i, 'for
verily the world knoweth the great Ghetaldo for a mathematician! Come,
then, with problems the most difficult thou canst prepare, on a day it
may please thee to name, and meet Fra Paolo at my table, without warning
to him.' _Ecco_! Penelli is subtle; great satisfaction and much labor on
the part of our mathematician. Enter Fra Paolo,--simple,
unadvised,--solves the propositions at a hearing. 'Miraculous!' cries
the superb Ghetaldo, gentle as a lamb! A friendship for life, and Fra
Paolo is the teacher! But it is more wonderful to hear the tales of how
he preacheth to the people here, in the Gesuiti. Let us follow, for he
giveth them not many minutes, for fear of wearying them. We need lift
our mantles high, for the pavement is like a market garden of Mazzorbo,
with broken bits from the women's baskets--Faugh!"

The splendid senators seldom mingled in such a crowd, except at guarded
distances, to make a pageant for it; it was picturesque, shabby,
malodorous, composed chiefly of young women with bright-eyed babies and
baskets emitting unctuous savors of _frittola_ and garlic; now and then
an old peasant who could not be tranquil until she had heard Fra Paolo
speak was escorted by a rebellious grandson, bribed to quiet by the
promise of a _soldo_ for his little game of chance; occasionally a man,
impatient to have done with it all and get out on the canal again, moved
restlessly from place to place; only here and there the dim light showed
a face pathetic in its questioning, to whom the answer meant life or
death.

"What hath a man of such rare powers and learning to do with these
simple ones--a man whose time is precious to the State?"

The noble senators withdrew a little from the crowd to watch the scene,
as they put the question to each other; their servants brought them
chairs within the shadow of a column.

They did not know that few are great enough in an age of superstition to
hold a conscience uncontrolled by traditions, and a primitive faith
simple as a child's, with the tenacity of a strong man; there had been
nothing in his labors at the Senate to call forth this most sacred side
of his reserved nature, and they did not understand that it was to this
he owed much of the marvelous poise of will and judgment which kept him
unspoiled in spite of intellectual gifts that would have ruined him
without his absolute dependence on the One Supreme. But on this sacred
side alone was there any entrance to his em