"No doubt, no doubt," agreed Maria Dolores, beginning to pace backwards
and forwards over the lichen-stained marble pavement, (stained as by the
hand of an artist, in wavy veins of yellow or pale-green, with here and
there little rosettes of scarlet), while John kept beside her. "All the
same, I should not like to kneel quite in the very heart of the crowd,
as you do."

"You are a delicate and sensitive woman," he reminded her. "I am a man,
and a moderately tough one. However, I must admit that until rather
recently I had exactly your feeling. But I got a lesson." He broke off
and gave a vague little laugh, vaguely rueful, as at a not altogether
pleasant reminiscence.

"What was the lesson?" she asked.

"Well," said he, "if you care to know, it was this. The first time that
I attended Mass here, desiring to avoid the people, I sought out a far
corner of the church, behind a pillar, where there was no one. But as
soon as I had got myself well established there, up hobbled a deformed
and lame old man, and plumped himself down beside me, so close that our
coat-sleeves touched. I think he was the most repulsive-looking old man
I have ever seen; he was certainly the dirtiest, the grimiest, and his
rags were extravagantly foul. I will spare you a more circumstantial
portrait. And all through Mass I was sick with disgust and sore with
resentment. Why should he come and rub his coat-sleeve against mine,
when there was room in plenty for him elsewhere? The next time I went to
church, I chose a different corner, as remote as might be from my former
one; but again, no sooner was I well installed, than, lo and behold, the
same unspeakable old man limped up and knelt with me, cheek by jowl. And
so, if you can believe it, the next time, and so the next. It didn't
matter where I placed myself, there he was sure to place himself too.
You will suppose that, apart from my annoyance, I was vastly perplexed.
Why should he pursue me so? Who was he? What was he after? And for
enlightenment I addressed myself to Annunziata. 'Who is the hideous old
man who always kneels beside me?' I asked her. She had not noticed any
one kneeling beside me, she said; she had noticed, on the contrary, that
I always knelt alone, at a distance. 'Well,' said I, 'keep your eyes
open to-day, and you will see the man I mean.' So we went to Mass, and
sure enough, no sooner had I found a secluded place, than my old friend
appeared and joined me, dirtier and more