and then, hanging back like an
animal which smells the shambles, and then, when it is pulled very hard,
jumping forward, only to stop again until the rope is twitched once
more. Explain your idea of Catholic reform to us. Let us hear it."

Benedetto remained silent.

"Speak," continued the unknown deity who appeared to reign in that
place. "My friend is not Herod, nor am I Pilate. We might perhaps both
become apostles of your idea."

His friend once more extended his wide-open hands, without raising his
head from the sofa-back, and said again, with a stronger accent on the
first syllable:

"Steady!"

Benedetto was silent.

"It appears to me, _caro mio_," said the friend, turning his head alone
towards his colleague, "that this promises to be the first time your
eloquence has failed you. Here the model of the _nihil respondit_ is
taken very seriously."

Benedetto shuddered, horrified at this allusion to the Divine Master,
and the fear of seeming a presumptuous imitator. At that moment he
ceased to feel his illness--the fever, the thirst, the heaviness of his
head.

"Oh, no!" he exclaimed, "now I will answer! You say you are not Pilate.
But the truth is that I am the least of Christ's servants, because
I have been unfaithful to Him, and you repeat to me Pilate's very
words:--_Quid est veritas?_ Now you are not disposed to receive truth,
as Pilate was not disposed to receive it."

"Oh!" his interlocutor exclaimed. "And why not?"

His friend laughed noisily.

"Because," Benedetto replied, "he who performs deeds of darkness is
surrounded by darkness, and the light cannot reach him. You perform
deeds of darkness. It is not difficult to understand; you are the
Minister of the Interior--I know you by reputation. You were not born
to perform deeds of darkness; there has been much light in some of your
deeds, there is much light in your soul, much light of truth and of
kindness; but at this moment you are performing a deed of darkness. I am
here to-night because you have entered into a shameful bargain. You say
you adore Truth, and you ask a brother if he possess Truth, while you
hide the fact that you have already sold him!"

During Benedetto's speech, the Minister's friend--himself an Excellency,
but of lower rank--had raised his head from the couch at last. He seemed
to be only now beginning to consider the man and what he was saying
worthy of attention. He also seemed amused at the lesson his chief had
receiv