"

"What is he like to look upon--the typical demagogue; no?"

"No. I am bound to say no, your Holiness. And his conversation, though
it is full of the jargon of modern Liberalism, has none of the
obscenities of Voltaire."

"Some one said ... who was it, I wonder?... some one said he resembled
the Holy Father."

"Now that you mention it, your Holiness, there is perhaps a remote
resemblance."

"Ah! who knows what service for God and humanity even such a man might
have done if in early life his lines had been cast in better places."

"They say he was an orphan from his infancy, your Holiness."

"Then he never knew a father's care and guidance! Unhappy son! Unhappy
father!"

"Monsignor Mario," said the low voice of a chamberlain, and at the next
moment the Pope's messenger to the Prime Minister was kneeling in the
middle of the floor.

In nervous tones and broken sentences the Monsignor told his story. The
Pope listened intently, the vertical lines on his forehead deepening and
darkening every moment, until at length he burst out impatiently:

"But, my son, you do not say that you said all this in addition to your
message?"

"I was drawn into doing so in defence of your Holiness."

"You told the Minister that my information came through the channel of a
simple confidence?"

"He insinuated that the Holy Father was perhaps breaking the seal of the
confessional...."

"That my informant was a non-Catholic and a woman?"

"He implied that your Holiness had only to command her to reveal the
conspiracy to the civil authorities, and therefore...."

"And you said she was here on Saturday morning?"

"He hinted that the Holy Father was an accomplice of criminals if he had
known this without revealing it before, and that was why...."

"And she came in at that moment, you say?"

"At that very moment, your Holiness, and said she had met me on Saturday
morning."

"Man, man, what have you done?" cried the Pope, rising from his seat and
pacing the room.

The chamberlain continued to kneel in utter humility, until the Pope,
recovering his composure, put both hands on his shoulders and raised him
to his feet.

"Forgive me, my son. I was more to blame than you were. It was wrong to
trust any one with a verbal message in the cabinet of a fox. The Holy
Father should have no intercourse with such persons. But this is God's
hand. Let us leave everything to the Holy Spirit."

At that moment the Papal Majordomo returne