d him with a sort of heroic halo in the
eyes of the lesser multitude. "Fate largo a Fra Paolo," they called in
the Merceria if the people pressed him too closely--"Make way for Fra
Paolo!"--and a strange youthfulness, as of satisfied affections, was
beginning to grow upon his calm face. He had had no cravings, feeling
that duty sufficed; yet, through this absolute yielding of himself to
express the message with which his life was charged, his heart had
warmed within him, and now, unsought, the people loved him, magnifying
the interest of every minor happening of his life and zealously
gathering anecdotes of the days before he was great.

A group of his brother friars were strolling back and forth under the
fretted colonnades of the greater court of the Servi one evening before
vespers, a glow of relish on their genial, cowled faces, rehearsing the
tale of Fra Paolo's unconventional slippers; for it was the hour of
small gossip, and the day had been warm.

"They were scarlet, like an eminence's," explained Fra Giulio, who had
secured this choice bit for the entertainment of his special cronies;
"for all colors are one to Fra Paolo, who hath no distinction for
trifles."

"Because he spendeth himself in scheming for honors that belong
elsewhere," interposed a disaffected brother who had strolled up and
joined the group uninvited; he belonged to another chapter of the Servi,
and had but recently come among them; honors had passed him by and
duties attracted him less, and he had made no friends within the
convent, though he professed great interest in all that concerned Fra
Paolo, and had even offered to wait upon him in chapel or in his cell.

"Thou, Fra Antonio, seek thine own friends!" Fra Giulio retorted, with
unusual asperity; "for this tale is too good for thine hearing, being
another triumph for Fra Paolo in the days when he was only a frate of
the Servi."

"_Ebbene_, and then?" urged the eager auditors, crowding around the
speaker, for the incongruity of the grave padre, in his frayed and rusty
gown attempting to usurp a decoration, lent interest to the petty
happening.

"_Ebbene_, and then his Eminence of Borromeo--for it seemeth that only
the illustrious play parts in this farce"--Fra Giulio continued with
keen enjoyment, "his Eminence of Borromeo hath explained at Rome that
Fra Paolo was innocent of contempt of rule."

"Verily, the fault might have been counted to one who hath no sins of
the body to atone