ly. It is the Baron
Bonelli, your Holiness."

"Just so, just so!" said the Pope, tapping his foot in obvious heat.
"But go on, my child. Who is your husband?"

"My husband is a different kind of man altogether."

"Ah!"

"He has done everything for me, Holy Father--everything. Heaven knows
what I should have been now without him."

"God bless him! God bless both of you!"

"I came to know him by the strangest accident. He is a Liberal too, and
a Deputy, and thinking of the corruptions of the Government, he pointed
to me as the mistress of the Minister. It was not true, but I was
degraded, and ... and I set out to destroy him."

"A terrible vengeance, my child. Only the Minister could have thought of
it."

"Then I found that my enemy was one of my father's friends, and a true
and noble man. Holy Father, I had begun in hate, but I could not hate
him. The darkness faded away from my soul, and something bright and
beautiful came in its place. I loved him, and he loved me. With all our
hearts we loved each other."

"And then?"

"Then _he_ came back to me. I knew all the secrets I had set out to
learn, but I could not give them up, and when I refused he threatened
me."

"And what did you do?"

"I married my husband and withstood every temptation. It wasn't so very
hard, for I cared nothing for wealth and luxury now. I only wanted to be
good. God Himself should see how good I could be."

The Pope's eyes were moist. He was patting the young woman's trembling
hand.

"My blessing rest on you, my daughter, and may the man you have married
be worthy of your love and trust."

"Indeed, indeed he is," said Roma.

"He was your father's friend, you tell me?"

"Yes, your Holiness, and although we met again so recently, I had known
him in England when I was a child."

"A Liberal, you say?"

"Yes, your Holiness."

"The enmity of the Minister was the fruit of political warfare?"

"Nothing but that at first, though now...."

"I see, I see. And the secrets you speak of are only...."

"Only the doings of twenty years ago, which are dead and done with."

"Then your husband is older than you are?"

The young woman broke into a sunny smile, which set the Pope smiling.

"Only ten years older, your Holiness. He is thirty-four."

"Where does he come from, and what was his father?"

"He was born in Rome, but he does not know who his father was."

"What is he like to look upon?"

"He is like ... I have never seen