gone,
until the eve of the marriage in Bologna. Give me till then. I have a
hope there will be no need for us to speak at all."

The Cardinal shrugged his shoulders.

"You must do more than hope. Will you pledge your word to it?"

Here it seemed to Wogan was an occasion when a man must dare.

"Yes," he said, and so went out of the house. He had spoken under a
sudden inspiration; the Cardinal's words had shown him a way which with
careful treading might lead to his desired result. He went first to his
lodging, and ordered his servant Marnier to saddle his black horse. Then
he hurried again to O'Toole's lodging, and found his friend back from
the bookseller's indeed, but breathing very hard of a book which he slid
behind his back.

"I am to go on a journey," said Wogan, "and there's a delicate sort of
work I would trust to you."

O'Toole looked distantly at Wogan.

"_Opus_," said he, in a far-away voice.

"I want you to keep an eye on the little house in the garden--"

O'Toole nodded. "_Hortus, hortus, hortum_," said he, "_horti--hortus_,"
and he fingered the book at his back, "no, _horti, horto, horto_. Do you
know, my friend, that the difference between the second and fourth
declensions was solely invented by the grammarians for their own profit.
It is of no manner of use, and the most plaguy business that ever I
heard of."

"O'Toole," cried Wogan, with a bang of his fist, "you are no more
listening to me than this table."

At once O'Toole's face brightened, and with a shout of pride he reeled
out, "_Mensa, mensa, mensam, mensae, mensae, mensa_." Wogan sprang up in
a rage.

"Don't _mensa, mensam_ me when I am talking most seriously to you! What
is it you are after? What's that book you are hiding? Let me look at
it!" O'Toole blushed on every visible inch of him and handed the book to
Wogan.

"It's a Latin grammar, my friend," said he, meekly.

"And what in the world do you want to be addling your brains with a
Latin grammar for, when there's other need for your eyes?"

"Aren't we to be enrolled at the Capitol in June as Roman Senators with
all the ancient honours, _cum titubis_--it is so--_cum titubis_, which
are psalters or pshawms?"

"Well, what then?"

"You don't understand, Charles, the difficulty of my position. You have
Latin at your finger-ends. Sure, I have often admired you for your
extraordinary comprehension of Latin, but never more than I do now. It
will be no trouble in the world for