ring me
into the presence of a woman worth seeing; a woman who can compel a peer
of England to meditate a theft."

"How do you know that?" exclaimed the earl; and he stopped so abruptly
that the cardinal put his free hand against his companion's breast to
right himself.

"Because," said the cardinal, "I saw your face when you said good-by to
me. It was not a pleasant face."

II

They went on silently and soon they came to the Piazza.

"I don't see her," said the earl; "perhaps she has gone back to the
church."

They crossed the Piazza and entered St. Mark's.

"Not here," said the earl.

They walked up the south aisle and came to the anteroom of the treasury.
Its door was open. They entered what had once been a tower of the old
palace. The door of the treasury was also open. They went in and found
the sacristan and a woman. She held the turquoise cup in her hands.

"Did you buy it, Bobby?" she exclaimed.

She turned and saw that the earl was not alone.

"Your grace," he said, "I present you to Lady Nora Daly."

She bent with a motion half genuflexion, half courtesy, and then
straightened herself, smiling.

The cardinal did not notice the obeisance, but he did notice the smile.
It seemed to him, as he looked at her, that the treasures of St. Mark's,
the jewelled chalices and patens, the agate and crystal vessels, the
reliquaries of gold and precious stones, the candlesticks, the two
textus covers of golden cloisonne, and even the turquoise cup itself,
turned dull and wan and common by comparison with her beauty.

"Your eminence," she said, "you must pardon Bobby's _gaucherie_. He
presented you to me and called you 'your grace.' He forgot, or did not
know, that you are a cardinal--a prince--and that I should have been
presented to you. Bobby means well, but he is an English peer and a
guardsman, so we don't expect much else of Bobby."

"He has done a very gracious thing today," said the cardinal. "He has
brought me to you."

Lady Nora looked up quickly, scenting a compliment, and ready to meet
it, but the cardinal's face was so grave and so sincere that her
readiness forsook her and she stood silent.

The earl seemed to be interested in a crucifix of the eleventh century.

"While my lord is occupied with the crucifix," said the cardinal, "will
you not walk with me?"

"Willingly," said Lady Nora, and they went out into the church.

"My dear lady," said the cardinal, after an interval of sil