t's very Spanish. A man wasting money, while his wife and
children are dying of hunger.... The man who won't learn the value of
money is not the best type."

"Money is filthy. If it were only possible to abolish it!"

"For my part, son, I should like less to have it abolished than to have
a great deal of it." "I shouldn't. If I could carry out my plans, all I
should need afterwards would be a hut to live in, a garret."

"Our ideas differ."

"These people that need clothes and jewels and perfumes fairly nauseate
me.... All such things are only fit for Jews."

"Then I must surely be a Jewess."

VIII. OLD PALACES, OLD SALONS, OLD LADIES

_THE CARDINAL UNCLE_

As the Cardinal gave no indication of curiosity to see Caesar, Caesar
several times said to Laura:

"We ought to call on uncle, eh?"

"Do as you choose. He isn't very anxious to see you. Apparently he takes
you for an unbeliever."

"All right, that has nothing to do with calling on him."

"If you like I will go with you."

The Cardinal lived in the Palazzo Altemps. That palace is situated in
the Via di S. Apellinare, opposite a seminary. The brother and sister
proceeded to the palace one morning, went up the grand staircase, and
in a reception-room they found Preciozi with two other priests, talking
together in low tones.

One was a worn, pallid old man, with his nose and the borders of his
nasal appendage extremely red. Caesar considered that so red a nose in
that livid, ghastly face resembled a lantern in a melancholy landscape
lighted by the evening twilight. This livid person was the house
librarian.

"His Eminence is very busy," said Preciozi, after bowing to the callers.
He spoke with a different voice from the one he used outside. "I will go
in, in a moment, and see if you can see him."

Caesar stepped to the window of the reception-room: one could see the
court of the old palace and the colonnade surrounding it.

"This house must be very large," he said.

"You shall see it later, if you like," replied the abbe. A little after
this Preciozi disappeared, and reappeared again in the opening of a
glass door, saying, in the discreetly lowered voice which was no doubt
that of his domestic functions:

"This way, this way."

They went into a large, cold, shabby room. Through an open door they
could see another bare salon, equally dark and sombre.

The Cardinal was seated at a table; he was dressed as a monk and had the
air of being