was stricken with a mute despair which was +terrible to witness. Hour after hour, she lay on a couch, silent and +motionless,--her large eyes fixed on vacancy, her little white hands +clasped close together as though in a very extremity of bodily and +mental anguish, and the Princesse D'Agramont, who watched her and +tended her with the utmost devotion, was often afraid that all her care +would be of no avail, and that her patient would slip through her hands +into the next world before she had time to even attempt to save her. +And Cyrillon Vergmaud, unhappy and restless, wandered up and down +outside the house, where this life, so secretly dear to him, was poised +as it were on the verge of death, not daring to enter, or even enquire +for news, lest he should hear the worst. + +One cold dark afternoon however, as he thus paced to and fro, he saw +the Princesse D'Agramont at a window beckoning him, and with a +sickening terror at his heart, he obeyed the signal. + +"I wish you would come and talk to her!" said the Princesse as she +greeted him, with tears in her bright eyes. "She must be roused from +this apathy. I can do nothing with her. But I think YOU might do much +if you would!" + +"I will do anything--anything in the wide world!" said Cyrillon +earnestly. "Surely you know that!" + +"Yes--but you must not be too gentle with her! I do not mean that you +should be rough--God forbid!--but if you would speak to her with +authority--if you could tell her that she owes her life and her work to +the world--to God--" + +She broke off, not trusting herself to say more. Cyrillon raised her +hand to his lips. + +"I understand!" he said. "You know I have hesitated--because--I love +her! I cannot tell her not to grieve for her dead betrothed, when I +myself am longing to take his place!" + +The Princesse smiled through her tears. + +"The position is difficult I admit!" she said, with a returning touch +of playfulness--"But the very fact of your love for her should give you +the force to command her back to life. Come!" + +She took him into the darkened room where Angela lay--inert, immovable, +with always the same wide-open eyes, blank with misery and desolation, +and said gently, + +"Angela, will you speak to Gys Grandit?" + +Angela turned her wistful looks upon him, and essayed a poor little +ghost of a smile. Very gently Cyrillon advanced and sat down beside +her,--and with equal gentleness, the Princesse D'Agramont withdrew. +Cyrillon's heart beat fast; if he could have lifted that frail little +form of a woman into his arms and kissed away the sorrow consuming it, +he would have been happy,--but his mission was that of a friend, not +lover, and his own emotions made it hard for him to begin. At last he +spoke + +"When are you going to make up your mind to get well, dear friend?" + +She looked at him piteously. + +"Make up my mind to get well? I shall never be well again!" + +"You will if you resolve to be," said Cyrillon. "It rests with you!" + +She was silent. + +"Have you heard the latest news from Rome?" he asked after a pause. + +She made a faint sign in the negative. + +Cyrillon smiled. + +"The Church has with all due solemnity anathematized your picture as an +inspiration of the Evil One! But it is better that it should be so +anathematized than that it should be reported as not your own work. +Between two lies, the emissaries of the Vatican have chosen the one +least dangerous to themselves." + +Angela sighed wearily. + +"You do not care?" queried Cyrillon. "Neither anathema nor lie has any +effect on you?" + +She raised her left hand and looked dreamily at the circlet of rubies +on it--Florian Varillo's betrothal ring. + +"I care for nothing," she said slowly. "Nothing--now he is gone!" + +A bitter pang shot through Cyrillon's heart. He was quite silent. +Presently she turned her eyes wistfully towards him. + +"Please do not think me ungrateful for all your kindness!--but--I +cannot forget!" + +"Dear Donna Sovrani, may I speak to you fully and, frankly--as a +friend? May I do so without offence?" + +She looked at him and saw how pale he was, how his lips trembled, and +the consciousness that he was unhappy moved her to a faint sense of +compunction. + +"Of course you may!" she answered gently. "I know you do not hate me." + +"Hate you!" Cyrillon paused, his eyes softening with a great tenderness +as they rested upon her. "Who could hate you?" + +"Florian hated me," she said. "Not always,--no! He loved me once! Only +when he saw my picture, then his love perished. Ah, my Florian! Had I +known, I would have destroyed all my work rather than have given him a +moment's pain!" + +"And would that have been right?" asked Cyrillon earnestly. "Would not +such an act have been one of selfishness rather than sacrifice?" + +A faint color crept over her pale cheeks. + +"Selfishness?--" + +"Yes! Your love for him was quite a personal matter,--but your work is +a message to the world. You would have sacrificed the world for his +sake, even though he had murdered you!" + +"I would!" she answered, and her eyes shone like stars as she spoke. +"The world is nothing to me; love was everything!" + +"That is your way of argument," said Cyrillon. "But it is not God's +way!" + +She was silent, but her looks questioned him. + +"Genius like yours," he went on, "is not given to you for yourself +alone. You cannot tamper with it, or play with it, for the sake of +securing a little more temporal happiness or peace for yourself. Genius +is a crown of thorns,--not a wreath of flowers to be worn at a feast of +pleasure! You wished your life to be one of love,--God has chosen to +make it one of suffering. You say the world is nothing to you,--then my +dear friend, God insists that it shall be something to you! Have you +the right--I ask you, have you the right to turn away from all your +fellow mortals and say--'No--because I have been disappointed in my +hope and my love, then I will have nothing to do with life--I will turn +away from all who need my help--I will throw back the gifts of God with +scorn to the Giver, and do nothing simply because I have lost what I +myself specially valued!'" + +Her eyes fell beneath his straight clear regard, and she moved +restlessly. + +"Ah you do not know--you do not understand!" she said. "I am not +thinking of myself--indeed I am not! But I feel as if my work--my +picture--had killed Florian! I hate myself!--I hate everything I have +ever done, or could ever possibly do. I see him night and day in those +horrible flames!--Oh God! those cruel flames!--he seems to reproach +me,--even to curse me for his death!" + +She shuddered and turned her face away. Cyrillon ventured to take her +hand. + +"That is not like you, dear friend!" he said, his rich voice trembling +with the pity he felt for her. "That is not like your brave spirit! You +look only at one aspect of grief--you see the darkness of the cloud, +but not its brighter side. If I were to say that he whom you loved so +greatly has perhaps been taken to save him from even a worse fate, you +would be angry with me. You loved him--yes; and whatever he did or +attempted to do, even to your injury, you would have loved him still +had he lived! That is the angel half of woman's nature. You would have +given him your fame had he asked you for it,--you would have pardoned +him a thousand times over had he sought your pardon,--you would have +worked for him like a slave and been content to die with your genius +unrecognized if that would have pleased him. Yes I know! But God saw +your heart--and his--and with God alone rests the balance of justice. +You must not set yourself in opposition to the law; you,--such a +harmonious note in work and life,--must not become a discord!" + +She did not speak. Her hand lay passively in his, and he went on. + +"Death is not the end of life. It is only the beginning of a new school +of experience. Your very grief,--your present inaction, may for all we +know, be injuring the soul of the man whose loss you mourn!" + +She sighed. + +"Do you think that possible--?" + +"I do think it very possible," he answered. "Natural sorrow is not +forbidden to us,--but a persistent dwelling on cureless grief is a +trespass against the law. Moreover you have been endowed with a great +talent,--it is not your own--it is lent to you to use for others, and +you have no right to waste it. The world has taken your work with joy, +with gratitude, with thanksgiving; will you say that you do not care +for the world?--that you will do nothing more for it?--Because one +love--one life, has been taken from you, will you discard all love, all +life? Dear friend, that will not be reasonable,--not right, nor just, +nor brave!" + +A wistful longing filled her eyes. + +"I wish Manuel were here!" she said plaintively. "He would understand!" + +"Manuel is with Cardinal Bonpre in London," replied Cyrillon. "I heard +from Aubrey yesterday that they are going about together among the +poor, doing good everywhere. Would you like to join them? Your friend +Sylvie would be glad to have you stay with her, I am sure." + +She gave a hopeless gesture. + +"I am not strong enough to go--" she began. + +"You will be strong enough when you determine to be," said Cyrillon. +"Your frightened soul is making a coward of your body!" + +She started and drew her hand away from his gentle clasp. + +"You are harsh!" she said, looking at him straightly. "I am not +frightened--I never was a coward!" + +Something of the old steady light came back to her eyes, and Cyrillon +inwardly rejoiced to see it. + +"My words seem rough," he said, "but truly they are not so. I repeat, +your soul is frightened--yes! frightened at the close approach of God! +God is never so near to us as in a great sorrow; and when we feel His +presence almost within sight and touch, we are afraid. But we must not +give way to fear; we must not grovel in the dust and hide ourselves as +if we were ashamed! We must rise up and grow accustomed to His glory, +and let Him lead us where He will!" + +He paused, for Angela was weeping. The sound of her low sobbing smote +him to the heart. + +"Angela--Angela!" he whispered, more to himself than to her. "Have I +hurt you so much?" + +"Yes, yes!" she murmured between her tears. "You have hurt me!--but you +are right--you are quite right! I am +selfish--weak--cowardly--ungrateful too;--but forgive me,--have +patience with me!--I will try--I will try to bear it all more +bravely--I will indeed!" + +He rose from her side and paced the room, not trusting himself to +speak. She looked at him anxiously and endeavoured to control her sobs. + +"You are angry?" + +"Angry!" He came back, and lifting her suddenly, but gently like a +little child, he placed her in an easy sitting position, leaning cosily +among her pillows. "Come!" he said smiling, as the colour flushed her +cheeks at the swiftness of his action--"Let the Princesse D'Agramont +see that I am something of a doctor! You will grow weaker and weaker +lying down all day--I want to make you strong again! Will you help me?" + +He looked into her eyes, and her own fell before his earnest, reverent, +but undisguisedly tender glance. + +"I will try to do what you wish," she said. "If I fail you must forgive +me--but I will honestly try!" + +"If you try, you will succeed"--said Cyrillon, and bending down, he +kissed the trembling little hands--"Ah! forgive me! If you knew how +dear your life is--to--to many, you would not waste it in weeping for +what cannot be remedied by all your tears! I will not say one word +against the man you loved--for YOU do not say it, and you are the most +injured;--he is dead--let him rest;--but life claims you,--claims me +for the moment;--our fellow-men and women claim our attention, our +work, our doing for the best and greatest while we can,--our duty is to +them,--not to ourselves! Will you for your father's sake--for the +world's sake--if I dared say, for MY sake!--will you throw off this +torpor of sorrow? Only you can do it,--only you yourself can command +the forces of your own soul! Be Angela once more!--the guiding angel of +more lives than you know of!--" + +His voice sank to a pleading whisper. + +"I will try!" she answered in a low voice--"I promise!--" + +And when the Princess D'Agramont entered she was surprised and +overjoyed to find her patient sitting up on her couch for the first +time in many days, talking quietly with the Perseus she had sent to +rescue the poor Andromeda from the jaws of a brooding Melancholia which +might have ended in madness or death. With her presence the +conversation took a lighter tone--and by-and-by Angela found herself +listening with some interest to the reading of her father's last letter +addressed to her kind hostess. + +"Angela's picture is gone out of Rome"--he wrote--"It was removed from +the studio in the sight of an enormous crowd which had assembled to +witness its departure. The Voce Della Verita has described it as a +direct inspiration of the devil, and suggests the burning-down of the +studio in which it was painted, as a means of purifying the Sovrani +Palace from the taint of sulphur and brimstone. La Croix demands the +excommunication of the artist, which by the way is very likely to +happen. The Osservatore Romano wishes that the ship specially chartered +to take it to America, may sink with all on board. All of which kind +and charitable wishes on the part of the Vatican press have so +augmented the fame of 'The Coming of Christ' that the picture could +hardly be got through the crush of people craning their necks to get a +glimpse of it. It is now en route via Bordeaux for London, where it is +to be exhibited for six weeks. As soon as I have finished +superintending the putting by of a few home treasures here, I shall +join you in Paris, when I hope to find my dear girl nearly restored to +her usual self. It will please her to know that her friend the charming +Sylvie is well and very happy. She was married for the second time +before a Registrar in London, and is now, as she proudly writes, 'well +and truly' Mrs. Aubrey Leigh, having entirely dropped her title in +favour of her husband's plainer, but to her more valuable designation. +Of course spiteful people will say she ceased to be Countess +Hermenstein in order not to be recognized too soon as the 'renegade +from the Roman Church,' but that sort of thing is to be expected. +Society never gives you credit for honest motives, but only for +dishonest ones. We who know Sylvie, also know what her love for her +husband is, and that it is love alone which inspires all her actions in +regard to him. Her chief anxiety at present seems to be about Angela's +health, and she tells me she telegraphs to you every day for news--" + +--"Is that true?" asked Angela, interrupting the reading of her +father's letter. "Does Sylvie in all her new happiness, actually think +of me so much and so often?" + +"Indeed she does!" replied the Princess D'Agramont. "Chere enfant, you +must not look at all the world through the cloud of one sorrow! We all +love you!--we are all anxious to see you quite yourself again!" + +Angela's eyes filled with tears as they rested on her friend's kindly +face, a face usually so brilliant in its animated expression, but now +saddened and worn by constant watching and fatigue. + +"You are far too good to me," she said in a low voice--"And I am most +unworthy of all your attention." + +Loyse D'Agramont paid no heed to this remark, but resumed reading the +Prince Sovrani's epistle-- + +"Let me see! . . . Sylvie--yes--here it is--'She telegraphs to you +every day for news, which is apparently the only extravagance she is +guilty of just now. She and her husband have taken rooms in some very +poor neighbourhood of London, and are beginning work in real earnest. +Our good Felix and his cherished foundling have been with them into +many wretched homes, cheering the broken-hearted, comforting the sick, +and assuring all those who doubt it that there is a God in spite of +priest-craft,--and I have received an English paper which announces +that Mr. Aubrey Leigh will give one of his famous "Addresses to the +People" on the last day of the year. I should like to hear him, though +my very slight knowledge of English would be rather against me in the +comprehension of what he might say. For all other news you must wait +till we meet. Expect me in Paris in a few days, and ask my Angela to +rouse herself sufficiently to give her old father a smile of welcome. +My compliments to "Gys Grandit," and to you the assurance of my devoted +homage. Pietro Sovrani.'" + +The Princesse folded up the letter and looked wistfully at Angela. + +"You will give him the smile of welcome he asks for, will you not, +little one?" she asked. "You are all he has in the world, remember!" + +"I do remember," murmured Angela. "I know!" + +"Aubrey and his wife are 'beginning work in real earnest'!" said +Cyrillon. "And how much their work will mean to the world! More than +the world can at present imagine or estimate! It seems to be a settled +thing that the value of great work shall never be recognised during the +worker's lifetime, but only afterwards--when he or she who was so +noble, so self-sacrificing, or so farseeing, shall have passed beyond +the reach of envy, scorn and contumely, into other regions of existence +and development. The finest deeds are done without acknowledgment or +reward, and when the hero or heroine has gone beyond recall, the whole +world stands lamenting its blindness for not having known or loved them +better. Donna Sovrani"--and his voice softened--"will also soon begin +again to work, like Aubrey and Sylvie, 'in real earnest.' Will she not?" + +Angela raised her eyes, full of sadness, yet also full of light. + +"Yes," she said. "I will! I will work my grief into a glory if I can! +And the loss of world's love shall teach me to love God more!" + +Loyse D'Agramont embraced her. + +"That is my Angela!" she said. "That is what I wanted you to feel--to +know--for I too have suffered!" + +"I know you have--and I should have remembered it!" said Angela, +penitently. "But--I have been frozen with grief--paralysed in brain and +heart, and I have forgotten so many things!" She trembled and closed +her eyes for a moment,--then went on--"Give me a little time--a few +more days!--and I will prove that I am not ungrateful for your love--" +She hesitated, and then turning, gave her hand to Cyrillon,--"or for +your friendship." + +He bent over the little hand and kissed it reverently, and soon +afterwards took his leave, more light of heart, and more hopeful in +spirit, than he had been for many days. He felt he could now go on with +his work, part of which was the task of distributing the money his +father had left him, among the poor of Paris. He considered that to +leave money to the poor after death is not half such a Christian act as +to give it while alive. Distributors, secretaries, lawyers, and +red-tapeism come in with the disposal of wealth after we are gone;--but +to give it to those in need with our own hands--to part with it freely +and to deny ourselves something in order to give it,--that is doing +what Christ asked us to do. And whether we are blessed or cursed by +those whom we seek to benefit, none can take away from us the sweet +sense of peace and comfort which is ours to enjoy, when we know that we +have in some small measure tried to serve our Divine Master, for the +"full measure" of content, "pressed down and running over" which He has +promised to those who "freely give," has never yet been known to fail. + +And Cyrillon Vergniaud was given this happiness of the highest, purest +kind, as with the aid of the wondering and reluctant Monsieur Andre +Petitot, he gave poor families comfort for life, and rescued the sick +and the sorrowful,--and all he reserved to himself from his father's +large fortune was half a million francs. For he learned that most of +the money he inherited had come to the late Abbe through large bequests +left to him by those who had believed in him as a righteous priest of +spotless reputation, and Cyrillon's conscience would not allow him to +take advantage of money thus obtained, as he sternly told himself, "on +false pretences." + +"My father would not have wished me to keep it after his public +confession," he said. "And I will not possess more than should have +been spared in common justice to aid my mother's life and mine. The +rest shall be used for the relief of those in need. And I know,--if I +told Angela--she would not wish it otherwise!" + +So he had his way. And while his prompt help and personal supervision +of the distribution of his wealth brought happiness to hundreds of +homes, he was rewarded by seeing Angela grow stronger every day. The +hue of health came gradually back to her fair cheeks,--her eyes once +more recovered their steadfast brightness and beauty, and as from time +to time he visited her and watched her with all the secret passion and +tenderness he felt, his heart grew strong within him. + +"She will love me one day if I try to deserve her love," he thought. +"She will love me as she has never loved yet! No woman can understand +the true worth of love, unless her lover loves her more than himself! +This is a joy my Angela has not yet been given,--it will be for me to +give it to her!" + + + + +XXXVIII. + +With the entry of Angela's great picture "The Coming of Christ" into +London, where it became at once the centre of admiration, contention +and general discussion, one of the most singular "religious" marriage +ceremonies ever known, took place in a dreary out-lying district of the +metropolis, where none but the poorest of the poor dwell, working from +dawn till night for the merest pittance which scarcely pays them for +food and lodging. It was one of Aubrey Leigh's "centres," and to serve +his needs for a church he had purchased a large wooden structure +previously used for the storing of damaged mechanical appliances, such +as worn-out locomotives, old railway carriages, and every kind of +lumber that could possibly accumulate anywhere in a dock or an engine +yard. The building held from three to four thousand people closely +packed, and when Leigh had secured it for his own, he was as jubilant +over his possession as if the whole continent of Europe had subscribed +to build him a cathedral. He had the roof mended and made rainproof, +and the ground planked over to make a decent flooring,--then he had it +painted inside a dark oak colour, and furnished it with rows of +benches. At the upper end a raised platform was erected, and in the +centre of that platform stood a simple Cross of roughly carved dark +wood, some twelve or fifteen feet in height. There was no other +adornment in the building,--the walls remained bare, the floor +unmatted, the seats uncushioned. No subscriptions were asked for its +maintenance; no collection plate was ever sent around, yet here, +whenever Leigh announced a coming "Address," so vast a crowd assembled +that it was impossible to find room for all who sought admittance. And +here, on one cold frosty Sunday morning, with the sun shining brightly +through the little panes of common glass which had been inserted to +serve as windows, he walked through a densely packed and expectant +throng of poor, ill-clad, work-worn, yet evidently earnest and reverent +men and women, leading his fair wife Sylvie, clad in bridal white, by +the hand, up to the platform, and there stood facing the crowd. He was +followed by Cardinal Bonpre and--Manuel. The Cardinal wore no outward +sign of his ecclesiastical dignity,--he was simply attired in an +ordinary priest's surtout, and his tall dignified figure, his fine +thoughtful face and his reverend age, won for him silent looks of +admiration and respect from many who knew nothing of him or of the +Church to which he belonged, but simply looked upon him as a friend of +their idolized teacher, Aubrey Leigh. Manuel passed through the crowd +almost unnoticed, and it was only when he stood near the Cross, looking +down upon the upturned thousands of faces, that a few remarked his +presence. The people had assembled in full force on this occasion, an +invitation having gone forth in Leigh's name asking them "to be +witnesses of his marriage," and the excitement was intense, as Sylvie, +veiled as a bride, obeyed the gentle signal of her husband, and took +her seat on the platform by the side of the Cardinal on the left hand +of the great Cross, against which Manuel leaned lightly like a child +who is not conscious of observation, but who simply takes the position +which seems to him most natural. And when the subdued murmuring of the +crowd had died into comparative silence, Aubrey, advancing a little to +the front of the Cross, spoke in clear ringing tones, which carried +music to the ears and conviction to the heart. + +"My friends! I have asked you all here in your thousands, to witness +the most sacred act of my human life--my marriage! By the law of this +realm,--by the law of America, the country of my birth,--that marriage +is already completed and justified,--but no 'religious' ceremony has +yet been performed between myself and her whom I am proud and grateful +to call wife. To my mind however, a 'religious' ceremony is necessary, +and I have chosen to hold it here,--with you who have listened to me in +this place many and many a time,--with you as witnesses to the oath of +fidelity and love I am about to take in the presence of God! There is +no clergyman present--no one to my knowledge of any Church denomination +except a Cardinal of the Church of Rome who is my guest and friend, but +who takes no part in the proceedings. The Cross alone stands before you +as the symbol of the Christian faith,--and what I swear by that symbol +means for me a vow that shall not be broken either in this world, or in +the world to come! I need scarcely tell you that this is not the usual +meaning of marriage in our England of to-day. There is much blasphemy +in the world, but one of the greatest blasphemies of the age is the +degradation of the sacrament of matrimony,--the bland tolerance with +which an ordained priest of Christ presumes to invoke the blessing of +God upon a marriage between persons whom he knows are utterly unsuited +to each other in every way, who are not drawn together by love, but +only by worldly considerations of position and fortune. I have seen +these marriages consummated. I have seen the horrible and often tragic +results of such unholy union. I have known of cases where a man, +recognized as a social blackguard of the worst type, whose ways of life +are too odious to be named, has been accepted as a fitting mate for a +young innocent girl just out of school, because he is a Lord or a Duke +or an Earl. Anything for money! Anything for the right to stand up and +crow over your neighbours! When an inexperienced girl or woman is +united for life to a loathsome blackguard, an open sensualist, a +creature far lower than the beasts, yet possessed of millions, she is +'congratulated' as being specially to be envied, when as a matter of +strict honesty, it would be better if she were in her grave. The +prayers and invocations pronounced at such marriages are not +'religious,'--they are mere profanity! The priest who says 'Those whom +God hath joined together let no man put asunder,' over such immoral +wedlock, is guilty of a worse sacrilege than if he trampled on the +bread and wine of Christ's Communion! For marriage was not intended to +be a mere union of bodies,--but a union of souls. It is the most sacred +bond of humanity. From the love which has created that bond, is born +new life,--life which shall be good or evil according to the spirit in +which husband and wife are wedded. 'The sins of the fathers shall be +visited on the children,'--and the first and greatest sin is bodily +union without soul-love. It is merely a form of animal desire,--and +from desire alone no good or lofty thing can spring. We are not made to +be 'as the beasts that perish'--though materialists and sensualists +delight in asserting such to be our destiny, in order to have ground +whereon to practise their own vices. This planet, the earth, is set +under our dominion; the beasts are ours to control,--they do not +control us. Our position therefore is one of supremacy. Let us not +voluntarily fall from that position to one even lower than the level of +beasts! The bull, the goat, the pig, are moved by animal desire alone +to perpetuate their kind--but we,--we have a grander mission to +accomplish than theirs--we in our union are not only responsible for +the Body of the next generation to come, but for the brain, the heart, +the mind, and above all the Soul! If we wed in sin, our children must +be born in sin. If we make our marriages for worldly advantage, vanity, +blind desire, or personal convenience, our children will be moulded on +those passions, and grow up to be curses to the world they live in. +Love, and love only of the purest, truest, and highest kind, must be +the foundation of the marriage Sacrament,--love that is prepared to +endure all the changes of fate and fortune--love that is happy in +working and suffering for the thing beloved--love that counts nothing a +hardship,--neither sickness, nor sorrow, nor poverty, provided it can +keep its faith unbroken!" + +He paused--there was a slight stir among the audience, but otherwise +not a sound. Sylvie sat quiet, a graceful, nymph-like figure, veiled in +her cloudy white--Cardinal Bonpre's mild blue eyes raised to the +speaker's face, were full of rapt attention--and Manuel still leaning +against the great Cross seemed absorbed in dreamy and beautiful +thoughts of his own. + +"I should like," went on Aubrey with increasing warmth and passion, "to +tell you what I mean by 'faith unbroken.' It is the highest form of +love,--the only firm rock of friendship. It leaves no room for +suspicion,--no place for argument--no cause for contradiction. It is +the true meaning of the wedding-ring. Apart from marriage altogether, +it is the only principle that can finally civilize and elevate man. So +long as we doubt God and mistrust our fellows, so long must corruption +sway business, and wars move nations. The man who gives us cause to +suspect his honesty,--the man who forces us to realize the existence of +treachery, is a worse murderer than he who stabs us bodily to death; +for he has tainted our soul; he has pushed us back many steps on our +journey Godward, and has made us wonder and question whether in truth a +God can exist who tolerates in His universe such a living lie! It is +only when we have to contemplate a broken faith that we doubt God! For +a broken faith is an abnormal prodigy in the natural scheme of the +universe--a discord in the eternal music of the stars! There are no +treacheries, no falsifying of accounts, in the Divine order of the Law. +The sun does not fail to rise each morning, whether clouds obscure the +sky or not,--the moon appears at her stated seasons and performs her +silver-footed pilgrimage faithfully to time--the stars move with +precision in their courses,--and so true are they to their ordainment, +that we are able to predict the manner in which they will group +themselves and shine, years after we have passed away. In the world of +Nature the leaves bud, and the birds nest at the coming of Spring; the +roses bloom in Summer--the harvest is gathered in Autumn,--the whole +marvellous system moves like a grand timepiece whose hands are never +awry, whose chimes never fail to ring the exact hour,--and in all the +splendour of God's gifts to us there is no such thing as a broken +faith! Only we,--we, the creatures He has endowed with 'His own +image,'--Free-will,--break our faith with Him and with each other. And +so we come to mischief, inasmuch as broken faith is no part of God's +Intention. And when two persons, man and woman, swear to be true to +each other before God, so long as life shall last, and afterwards break +that vow, confusion and chaos result from their perjury, and all the +pestilential furies attending on a wrong deed whip them to their +graves! In these times of ours, when wars and rumours of wars shake the +lethargic souls of too-exultant politicians and statesmen with anxiety +for themselves if not for their country, we hear every day of men and +women breaking their marriage vows as lightly as though God were not +existent,--we read of princes whose low amours are a disgrace to the +world--of dukes and earls who tolerate the unchastity of their wives in +order that they themselves may have the more freedom,--of men of title +and position who even sell their wives to their friends in order to +secure some much-needed cash or social advantage,--and while our law is +busy night and day covering up 'aristocratic' crimes from publicity, +and showing forth the far smaller sins of hard-working poverty, God's +law is at work in a totally different way. The human judge may excuse a +king's vices,--but before God there are neither kings nor commoners, +and punishment falls where it is due! Christ taught us that the +greatest crime is treachery, for of Judas He said 'it were better for +that man that he had never been born,' and for the traitor and perjurer +death is not the end, but the beginning, of evils. Against the man who +accepts the life of a woman given to him in trust and love, and then +betrays that life to misery, all Nature arrays itself in opposition and +disaster. We, as observers of the great Play of human existence, may +not at once see, among the numerous shifting scenes, where the +evil-doer is punished, or the good man rewarded,--but wait till the +end!--till the drop-curtain falls--and we shall see that there is no +mistake in God's plan--no loophole left for breaking faith even with a +child,--no 'permit' existing anywhere to destroy the life of the soul +by so much as one false or cruel word! It is with a deep sense of the +exact balance of God's justice, that I stand before you to-day, my +friends, and ask you without any accepted ritual or ceremonial to hear +my vows of marriage. She to whom I pledge my word and life, is one who +in the world's eyes is accounted great, because rich in this world's +goods,--but her wealth has no attraction for me, and for my own self I +would rather she had been poor. Nevertheless, were she even greater +than she is,--a crowned queen with many kingdoms under her control, and +I but the poorest of her servants, nothing could undo the love we have +for each other,--nothing could keep our lives asunder! Love and love +only is our bond of union--sympathy of mind and heart and spirit; +wealth and rank would have been but causes of division between us if +love had not been greater. The world will tell you differently--the +world will say that I have married for money--but you who know me +better than the world, will feel by my very words addressed to you +to-day that my marriage is a true marriage, in which no grosser element +than love can enter. My wife's wealth remains her own--settled upon her +absolutely and always, and I am personally as poor as when I first came +among you and proved to you that hard work was a familiar friend. But I +am rich in the possession of the helpmate God has given me, and with +the utmost gratitude and humility I ask you to bear witness to the fact +that this day before you and in the presence of the symbol of the +Christian faith, I take my oath to be true to her and only her while +life shall last!" + +Here going to where Sylvie stood, he took her by the hand, and led her +to the front of the platform. Then he turned again to his eager and +expectant audience. + +"In your presence, my friends, and in the presence of God and before +the Cross, I take Sylvie Hermenstein to be my wedded wife! I swear to +devote myself to her, body and soul,--to cherish her first and last of +all human creatures,--to be true to her in thought, word and deed,--to +care for her in sickness as in health, in age as in youth,--to honour +her as my chiefest good,--and to die faithful to her in this +world,--hoping by the mercy of God to complete a more perfect union +with her in the world to come! In the name of Christ, Amen!" + +And then Sylvie threw back her veil and turned her enchanting face upon +the crowd,--a face fairer than ever, irradiated by the love and truth +of her soul,--and the people gazed and wondered, and wondering held +their breath as her clear accents rang through the silence. + +"In your presence, and in the presence of God and before the Cross, I +take Aubrey Leigh to be my wedded husband! I swear to devote myself to +him body and soul, to cherish him first and last of all human +creatures,--to be true to him in thought, word and deed,--to care for +him in sickness as in health, in age as in youth,--to honour him as my +chiefest good,--and to die faithful to him in this world,--praying God +in His mercy to complete a more perfect union with him in the world to +come. In the name of Christ, Amen!" + +Then Aubrey, taking his wife's hand, placed for the first time on her +finger the golden wedding-ring. + +"In the presence of you all, before God, I place this ring upon my +wife's hand as a symbol of unbreaking faith and loyalty! I pledge my +life to hers; and promise to defend her from all evil, to shelter her, +to work for her, and to guard her with such tenderness as shall not +fail! I swear my faith; and may God forsake me if I break my vow!" + +And Sylvie without hesitation, responded in her sweet clear voice. + +"In the presence of you all, before God, I take this ring and wear it +as a symbol of my husband's trust in me, and a token of his love! I +pledge my life to his; and promise to uphold the honour of his +name,--to obey him in every just and rightful wish,--to defend his +actions,--to guard his home in peace and good report,--and to surround +him with such tenderness as shall not fail! I swear my faith; and may +God forsake me if I break my vow!" + +There followed a deep and almost breathless silence. Then Aubrey spoke +once more, standing before the throng with Sylvie by his side and her +hand clasped in his. + +"I thank you all, my friends! Strange and unlike all marriage +ceremonies as ours is to-day, I feel that it is a sacred and a binding +one! Your thousands of eyes and ears have heard and seen us swear our +marriage vows--your thousands of hearts and minds have understood the +spirit in which we accept this solemn sacrament! I will ask you before +we go, to kneel down with us and repeat 'The Prayer of Heart-searching' +which I have said with you so often, and to then quietly disperse." + +In one moment the vast crowd was kneeling, and Cardinal Bonpre's aged +eyes filled with tears of emotion as he saw all these human beings, +moved by one great wave of sympathy, prostrate themselves before the +simple Cross where the wedded lovers knelt also, and where Manuel alone +stood, like one who is too sure of God to need the help of prayer. + +And Aubrey, thrilled to the heart by the consciousness that all the +members of that huge congregation were with him in his ideal dream of +Christian Union, offered up this supplication-- + +"All-powerful God! Most loving and beneficent Creator of the Universe! +We Thy creatures, who partake with Thee the endowment of immortality, +now beseech Thee to look upon us here, kneeling in adoration before +Thee! Search our hearts and souls with the light of Thy revealing Holy +Spirit, and see if in any of us there is concealed an unworthy thought, +or doubt, or distrust, or scorn of Thy unfailing goodness! We ask Thee +to discover our sins and imperfections to ourselves, and so instruct us +as to what is displeasing to Thee, that we may remedy these wilful +blots upon Thy fair intention. Give us the force and fervour, the +wisdom and truth, to find and follow the way Thou wouldst have us +go,--and if our strength should fail, constrain us, oh God, to come to +Thee, whether we learn by sorrow or joy, by punishment or +pity;--constrain us, so that we may find Thee, whatever else we lose! +Let the great searchlight of Thy truth be turned upon the secret +motives of our hearts and minds, and if there be one of us in whom such +motives be found false, impure, cruel or cowardly, then let Thy just +wrath fall upon the misguided creature of Thy love, and teach him or +her, obedience and repentance! We pray that Thou wilt punish us, oh +God, when we have sinned, that we may know wherein we have offended our +dear Father;--and equally, when we have sought to serve Thee +faithfully, may we receive Thy blessing! Make us one with Thee in Thy +perfect plan of good; teach us how to work Thy will in the fulfilment +of peace and joy; make our lives of use to this world, and our deaths +gain to the next, and let the glory of Thy love encompass us, guide us, +and defend us now and forever, through Christ our Lord, Amen." + +After he had ceased, there was a deep silence for many minutes, then +all the people as if moved by one impulse, rose from their knees, and +standing, sang the following stanzas, which Aubrey had taught them when +he first began to preach among them his ideals of love and labour. + + If thou'rt a Christian in deed and thought, + Loving thy neighbour as Jesus taught,-- + Living all days in the sight of Heaven, + And not ONE only out of seven,-- + Sharing thy wealth with the suffering poor, + Helping all sorrow that Hope can cure,-- + Making religion a truth in the heart, + And not a cloak to be worn in the mart, + Or in high cathedrals and chapels and fanes, + Where priests are traders and count the gains,-- + All God's angels will say, "Well done!" + Whenever thy mortal race is run. + White and forgiven, + Thou'lt enter heaven, + And pass, unchallenged, the Golden Gate, + Where welcoming spirits watch and wait + To hail thy coming with sweet accord + To the Holy City of God the Lord! + + + If Peace is thy prompter, and Love is thy guide, + And white-robed Charity walks by thy side,-- + If thou tellest the truth without oath to bind, + Doing thy duty to all mankind,-- + Raising the lowly, cheering the sad, + Finding some goodness e'en in the bad, + And owning with sadness if badness there be, + There might have been badness in thine and in thee, + If Conscience the warder that keeps thee whole + Had uttered no voice to thy slumbering soul,-- + All God's angels will say, "Well done!" + Whenever thy mortal race is run. + White and forgiven, + Thou'lt enter heaven, + And pass, unchallenged, the Golden Gate, + Where welcoming spirits watch and wait + To hail thy coming with sweet accord + To the Holy City of God the Lord! + + If thou art humble, and wilt not scorn. + However wretched, a brother forlorn,-- + If thy purse is open to misery's call, + And the God thou lovest is God of all, + Whatever their colour, clime or creed, + Blood of thy blood, in their sorest need,-- + If every cause that is good and true, + And needs assistance to dare and do, + Thou helpest on through good and ill, + With trust in Heaven, and God's good will,-- + All God's angels will say, "Well done!" + Whenever thy mortal race is run. + White and forgiven, Thou'lt enter heaven, + And pass, unchallenged, the Golden Gate, + Where welcoming spirits watch and wait + To hail thy coming with sweet accord + To the Holy City of God the Lord! + +[Footnote: By the late Charles Mackay, LL.D., F.S.A.] + +The effect of the last eight-line chorus sung by thousands of voices, +was marvellous. Such a spirit of exaltation pervaded the music that the +common wooden shed-like building in which these followers of one +earnest man asserted their faith in God rather than in a Church, seemed +to take upon itself all the architectural beauty of a temple costing +millions of money. When the singing ceased, Aubrey raised his hand, and +while his audience yet remained standing, pronounced the blessing. + +"God be with you all, my friends!--in your hearts and lives and daily +conduct! May none of you here present shadow His brightness by one dark +deed or thought of evil! I will ask you to pray that God may be with me +too, and with my beloved wife, the future partner of all my work, my +joys and sorrows, that we may in our union make our lives useful to you +and to all others who seek our help or care. God's blessing be upon us +all in the name of Christ our Saviour!" + +And with one accord the people answered "Amen!" + +Then this brief service over, they began to disperse. Without any +scramble or rush, but in perfect order and with quiet and reverent +demeanour, they left their seats and began to make their way out. None +of them were seen gossiping together, or smiling or nodding over each +other's shoulders as is very often the case when a congregation +disperses from a fashionable church. For these people in their worship +of the Creator, found something reverent, something earnest, something +true, valuable and necessary to daily living,--and though there were +two peaceful-looking constables stationed at the door of egress, their +services were not required to either keep order or compel any of those +thousands of poor to "move on." They kept order for themselves, and +were too busy with practical life and thought, to hang about or gossip +on the way to their various homes. Several members of the congregation +on hearing that their friend Leigh was going to take his marriage vows +before them all, had provided themselves with flowers, and these +managed to pass in front of the platform where, simply and without +ostentation, they handed up their little bouquets and clusters of such +blossoms as they had been able to obtain and afford in winter,--violets +especially, and white chrysanthemums, and one or two rare roses. These +floral offerings meant much sacrifice on the part of those who gave +them,--and the tears filled Sylvie's eyes as she noted the eagerness +with which poor women with worn sad faces, and hands wrinkled and brown +with toil, handed up their little posies for her to take from them, or +laid them with a touching humility at her feet. What a wonderful +wedding hers was, she thought!--far removed from all the world of +fashion, without any of the hypocritical congratulations of "society" +friends,--without the sickening, foolish waste, expense and +artificiality, which nowadays makes a marriage a mere millinery parade. +She had spoken her vows before thousands whom her husband had helped +and rescued from heathenism and misery, and all their good wishes and +prayers for her happiness were wedding gifts such as no money could +purchase. With a heart full of emotion and gratitude she watched the +crowd break up and disappear, till when the last few were passing out +of the building, she said to her husband-- + +"Let us leave the flowers they have given me here, Aubrey,--here, just +at the foot of the Cross where you have so often spoken to them. I +shall feel they will bring me a blessing!" + +"It shall be as you wish, sweetheart!" he answered tenderly,--"and I +must thank you for having entered so readily into the spirit of this +strange marriage before my poor friends, Sylvie,--for it must have +seemed very strange to you!--and yet believe me,--no more binding one +was ever consummated!" He took her hand and kissed it,--then turned to +Cardinal Bonpre, who had risen and was gazing round the bare common +building with dreamy eyes of wistful wonderment. + +"I thank you too, my dear friend! You have learned something of my work +since we came to London, and I think you understand thoroughly the true +sanctity and force of my marriage?" + +"I--do!--I do understand it!" said the Cardinal slowly. "And I wish +with all my heart that all marriage vows could be so solemnly and truly +taken! But my heart aches--my heart aches for the world! These +thousands you have helped and taught are but a few,--and they were as +you have told me, little better than heathen when you came amongst them +to tell them the true meaning of Christ's message--what of the millions +more waiting to know what the Church is failing to teach? What have the +priests of the Lord been doing for nearly two thousand years, that +there should still be doubters of God!" + +Over his face swept a shadow of deep pain, and at that moment Manuel +left the Cross where he had been leaning and came up and stood beside +him. The Cardinal looked at his waif wistfully. + +"What did you think of this service, my child?" + +"I thought that the Master of all these His servants could not be very +far away!" answered Manuel softly,--"And that if He came suddenly, He +would find none sleeping!" + +"May it prove so!" said Aubrey fervently. "But we own ourselves to be +unprofitable servants at best,--we can only try to fulfil our Lord's +commands as nearly to the letter as possible,--and we often fail;--but +we do honestly make the effort. Shall we go now, my lord Cardinal? You +look fatigued." + +Bonpre sighed heavily. "My spirit is broken, my son!" he answered. "I +dare not think of what will happen--what is beginning to happen for the +Christian world! I shall not live to see it; but I have sinned, in +passing my days in too much peace. Dwelling for many years away in my +far-off diocese, I have forgotten the hurrying rush of life. I should +have been more active long ago,--and I fear I shall have but a poor +account to give of my stewardship when I am called to render it up. +This is what troubles both my heart and my conscience!" + +"Dear friend, you have no cause for trouble!" said Sylvie earnestly. +"Among all the servants of our Master surely you are one of the most +faithful!" + +"One of the most faithful, and therefore considered one of the most +faithless!" said Manuel. "Come, let us go now,--and leave these bridal +flowers where the bride wishes them to be,--at the foot of the Cross, +as a symbol of her husband's service! Let us go,--the Cardinal has need +of rest." + +They returned to their respective homes,--Aubrey and his wife to a +little tenement house they had taken for a few weeks in the district in +order that Sylvie might be able to see and to study for herself the sad +and bitter lives of those who from birth to death are deprived of all +the natural joys of happy and wholesome existence,--whose children are +born and bred up in crime,--where girls are depraved and ruined before +they are in their teens,--and where nothing of God is ever taught +beyond that He is a Being who punishes the wicked and rewards the +good,--and where in the general apathy of utter wretchedness, people +decide that unless there is something given them in this world to be +good for, they would rather be bad like the rest of the folks they see +about them. The Cardinal and Manuel dwelt in rooms not very far away, +and every day and every hour almost was occupied by them in going among +these poor, helpless, hopeless ones of the world, bringing them comfort +and aid and sympathy. Wherever Manuel went, there brightness followed; +the sick were healed, the starving were fed, the lonely and desolate +were strengthened and encouraged, and the people who knew no more of +the Cardinal than that "he was a priest of some sort or other," began +to watch eagerly for the appearance of the Cardinal's foundling, "the +child that seemed to love them," as they described him,--and to long +for even a passing glimpse of the fair face, the steadfast blue eyes, +the tender smile, of one before whom all rough words were silenced--all +weeping stilled. + +But on this night of all--the night of Sylvie's "religious" marriage, +the Cardinal was stricken by a heavy blow. He had expected some +misfortune, but had not realized that it would be quite so heavy as it +proved. The sum and substance of his trouble was contained in a +"confidential" letter from Monsignor Moretti, and was worded as +follows-- + +"My Lord Cardinal,--It has come to the knowledge of the Holy Father +that you have not only left Rome without signifying the intention of +your departure to the Vatican as custom and courtesy should have +compelled you to do, but that instead of returning to your rightful +diocese, you have travelled to London, and are there engaged in working +with the socialist and heretic Aubrey Leigh, who is spreading +pernicious doctrine among the already distracted and discordant of the +poorer classes. This fact has to be coupled with the grave offence +committed against the Holy Father by the street-foundling to whom you +accord your favour and protection, and whose origin you are unable to +account for; and the two things taken together, constitute a serious +breach of conduct on the part of so eminent a dignitary of the Church +as yourself, and compel the Holy Father most unwillingly and +sorrowfully to enquire whether he is justified in retaining among his +servants of the Holy See one who so openly betrays its counsels and +commands. It is also a matter of the deepest distress to the Holy +Father, that a picture painted by your niece Donna Angela Sovrani and +entitled 'The Coming of Christ,' in which the Church itself is depicted +as under the displeasure of our Lord, should be permitted to +contaminate the minds of the nations by public exhibition. Through the +Vatican press, the supreme Pontiff has placed his ban against this most +infamous picture, and all that the true servants of the Church can do +to check its pernicious influence, will be done. But it cannot be +forgotten that Your Eminence is closely connected with all these +regrettable events, and as we have no actual proof of the authenticity +of the miracle you are alleged to have performed at Rouen, the Holy +Father is reluctantly compelled to leave that open to doubt. The +Archbishop of Rouen very strenuously denies the honesty of the mother +of the child supposed to be healed by you, and states that she has not +attended Mass or availed herself of any of the Sacraments for many +years. We are willing to admit that Your Eminence may personally have +been unsuspectingly made party to a fraud,--but this does not free you +from the other charges, (notably that of exonerating the late Abbe +Vergniaud,) of which you stand arraigned. Remembering, however, the +high repute enjoyed by Your Eminence throughout your career, and taking +into kindly consideration your increasing age and failing health, the +Holy Father commissions me to say that all these grievous backslidings +on your part shall be freely pardoned if you will,--Firstly,--repudiate +all connection with your niece, Angela Sovrani, and hold no further +communication with her or her father Prince Sovrani,--Secondly,--that +you will break off your acquaintance with the socialist Aubrey Leigh +and his companion Sylvie Hermenstein, the renegade from the Church of +her fathers,--and Thirdly,--that you will sever yourself at once and +forever from the boy you have taken under your protection. This last +clause is the most important in the opinion of His Holiness. These +three things being done, you will be permitted to return to your +diocese, and pursue the usual round of your duties there to the end. +Failing to fulfil the Holy Father's commands, the alternative is that +you be deprived of your Cardinal's hat and your diocese together. + +"It is with considerable pain that I undertake the transcribing of the +commands of the Holy Father, and I much desired Monsignor Gherardi to +follow you to London and lay these matters before you privately, with +all the personal kindness which his friendship for you makes possible, +but I regret to say, and you will no doubt regret to learn, that he has +been smitten with dangerous illness and fever, which for the time being +prevents his attention to duty. Trusting to hear from you with all +possible speed that Your Eminence is in readiness to obey the Holy +Father's paternal wish and high command, I am, + +"Your Eminence's obedient servant in Christ, + +"Lorenzo Moretti." + +The Cardinal read this letter through once--twice--then the paper +dropped from his hands. + +"My God, my God! why hast Thou forsaken me!" he murmured. "What have I +done in these few months! What must I do!" + +A light touch on his arm roused him. Manuel confronted him. + +"Why are you sorrowful, dear friend? Have you sad news?" + +"Yes, my child! Sad news indeed! I am commanded by the Pope to give up +all I have in the world! If it were to give to my Master Christ I would +give it gladly,--but to the Church--I cannot!" + +"What does the Pope ask you to resign?" said Manuel. + +"My niece Angela and all her love for me!--my friendship with this +brave man Aubrey Leigh who works among the outcast and the poor,--but +more than all this,--he asks me to give You up--you! My child, I +cannot!" + +He stretched his thin withered hands out to the slight boyish figure in +front of him. + +"I cannot! I am an old man, near--very near--to the grave--and I love +you! I need you!--without you the world is dark! I found you all +alone--I have cared for you and guarded you and served you--I cannot +let you go!" The tears filled his. eyes and rolled down his worn +cheeks. "I cannot lose my last comfort!" he repeated feebly. "I cannot +let You go!" + +Silently the boy gave his hands into the old man's fervent clasp, and +as Bonpre bent his head upon them a sense of peace stole over him,--a +great and solemn calm. Looking up he saw Manuel earnestly regarding him +with eyes full of tenderness and light, and a smile upon his lips. + +"Be of good courage, dear friend!" he said. "The time of trial is hard, +but it will soon be over. You must needs part from Angela!--but +remember she has great work still to do, and she is not left without +love! You must also part from Aubrey and his wife--but they too are +given high tasks to fulfil for God's glory--and,--they have each other! +Yes!--you must part with all these things, dear friend--they are not +yours to retain;--and if you would keep your place in this world you +must part with Me!" + +"Never!" cried Bonpre, moved to sudden passion. "I cannot! To me the +world without you would be empty!" + +As he spoke these words a sudden memory rang in his brain like a chime +from some far-distant tower echoing over a width of barren land. "For +me the world is empty!" had been the words spoken by Manuel when he had +first found him leaning against the locked Cathedral door in Rouen. And +with this memory came another, the vision he had seen of the end of the +world, and the words he had heard spoken by some mysterious voice in +his sleep,--"The light shineth in darkness and the darkness +comprehendeth it not!" And still he looked pleadingly, earnestly, +almost fearingly, into the face of his foundling. + +"We must speak of this again," said Manuel then, gently. "But to-night, +for at least some hours, you must rest! Have patience with your own +thoughts, dear friend! To part with earthly loves is a sorrow that must +always be;--Angela is young and you are old!--she has her task to do, +and yours is nearly finished! You must part with Aubrey Leigh,--you +cannot help him,--his work is planned,--his ways ordained. Thus, you +have no one to command your life save the Church,--and it seems that +you must choose between the Church and me! To keep Me, you must forego +the Church. To keep the Church you must say farewell to Me! But think +no more of it just now--sleep and rest--leave all to God!" + +The Cardinal still looked at him earnestly. + +"You will not leave me? You will not, for a thought of saving me from +my difficulties, go from me? If I sleep I shall find you when I wake?" + +"I will never leave you till you bid me go!" answered Manuel. "And if I +am taken far from hence you shall go with me! Rest, dear friend--rest, +true servant of God! Rest without thought--without care--till I call +you!" + + + + +XXXIX. + +The night darkened steadily down over London,--a chill dreary night of +heavy fog, half-melting into rain. Cardinal Bonpre, though left to +himself, did not rest at once as Manuel had so tenderly bidden him to +do, but moved by an impulse stronger than any worldly discretion or +consideration, sat down and wrote a letter to the Supreme Pontiff,--a +letter every word of which came straight from his honest heart, and +which he addressed to the Head of his Church directly and personally, +without seeking the interposition of Lorenzo Moretti. And thus he +wrote, in obedience to the dictate of his own soul-- + +"Most Holy Father!--I have this day received through Monsignor Moretti +the text of certain commands laid by Your Holiness upon me to fulfil if +I would still serve the Church, as I have in all truth and devotion +served it for so many years. These commands are difficult to realise, +and still more difficult to obey,--I would rather believe that Your +Holiness has issued them in brief anger, than that they are the result +of a reasonable conviction, or condition of your own heart and +intellect. In no way can I admit that my conduct has been of a nature +to give offence to you or to the Holy See, for I have only in all +things sought to obey the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, upon whose +memory our faith is founded. Your Holiness desires me, first, to cease +every communication with the only relatives left to me on earth,--my +brother-in-law Pietro Sovrani and his daughter, the daughter of my dead +sister, my niece Angela. You demand the severance of these bonds of +nature, because my niece has produced a work of art, for which she +alone is responsible. I venture most humbly to submit to Your Holiness +that this can scarcely be called true Christian justice to me,--for, +whereas on the one side I cannot be made answerable for the thoughts or +the work of a separately responsible individual, on the other hand I +should surely not be prohibited from exercising my influence, if +necessary, on the future career of those related to me by blood as well +as endeared to me by duty and affection. My niece has suffered more +cruelly than most women; and it is entirely owing to her refusal to +speak, that the memory of Florian Varillo, her late affianced husband, +is not openly branded as that of a criminal, instead of being as now, +merely under the shadow of suspicion. For we know that he was her +assassin,--all Rome feels the truth,--and yet being dead, his name is +left open to the benefit of a doubt because she who was so nearly slain +by him she loved, forgives and is silent. I submit to Your Holiness +that this forgiveness and silence symbolise true Christianity, on the +part of the poor child who has fallen under your displeasure,--and that +as the Christian Creed goes, your pity and consideration for her should +somewhat soften the ban you have set against her on account of the work +she has given to the world. As a servant of Holy Church I deeply +deplore the subject of that work, while fully admitting its merit as a +great conception of art,--but even on this point I would most humbly +point out to Your Holiness that genius is not always under the control +of its possessor. For being a fire of most searching and persuasive +quality it does so command the soul, and through the soul the brain and +hand, that oftentimes it would appear as if the actual creator of a +great work is the last unit to be considered in the scheme, and that it +has been carried out by some force altogether beyond and above +humanity. Therefore, speaking with all humility and sorrow, it may +chance that Angela Sovrani's picture 'The Coming of Christ' may contain +a required lesson to us of the Church as well as to certain sections of +certain people, and that as all genius comes from God, it would be well +to enquire earnestly whether we do not perhaps in these days need some +hint or warning of the kind to recall us from ways of error, ere we +wander too far. But, having laid this matter straightly before Your +Holiness, I am nevertheless willing to accede to your desire, and see +my young niece and her father no more. For truly there is very little +chance of my so doing, as my age and health will scarcely permit me to +travel far from my diocese again, if indeed I ever return to it. The +same statement will apply with greater force to the friendship I have +lately formed with him whom you call 'heretic,'--Aubrey Leigh. Your +Holiness is mistaken in thinking that I have assisted him in his work +among the poor and desolate of London--though I would it had been +possible for me to do so! For I have seen such misery, such +godlessness, such despair, such self-destruction in this great English +city, the admitted centre of civilization, that I would give my whole +life twice, ay, three times over again to be able to relieve it in ever +so small a degree. The priests of our Church and of all Churches are +here,--they preach, but do very little in the way of practice, and few +like Aubrey Leigh sacrifice their personal entity, their daily life, +their sleep, their very thoughts, to help the suffering of their +fellow-men. Holy Father, the people whom Aubrey Leigh works for, never +believed in a God at all till this man came among them. Yet there are +religious centres here, and teachers--Sunday after Sunday, the message +of the Gospel is pronounced to inattentive ears and callous souls, and +yet all have remained in darkest atheism, in hopeless misery, till +their earnest, patient, sympathising, tender brother, the so-called +'atheist,' came to persuade them out of darkness into light, and made +the burdens of their living lighter to bear. And will you not admit him +as a Christian? Surely he must be; for as our Lord Himself declares, +'Not every man that shall say unto Me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the +kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in +heaven.' And of a certainty, the will of the Father is that the lost +should be found, the perishing saved, the despairing comforted,--and +all these things Aubrey Leigh has done, and is yet doing. But I do not +work with him--I am here to look on--and looking on, to regret my lost +youth! + +"Touching the miracle attributed to me at Rouen, I have gone over this +ground so often with Your Holiness, both by letter and personally while +in Rome, that it seems but foolish to repeat the story of my complete +innocence in the matter. I prayed for the crippled child, and laid my +hands upon him in blessing. From that day I never saw him--never have +seen him again. I can bear no witness to his recovery,--your news came +from persons at Rouen, and not from me. I am as unconscious of having +healed the child as I am innocent of having any part in the +disappearance of the man Claude Cazeau. The whole thing is as complete +a mystery to me as it is to Your Holiness or to any of those who have +heard the story. I fully and freely admit, as I have always fully and +freely admitted, that I condoned and forgave the sin of the Abbe +Vergniaud, and this, not only because the man was dying, but because we +are strictly commanded to forgive those who truly repent. And on this +point, I cannot even to you, Most Holy Father, admit that I have been +wrong. + +"And now coming to the last part of Your Holiness' expressed desire, +wherein you ask me to part from the boy I rescued,--the child Manuel, +who is all alone in the world,--I cannot acknowledge it to be a +Christian act to desert anyone whom we have once befriended. The boy is +young, and far too gentle to fight the world or to meet with such love +and consideration as his youth and simplicity deserve. I will not +disguise, however, from Your Holiness that I have been often much +troubled in mind regarding his companionship with me,--for foolish as +you may judge my words, I feel that there is something in him not +altogether of earth,--that he speaks at times as a wise prophet might +speak,--or as an Angel sent to warn the world of swiftly-coming +disaster! Of the strangely daring spirit in which he addressed himself +to Your Holiness at the Vatican it is not for me to discourse--I cannot +explain it or condone it, for I was overcome with amazement and fear, +and realized the position no more than did Your Holiness at the time, +or than did those of your confidants immediately around us. It was +indeed a matter that went beyond us all. + +"But the chief end of this letter is arrived at--Your Holiness asks me +to part with this boy. With the deepest regret at the rupture you +threaten to cause between myself and Holy Church if I disobey this +command, I must still utterly refuse to do so. So long as the child +looks upon me as a friend, so long will I be one to him. So long as he +will accept the shelter of my roof, so long shall he receive it. I +would rather break with a dozen Churches, a dozen forms of creed, than +be untrue to a child who trusts me! That is my answer to Your Holiness, +and in giving it I add the sincere expression of my sorrow to cause you +displeasure or pain. But I venture to pray you, Holy Father, to pause +and consider deeply before you eject me from the Church for so simple +and plain a matter. Let me as one who is nearing the grave in company +with yourself--as one who with yourself must soon stand on that dark +brink of the Eternal from which we see the Light beyond--let me most +humbly yet most earnestly point out to you the far more serious things +than my offence, which are threatening Rome to-day. The people of all +lands are wandering away from faith, and wars and terrors are +encompassing the land. The lust of gold and pride of life are now the +chief objects of man's existence and desire, and there was hardly ever +a time in history when utter indifference to the laws of God was more +openly exhibited than it is just now. The sin of unbelief and all the +evils attendant on that sin are steadily increasing, and the Church +seems powerless to stop the approaching disaster. Is it, that knowing +herself to be weak, she does not make the attempt to be strong? If this +is so, she must fall, and not all the getting-in of gold will help her! +But you, Holy Father--you might arrest all this trouble if you would! +If you would change the doctrines of Superstition for those of +Science--if you would purify our beautiful creed from pagan observances +and incredible idolatries--if you would raise the Church of Rome like a +pure white Cross above the blackening strife, you might save the +sinking ship of faith even now! So little is needed!--simplicity +instead of ostentation--voluntary poverty instead of countless riches, +spiritual power instead of the perpetual cry for temporal power,--the +doctrine of Christ instead of the doctrine of Church Councils--and the +glad welcoming and incorporation of every true, beautiful, wise and +wonderful discovery of the age into the symbolic teaching of our Creed. +Holy Father, if this is not done, then things old must disappear to +make room for things new,--and a new Church of Christ must rise from +the ashes of Rome! We cannot but call to mind the words of St. John, +'Repent and do the first works, or else I will come quickly and remove +thy candlestick from its place.' 'Do the first works.' Holy Father, +those first works, as exemplified in Christ Himself, were love, +charity, pity and pardon for all men! With all my heart I beseech Your +Holiness to let these virtues simplify and sustain our Church,--and so +raise it a burning and shining light of loving-kindness and universal +tolerance,--so shall it be the true city set on a hill which shall draw +all men to its shelter! But if unjust judgment, intolerance, cruelty +and fanaticism, should again be allowed, as once before in history, to +blot its fairness and blight its reputation, then there is not much +time left to it,--inasmuch as there is a force in the world to-day +likely to prove too strong for many of us,--a mighty combat for Truth, +in which conflicting creeds will fight their questions out together +with terrible passion and insistence, bringing many souls to grief and +pitiful disaster. You, Holy Father, can arrest all this by making the +Church of Rome, Christian rather than Pagan--by removing every touch of +idolatry, every recollection of paid prayers, and by teaching a lofty, +pure and practical faith such as our Redeemer desired for us, so that +it may be a refuge in the storm, a haven wherein all the world shall +find peace. This is for you and for those who come after you to do,--I, +Felix Bonpre, shall not be here to see the change so wrought, for I +shall have gone from hence to answer for my poor stewardship,--God +grant I may not be found altogether wanting in intention, though I may +have been inadequate in deed! And so with my earnest prayer for your +health and long continuance of life I bid you farewell, asking you +nothing for myself at all but a reasonable judgment,--unprejudiced and +calm and Christlike,--which will in good time persuade you that it +would be but a cruelty to carry out your indignation against me by +depriving me of that diocese where all my people know and love +me,--simply because I have befriended a child, and because having once +befriended him I refuse to desert him. But if your mind should remain +absolutely fixed to carry out your intentions I can only bow my head to +your will and submit to the stroke of destiny, feeling it to be my +Master's wish that I should suffer something for His sake, and knowing +from His words that if I 'offend one of these little ones,' such as +this friendless boy, 'it were better for me that a millstone were hung +about my neck and I myself drowned in the depths of the sea!' Between +the Church doctrine and Christ's own gospel, I choose the gospel; +between Rome's discipline and Christ's command I choose Christ's +command,--and shall be content to be glad or sorrowful, fortunate or +poor, as equally to live or die as my Master, and YOUR Master, shall +bid. For we all are nothing but His creatures, bound to serve Him, and +where we serve Him not there must be evil worse than death. + +"So in all humbleness still awaiting a more reasonable decision at your +hands, I am, Most Holy Father, + +"Your faithful servant and brother in Christ, + +"Felix Bonpre." + +This letter finished, signed and sealed, the Cardinal addressed it and +enclosed it under cover to one of the secretaries at the Vatican who he +knew might be trusted to deliver it personally into the Supreme +Pontiff's own hands. Then stretching out his arms wearily he closed his +eyes for a moment with a sigh of mingled relief and fatigue. The night +was very cold, and though there had been a fire in the room all day, it +had died down in the grate, and there were only a few little dull +embers now glowing at the last bar. The chill of the air was deepening, +and a shiver ran through the spare, fragile form of the venerable +prelate as he rose at last from his chair and prepared to take his +rest. His sleeping room was a very small one, adjoining that in which +he now stood, and as he glanced at his watch and saw that time had gone +on so rapidly that it was nearly eleven o'clock, he decided that he +would only lie down for two or three hours. + +"For there is much to do yet," he mused. "This one letter to the Pope +will not suffice. I must write to Angela,--to say farewell to her, poor +child!--and give her once more my blessing--and then I must prepare the +way at home--for myself, and also for Manuel." He sighed again as the +vision of his own house in the peaceful old-world French town far away, +floated before his mental sight,--almost he heard the sweet chiming of +the bells in his own Cathedral tower; which like a pyramid of delicate +lace-work, always seemed held up in the air by some invisible agency to +let the shafts of sunlight glimmer through,--once more he saw the great +roses in his garden, pink and white and cream and yellow, clambering +over the walls and up to the very roof of his picturesque and peaceful +home--the white doves nesting in the warm sun--the ripe apples hanging +on the gnarled boughs, the simple peasantry walking up his garden +paths, coming to him with their little histories of pain and +disappointment and sorrow; which were as great to them as any of the +wider miseries of sufferers more beset with anguish than themselves. He +thought of it all sorrowfully and tenderly,--his habit was ever to +think of others rather than himself,--and he wondered sadly, as he +considered all the bitterness and hardships of the poor human creatures +who are forced into life on this planet,--why life should be made so +cruel and hard for them,--why sudden and unprepared death should snap +the ties of tenderest love--why cruelty and treachery should blight the +hopes of the faithful and the trusting--why human beings should always +be more ready to destroy each other than to help each other--why, to +sum all up, so merciful and divine a Being as Christ came at all into +this world if it were not to make the world happier and bring it nearer +to heaven! + +"The ways of the Infinite Ordainment are dark and difficult to +understand," he said. "And I deserve punishment for daring to enquire +into wisely-hidden mysteries! But, God knows it is not for myself that +I would pierce the veil! Nothing that concerns myself at all +matters,--I am a straw on the wind,--a leaf on the storm--and whatever +God's law provides for me, that I accept and understand to be best. But +for many millions of sad souls it is not so--and their way is hard! If +they could fully understand the purpose of existence they would be +happier--but they cannot--and we of the Church are too blind ourselves +to help them, for if a little chink of light be opened to us, we +obstinately refuse to see!" + +He went to his sleeping room and threw himself down on his bed dressed +as he was, too fatigued in body and mind to do more than utter his +brief usual prayer, "If this should be the sleep of death, Lord Jesus +receive my soul!" And as he closed his eyes he heard the rain drop on +the roof in heavy slow drops that sounded like the dull ticking of a +monstrous clock piecing away the time;--and then he slept, deeply and +dreamlessly,--the calm and unconscious and refreshing slumber of a +child. + +How long he slept he did not know, but he was wakened suddenly by a +touch and a voice he knew and loved, calling him. He sprang up with +almost the alacrity of youth, and saw Manuel standing beside him. + +"Did you call me, my child?" + +"Yes, dear friend!" And Manuel smiled upon him with a look that +conveyed the brightness of perfect love straight from the glance into +the soul. "I need you for myself alone to-night! Come out with me!" + +The Cardinal gazed at him in wonder that was half a fear. + +"Come out with me!" + +Those had been the words the boy had used to the Pope, the Head of the +Church, when he had dared to speak his thoughts openly before that +chiefest man of all in Rome! + +"Come out with me!" + +"Now, in the darkness and the rain?" asked the Cardinal wonderingly. +"You wish it? Then I will come!" + +Manuel said nothing further, but simply turned and led the way. They +passed out of the little tenement house they inhabited into the dark +cold street,--and the door closed with a loud bang behind them, shut to +by the angry wind. The rain began to fall more heavily, and the small +slight figure of the waif and stray he had befriended seemed to the +Cardinal to look more lonely and piteous than ever in the driving fog +and darkness. + +"Whither would you go, my child?" he asked gently. "You will suffer +from the cold and storm--" + +"And you?" said Manuel. "Will you not also suffer? But you never think +of yourself at all!--and it is because you do not think of yourself +that I know you will come with me to-night!--even through a thousand +storms!--through all danger and darkness and pain and trouble,--you +will come with me! You have been my friend for many days--you will not +leave me now?" + +"Neither now nor at any time," answered Bonpre firmly and tenderly. "I +will go with you where you will! Is it to some sad home you are taking +me?--some stricken soul to whom we may give comfort?" + +Manuel answered not,--but merely waved his small hand beckoningly, and +passed along up the street through the drifting rain, lightly and +aerially as though he were a spirit,--and the Cardinal possessed by +some strange emotion that gave swiftness to his movements and strength +to his will, followed. They met scarcely a soul. One or two forlorn +wayfarers crossed their path--a girl in rags,--then a man half-drunk +and reeling foolishly from side to side. Manuel paused, looking at them. + +"Poor sad souls!" he said. "If we could see all the history of their +lives we should pity them and not condemn!" + +"Who is it that condemns?" murmured Bonpre gently. + +"No one save Man!" responded Manuel. "God condemns nothing--because in +everything there is a portion of Himself. And when man presumes to +condemn and persecute his fellow-men, he is guilty of likewise +condemning and persecuting his Maker, and outraging that Maker in his +own perverted soul!" + +The boy's voice rang out solemn and clear,--and the heavy fog drifting +densely through the street, seemed to the Cardinal's keenly awakened +and perturbed senses as though it brightened into a golden vapour round +that childish figure, and illumined it with a radiation of concealed +light. But having thus spoken, Manuel turned and went on once +more,--and faithfully, in a mental ravishment which to himself was +inexplicable, the venerable Felix followed. And presently they came to +the plain and uncomely wooden edifice where Aubrey Leigh and his bride +had plighted their vows that morning. The door was open--Aubrey would +always have it so, lest any poor suffering creature might need a +moment's rest, and resting thankfully, might see the Cross and +perchance find help in prayer. + +"Do you remember," said Manuel then, "when you found me outside the +great Cathedral, how the doors were barred against me? This door is +always open!" + +He entered the building, and the Cardinal followed, wondering and +deeply agitated. It should have been dark within, but instead of +darkness, a soft light pervaded it from end to end, a warm and delicate +radiance, coloured with a rose glory as of sunset--and Bonpre seeing +this stopped, seized with a sudden fear. He looked about him--on either +side the huge unadorned barn-like place was empty,--he and Manuel stood +alone together as it were in the cold vast void. Before them towered +the Cross on its raised platform, and below that Cross was the sloping +footway leading to it, where lay many of the buds and leaves and +blossoms of Sylvie's bridal flowers given to her by the poor, and +yet--in this empty desolate shed there was a sense of warmth and +consolation, and the light that illumined it was as the light of +Heaven! Trembling in every limb, the Cardinal turned to his +companion--words were on his lips, but they faltered and refused to be +spoken aloud. And Manuel gently touching him said-- + +"Follow me!" + +Straight up through the centre of this place hallowed by the prayers of +the poor and the broken-hearted, the light child-figure moved, the old +man following,--till at the footway leading to the Cross he paused. + +"Here will we pray together!" he said,--and as he spoke a smile lighted +his eyes and rested on his lips--a smile which gave his fair face the +aspect of a rapt angel of wisdom and beauty. "Here will we ask the +Father which is in Heaven--the Father of all worlds--whether we shall +part now one from the other, or still remain--together!" + +As he spoke a rush of music filled the air,--and the Cardinal sank +feebly on his knees, overcome by a great wave of awe and terror which +engulfed his soul--for it was the same divine, far-reaching, +penetrative music which had once before enthralled his ears in the +Cathedral at Rouen. Kneeling he clasped his worn hands, and in all the +dizziness and confusion of his brain, raised his eyes for help to the +great Cross, bare of all beauty, save for the flowers of Sylvie's +strange bridal that lay at its foot. And as he looked he saw a +marvellous Vision!--a Dream of Angels standing on either side of that +symbol of salvation!--of angels tall and white and beautiful, whose +towering pinions glowed with the radiant light of a thousand mornings! +Amazed and awe-stricken at this great sight, he uttered a faint cry and +turned to his child companion. + +"Manuel!" + +"I am here," answered the clear young voice. "Be not afraid!" + +And now the music of the unseen choir of sound seemed to grow deeper +and fuller and grander,--and Felix Bonpre, caught up, as it were, out +of all earthly surroundings, and only made conscious of the growing +ascendency of Spirit over Matter, saw the bare building around him +beginning to wondrously change its aspect. Slowly, as though a wind +should bend straight trees into an arching round, the plain walls took +on themselves a form of perfect architectural beauty,--like swaying +stems of flowers or intertwisted branches, the lines formed +symmetrically, and through the shadowy sculptured semblance came the +gleam of "a light that never was on sea or land,"--the dazzling light +of thousands of shining wings!--of thousands of lustrous watchful +eyes!--of thousands of dazzling faces, that shone like stars or were +fair as flowers! The Vision grew more and more beautiful--more and more +full of light--and through veils of golden vapour, great branching +lilies seemed to grow and blossom out, filling the air with perfume, +and in their flowering beauty perfected the airy semblance of this +wondrous Place of Prayer built by spiritual hands--and like a far-off +echo of sweetness falling from unseen heights there came a musical +whisper of the chorus sung by the poor-- + + "All God s angels will say, 'Well done!' + Whenever thy mortal race is run. + White and forgiven, + Thou'lt enter heaven, + And pass, unchallenged, the Golden Gate, + Where welcoming spirits watch and wait + To hail thy coming with sweet accord + To the Holy City of God the Lord!" + +A convulsive trembling seized the Cardinal's mortal frame--but the soul +within him was strong and invincible. With hands outstretched he turned +to Manuel,--and lo!--the boy was moving away from him--moving slowly +but resolutely up towards the Cross! Breathless, speechless, the aged +Felix watched him with straining uplifted eyes,--and as he watched, saw +his garments grow white and glistening, and a great light began to +shine about him--till reaching the foot of the Cross He turned,--and +then--He was no more a child! All the glory of the "Vision Beautiful" +shone full upon the dying body and escaping soul of Christ's faithful +servant!--the Divine Head crowned with thorns!--the Divine arms +stretched out against the beams of the great Cross!--the Divine look of +love and welcome!--and with a loud cry of ecstasy Felix Bonpre extended +his trembling hands. + +"Master! Master!" he murmured. "Did not my heart burn within me when +Thou didst talk with me by the way!" + +Yearning towards that Mystic Glory he clasped his hands, and in the +splendour of the dream, and through the pulsations of the solemn music +he heard a Voice--the Voice of his child companion Manuel, but a Voice +grown full of Divine authority while yet possessing all human +tenderness. + +"Well done, thou good and faithful servant! Because thou hast been +faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things! +Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!" + +And at that Voice--and in the inexplicable beauty of that Look of Love, +Felix Bonpre, "Prince of the Roman Church," whose faithfulness Rome +called in question, gave up his mortal life,--and with a trembling sigh +of death and delight intermingled, fell face forward at the foot of the +Cross, where the radiance of his Master's Presence shone like the sun +in heaven! And as he passed from death to life, the Vision faded--the +light grew dim,--the arches of the heavenly temple not made with hands +melted away and rolled up like clouds of the night dispersing into +space--the last dazzling Angel face, the last branch of Heavenly +flowers--vanished--and the music of the spheres died into silence. And +when the morning sun shone through the narrow windows of that Place of +Prayer dedicated only to the poor, its wintry beams encircled the +peaceful form of the Dead Cardinal with a pale halo of gold,--and when +they came and found him there and turned his face to the light--it was +as the face of a glorified saint, whom God had greatly loved! + +. . . . . . . . . . + +And of the "Cardinal's foundling"--what of Him? Many wondered and +sought to trace Him, but no one ever heard where He had gone. +Now,--when the Cardinal himself has been laid to rest in the shadow of +his own Cathedral spires--and the roses which he loved so well are +growing into a crimson and white canopy over his quiet grave, there are +those who wonder who that lonely child wanderer was,--and whether He +ever will return? Some say He has never disappeared,--but that in some +form or manifestation of wisdom, He is ever with as, watching to see +whether His work is well or ill done,--whether His flocks are fed, or +led astray to be devoured by wolves--whether His straight and simple +commands are fulfilled or disobeyed. And the days grow dark and +threatening--and life is more and more beset with difficulty and +disaster--and the world is moving more and more swiftly on to its +predestined end--and the Churches are as stagnant pools, from whence +Death is far more often born than Life. + +And may we not ask ourselves often in these days the question,-- + +"When the Son of Man cometh, think ye He shall find faith on earth?" + + + + +Appendix. + +Relics of Paganism in Christianity as Approved by English Bishops. + +The Archbishop of Canterbury, on being questioned as to certain Roman +observances carried on at St. Bartholomew's, Dover, admitted "There may +be irregularities," but added "they do not appear to be of any +importance." One of these "unimportant irregularities" was the +introduction of the Confessional. + +The Archbishop of York considers the use of incense, which is a relic +of paganism, "a most beautiful and significant symbol of Divine +Service"--and though the services at Christ Church, Doncaster, are +known to be but a very slightly modified form of the Romish ritual, His +Grace has not seen fit to interfere. The parish church of +Hensall-cum-Heck, in the Archbishop's diocese, is entirely Roman +Catholic, and the Vicar, Mr. E. H. Bryan, might from his practices, be +a priest of Rome endeavouring by secret methods to "convert" his parish +to the Holy See. + +The Bishop of London sanctions the use of incense and permits +children's Masses and hymns to the Virgin. + +The Bishop of Chester advises the Rev. W. C. Reid, Vicar of Coppenhall, +to use incense preceding the service of Holy Communion. + +The Bishop of Chichester ignores the fact that at St. Bartholomew's, +Brighton, seven hundred confessions were heard before Christmas, 1898, +and that ten thousand were heard in that parish last year. + +The Bishop of Lincoln preached at "High Mass" at St. Mary Magdalene, +Paddington, on January 7, 1899. The only difference in the service on +this occasion from that of the Roman Church was the use of the English +language instead of Latin. + +The Bishop of Oxford, on being appealed to by parishioners on January +11, 1900, attending at the Church of St. John, Cowley, Oxford, and +asked to suppress the Romish practices carried on there, which were +totally out of keeping with the simplicity of true Christian worship, +gave them no redress. + +The Bishop of St. Aibans, charged in the House of Lords with favouring +practices not lawful in the Church of England, declined to answer. On +this point the Daily Telegraph wrote--"Does the Bishop of St. Albans +understand that he is responsible to the State as well as to his own +conscience? Has he any inkling of the notorious fact that the proper +administration of a diocese is not a private or a personal matter, but +an onerous public task, for which he is rightly held accountable?" + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Master-Christian, by Marie Corelli + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASTER-CHRISTIAN *** + +***** This file should be named 4285.txt or 4285.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/8/4285/ + +Produced by Karol Pietrzak, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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