and feared lest he
should after all marry Donna Tullia, and get into the opposite camp.

"You are from Paris, Monsieur Gouache, I believe," said the Cardinal at
last.

"Parisian of the Parisians, your Eminence."

"How can you bear to live in exile so long? You have not been to your
home these four years, I think."

"I would rather live in Rome for the present. I will go to Paris some
day. It will always be a pleasant recollection to have seen Rome in these
days. My friends write me that Paris is gay, but not pleasant."

"You think there will soon be nothing of this time left but the
recollection of it?" suggested the Cardinal.

"I do not know what to think. The times seem unsettled, and so are my
ideas. I was told that your Eminence would help me to decide what to
believe." Gouache smiled pleasantly, and looked up.

"And who told you that?"

"Don Giovanni Saracinesca."

"But I must have some clue to what your ideas are," said the Cardinal.
"When did Don Giovanni say that?"

"At Prince Frangipani's. He had been talking with your Eminence--perhaps
he had come to some conclusion in consequence," suggested Gouache.

"Perhaps so," answered the great man, with a look of considerable
satisfaction. "At all events I am flattered by the opinion he gave you of
me. Perhaps I may help you to decide. What are your opinions? or rather,
what would you like your opinions to be?"

"I am an ardent republican," said Gouache, boldly. It needed no ordinary
courage to make such a statement to the incarnate chief of reactionary
politics in those days--within the walls of the Vatican, not a hundred
yards from the private apartments of the Holy Father. But Cardinal
Antonelli smiled blandly, and seemed not in the least surprised nor
offended.

"Republicanism is an exceedingly vague term, Monsieur Gouache," he said.
"But with what other opinions do you wish to reconcile your
republicanism?"

"With those held by the Church. I am a good Catholic, and I desire to
remain one--indeed I cannot help remaining one."

"Christianity is not vague, at all events," answered the Cardinal, who,
to tell the truth, was somewhat astonished at the artist's juxtaposition
of two such principles. "In the first place, allow me to observe, my
friend, that Christianity is the purest form of a republic which the
world has ever seen, and that it therefore only depends upon your good
sense to reconcile in your own mind two ideas which from the first have