ant to see me safe in his fold."

Odo flushed at the implication. "And why not?" said he. "Could you not
serve the cause better by attaching yourself openly to the liberals than
by lurking in the ditch to throw mud at both parties?"

"The liberals!" sneered Gamba. "Where are they? And what have they done?
It was they who drove out the Jesuits; but to whom did the Society's
lands go? To the Duke, every acre of them! And the peasantry suffered
far less under the fathers, who were good agriculturists, than under the
Duke, who is too busy with monks and astrologers to give his mind to
irrigation or the reclaiming of waste land. As to the University, who
replaced the Jesuits there? Professors from Padua or Pavia? Heaven
forbid! But holy Barnabites that have scarce Latin enough to spell out
the Lives of the Saints! The Jesuits at least gave a good education to
the upper classes; but now the young noblemen are as ignorant as
peasants."

Trescorre received at his house, besides the court functionaries, all
the liberal faction and the Duchess's personal friends. He kept a lavish
state, but lacking the Bishop's social gifts, was less successful in
fusing the different elements of his circle. The Duke, for the first few
weeks after his kinsman's arrival, received no company; and did not even
appear in the Belverde's drawing-rooms; but Odo deemed it none the less
politic to show himself there without delay.

The new Marchioness of Boscofolto lived in one of the finest palaces of
Pianura, but prodigality was the least of her failings, and the
meagreness of her hospitality was an unfailing source of epigram to the
drawing-rooms of the opposition. True, she kept open table for half the
clergy in the town (omitting, of course, those worldly ecclesiastics who
frequented the episcopal palace), but it was whispered that she had
persuaded her cook to take half wages in return for the privilege of
victualling such holy men, and that the same argument enabled her to
obtain her provisions below the market price. In her outer ante-chamber
the servants yawned dismally over a cold brazier, without so much as a
game of cards to divert them, and the long enfilade of saloons leading
to her drawing-room was so scantily lit that her guests could scarce
recognise each other in passing. In the room where she sat, a tall
crucifix of ebony and gold stood at her elbow and a holy-water cup
encrusted with jewels hung on the wall at her side. A dozen or m