ce of anxious
inquiry; he smiled foolishly, and washed his hands in the air again, his
mind fumbling for an answer that should turn aside that barbed jest. But
he was forestalled by my cousin Cosimo.

"The teaching might come more aptly from Monna Giuliana," said he, and
smiled very boldly across at Fifanti's lady who sat beside me, whilst a
frown grew upon the prodigious brow of the pedant.

"Indeed, indeed," the Cardinal murmured, considering her through
half-closed eyes, "there is no man but may enter Paradise at her
bidding." And he sighed furiously, whilst she chid him for his boldness;
and for all that much of what they said was in a language that might
have been unknown to me, yet was I lost in amazement to see a prelate
made so free with. She turned to me, and the glory of her eyes fell
about my soul like an effulgence.

"Do not heed them, Ser Agostino. They are profane and wicked men,"
she said, "and if you aspire to holiness, the less you see of them the
better will it be for you."

I did not doubt it, yet I dared not make so bold as to confess it, and I
wondered why they should laugh to hear her earnest censure of them.

"It is a thorny path, this path of holiness," said the Cardinal sighing.

"Your excellency has been told so, we assume," quoth Caro, who had a
very bitter tongue for one who looked so well-nourished and contented.

"I might have found it so for myself but that my lot has been cast among
sinners," answered the Cardinal, comprehending the company in his glance
and gesture. "As it is, I do what I can to mend their lot."

"Now here is gallantry of a different sort!" cried the little Leocadia
with a giggle.

"O, as to that," quoth Cosimo, showing his fine teeth in a smile, "there
is a proverb as to the gallantry of priests. It is like the love of
women, which again is like water in a basket--as soon in as out." And
his eyes hung upon Giuliana.

"When you are the basket, sir captain, shall anyone blame the women?"
she countered with her lazy insolence.

"Body of God!" cried the Cardinal, and laughed wholeheartedly, whilst
my cousin scowled. "There you have the truth, Cosimo, and the truth is
better than proverbs."

"It is unlucky to speak of the dead at table," put in Caro.

"And who spoke of the dead, Messer Annibale?" quoth Leocadia.

"Did not my Lord Cardinal mention Truth?" answered the brutal poet.

"You are a derider--a gross sinner," said the Cardinal languidly. "Stick
to y