of my immortal spirit!--No, no, never! Aye, Margery, for I
have been a great sinner. Greater power and more mighty mediation are
needed to save and deliver me, and behold, my Margery, meseems--hear
me Margery--meseems a special ruling of Heaven hath sent.... When is it
that his Eminence Cardinal Bernhardi will return from England?"

Hereupon I saw plainly what was in the wind. I answered him that his
Eminence purposed to return hither in three or four months' time; he
sighed deeply: "Not for so long--three months, do you say?"

"Or longer," quoth I, hastily; but he, forgetting the Friar, cried out
as though he knew better than I "No, no, in three months. So you said."

Then he spoke low again, and went on in a confident tone: "So long as
that I can hold out, by the help of the Saints, if I.... Yea, for I have
enough left to make some great endowment. My possessions, Margery,
the estate which is mine own--No man can guess what a well-governed
trading-house may earn in half a century.--Yes, I tell you, Margery, I
can hold out and wait. Two, or at most three months; they will soon slip
away. The older we grow and the duller is life, the swifter do the days
fly."

And verily I had not the heart to tell him that he might have to take
much longer patience, and, whereas I noted how hard he found it to speak
out that which weighed on his mind, I gave him such help as I might;
and then he freely confessed that what he most desired on earth was
to receive absolution and the Viaticum from the hands of the Cardinal.
Meseemed he believed that his Eminence's prayers would serve him better
in Heaven than those of our simple priests, who had not even gained
a bishop's cope; just as the good word of a Prince Elector gains the
Emperor's ear sooner than the petition of a town councillor. Likewise
it soothed his pride, doubtless, to think that he might turn his back on
this world under the good guidance of a prelate in the purple. Hereupon
I promised that his case should be brought to the Cardinal's knowledge
by Ann, and then he gave me to understand that it was his desire that
Ann should come to see him, inasmuch as that her presentment only had
brought him more comfort than the strongest of Master Ulsenius' potions.
He could not be happy to die without her forgiveness, and without
blessing her by hand and word.

And he pointed to my likeness, and said that, albeit it was right well
done, he could bear no more to see it; that it look