ho was warming his hands over a large bronze
scaldino; but in the Archpriest's room adjoining, with its gilt
arm-chair and stools of red plush, Father Pifferi in his ordinary brown
habit was waiting for the Pope. The bearers put down the chair, knelt
and kissed the Pope's feet in spite of his protest, backed themselves
out with deep obeisance, and left the two old men together.

"Have they arrived?" asked the Pope.

"Not yet, your Holiness," said the Capuchin.

"Father, have you any faith in presentiments?"

"Sometimes, your Holiness. When they continue and are persistent..."

"I have had a presentiment which has been with me all my life--all my
life as Pope, at all events. The blessed God who abases and lifts up has
thought fit to raise my lowliness to the most sublime dignity that
exists on earth, but I have always lived in the fear that some day I
should be torn down from it, and the Church would suffer."

"God forbid, your Holiness!"

"That was why I refused every place and every honour. You know how I
refused them, Father!"

"Yes, but God knew better, your Holiness, and He preserved you to be a
blessing and a comfort to His people."

"His holy will be done! But the shadow which has been over me will not
be lifted. Cause prayers to be said for me. Pray for me yourself,
Father."

"Your Holiness is in low spirits. And to-day of all days! Ah, how happy
is the Church which has seen the hand of God place in the chair of St.
Peter a soul capable of comprehending the necessities of His children
and a heart desirous of satisfying them!"

"I hardly know what is to come of this interview, Father, but I must
leave myself in the hands of the Holy Spirit."

"There is no help for it now, your Holiness."

"Perhaps I should not have gone so far but for this wave of anarchy
which is sweeping over the world.... You believe the man Rossi is
secretly an anarchist?"

"I am afraid he is, your Holiness, and one of the worst enemies of the
Church and the Holy Father."

"They say he was an orphan from his infancy, and never knew father, or
mother, or home."

"Pitiful, very pitiful!"

"I have heard that his public life is not without a certain perverted
nobility, and that his private life is pure and good."

"His relation to the lady would seem to say so, your Holiness."

"But the Holy Father may be sorry for a wayward son, and yet be forced
to condemn him for all that. He must cut himself off from all such men,
lest