tion a hippopotamus might have uttered,
was the only reply, and Jekyl, having given a glance over the table to
see all was in order, made a sign for Nina to be seated.

"Accursed be the stairs and he that made them!" muttered the padre. "I
feel as if my limbs had been torn on the rack. I have been three times
up the steps of the high altar already to-day, and am tired as a dog."

"Here is your favorite soup, padre," said Jekyl, as he moved the ladle
through a smoking compound, whence a rich odor of tomato and garlic
ascended. "This will make you young again."

"And who said I would wish to be young again?" cried the priest,
angrily. "I have experience of what youth means every day in the
confessional, and I promise you age has the best of it."

"Such a ripe and ruddy age as yours, padre!" said the girl, with
affected simplicity.

[Illustration: 274]

"Just so, minx," rejoined he; "such ripeness as portends falling from
the tree! Better even that than to be worm-eaten on the stalk; ay, or a
wasp's nest within, girl, you understand me."

"You will never be good friends for half an hour together," said Jekyl,
as he filled their glasses with champagne, and then touching his own to
each, drank off a bumper.

"These are from Savoy, these truffles, and have no flavor," said the
padre, pushing away his plate. "Let me taste that lobster, for this is a
half-fast to-day."

"They are like the priests," said Nina, laughing; "all black without and
rotten within!"

"The ball went off admirably last night," interposed Jekyl, to stop what
he foresaw might prove a sharp altercation.

"Yes," said Nina, languidly. "The dresses were fresher than the wearers.
It was the first time for much of the satin, the same could not be said
for many of the company."

"The Balderoni looked well," said Jekyl.

"Too fat, caro mio, too fat!" replied Nina.

"And she has eight penances in the week," grunted out the canon.

"There 's nothing like wickedness for embonpoint, padre," said Nina,
laughing.

"Angels always are represented as chubby girls," said the priest, whose
temper seemed to improve as he ate on.

"Midchekoff, I thought, was out of temper all the evening," resumed
Jekyl; "he went about with his glass in his eye, seeking for flaws in
the lapis lazuli, or retouches in the pictures; and seemed terribly
provoked at the goodness of the supper."

"I forgive him all, for not dancing with 'my Lady,'" said Nina. "She
kept hersel