monde," said the canon,
maliciously.

The girl's cheek became deep red, and even over neck and shoulders the
scarlet flush spread, while her eyes flashed a look of fiery passion.

"Do you dare are you insolent enough to--"

Her indignation had carried her thus far, when, by a sudden change of
temper, she stopped, and clasping her hands over her face, burst into
tears.

Jekyl motioned the priest to be silent, while, gently leading the other
into the adjoining room, he drew the curtain, and left her alone.

"How could you say that?" said he, "you, padre, who know that this is
more than jest?"

"Spare not the sinner, neither let the stripes be light, 'Non sit levis
flagella,' says Origen."

"Are the ortolans good, padre?" asked Jekyl, while his eye glittered
with an intense appreciation of the old canon's hypocrisy.

"They, are delicious! succulent and tender," said the priest, wiping his
lips. "Francesco does them to perfection."

"You at least believe in a cook," said Jekyl, but in so low a voice as
to escape the other's notice.

"She is sobbing still," said the canon, in a whisper, and with a gesture
towards the curtained doorway. "I like to hear them gulping down their
sighs. It is like the glug-glug of a rich flask of 'Lagrime.'"

"But don't you pity them, padre?" asked Jekyl, in mock earnestness.

"Never! never! First of all, they do not suffer in all these outbursts.
It is but decanting their feelings into another vessel, and they love it
themselves! I have had them for hours together thus in the confessional,
and they go away after, so relieved in mind and so light of heart, there
's no believing it."

"But Nina," said Jekyl, seriously, "is not one of these."

"She is a woman," rejoined the padre, "and it is only a priest can read
them."

"You see human nature as the physician does, padre, always in some
aspect of suffering. Of its moods of mirth and levity you know less than
we do, who pass more butterfly lives!"

"True in one sense, boy; ours are the stony paths, ours are the weary
roads in life! I like that Burgundy."

"It 's very pleasant, padre. It is part of a case I ordered for the
Onslows, but their butler shook the bottle when bringing it to table,
and they begged me to get rid of it."

"These wines are not suited to Italy generally," said the canon; "but
Florence has the merit of possessing all climates within the bounds of
a single day, and even Chambertin is scarcely generous enou