stood not for progress, not for conformity to changing ideals,
not for alignment with the world's great reforms, but for _herself_,
first, midst, and last!

Thus the conflict raged, while thoughts, momentous for even a mature
thinker, tore through the mind of this lad of twenty. Prayers for
light--prayers which would have rent the heart of an Ivan--burst at
times from the feverish lips of this child of circumstance. Infinite
Father--Divine Influence--Spirit of Love--whatever Thou art--wilt Thou
not illumine the thought-processes of this distracted youth and thus
provide the way of escape from impending destruction? Can it be Thy
will that this fair mind shall be utterly crushed? Do the agonized
words of appeal which rise to Thee from his riven soul fall broken
against ears of stone?

"Occupy till I come!" Yea, beloved Master, he hears thy voice and
strives to obey--but the night is filled with terror--the clouds of
error lower about him--the storm bursts--and thou art not there!

Day dawned. A classmate, sent to summon the lad, roused him from the
fitful sleep into which he had sunk on the cold floor. His mind was no
longer active. Dumbly following his preceptors at the appointed hour,
he proceeded with the class to the chapel. Dimly conscious of his
surroundings, his thought befogged as if in a dream, his eyes
half-blinded by the gray haze which seemed to hang before them, he
celebrated the Mass, like one under hypnosis, received the holy
orders, and assumed the obligations which constituted him a priest of
Holy Church.

CHAPTER 8

On a sweltering midsummer afternoon, a year after the events just
related, Rome lay panting for breath and counting the interminable
hours which must elapse before the unpitying sun would grant her a
short night's respite from her discomfort. Her streets were deserted
by all except those whose affairs necessitated their presence in
them. Her palaces and villas had been abandoned for weeks by their
fortunate owners, who had betaken themselves to the seashore or to the
more distance resorts of the North. The few inexperienced tourists
whose lack of practical knowledge in the matter of globe-trotting had
brought them into the city so unseasonably were hastily and
indignantly assembling their luggage and completing arrangements to
flee from their over-warm reception.

In a richly appointed suite of the city's most modern and
ultra-fashionable hotel two maids, a butler, and the he