nd which no
one honestly believed were of any further use, such particulars as
ecclesiastical celibacy and the dogma of hell. She needed a saint to
accomplish these reforms. Benedetto would be that saint, because a
spirit (she herself was not a spiritualist, but a friend of hers was),
the Spirit of the Countess Blavatzky herself, had revealed this fact.
It was therefore necessary that he should come to Rome, and there his
saintly gifts would also enable him to render a service to the Duchess
di Civitella, here present. She ended her discourse thus:

_"Nous vous attendons absolument, monsieur! Quittez ce vilain trou!
Quittez-le bientot! Bientot!"_

Having let his stern gaze wander rapidly round the circle of mocking
or stolid faces, from the Duchess's _lorgnon_ to the journalist's
eye-glass, Benedetto replied:

_"A l'instant, madame!"_

And he left the room.

He left the room and the house, crossed the square, walking awkwardly in
his ill-fitting clothes, and, without looking to right or left, took the
road leading down the slope, impelled by his spirit rather than by the
weakened powers of his body. He intended to pass the night under some
tree, and, on the morrow, go to Subiaco; from there, with Don Clemente's
aid, he would go to Tivoli, where he knew a good old priest, who was in
the habit of coming to Santa Scolastica from time to time. He no longer
thought of accepting the Selvas' hospitality, which would have been
precious to him. His heart was pure and at peace, but he could not
forget that the young foreign girl's sweet voice, and the tone of
sadness in which she had said "You will not come to Subiaco?" had
awakened strange echoes within him, and that in that one second the
thought had flashed across his mind: "Had Jeanne been like this, I
should not have left her!" The mystics were right; penance and fasting
were of no avail. But it had all disappeared now. Only the humiliating
sense of a frailty essentially human remained, which, though it may have
come forth triumphant from hard trials, may also reappear unexpectedly,
and be overthrown by a breath. The little town was deserted. The storm
over, the people from Trevi, Filettino, and Vallepietra had started
homeward, discussing the events of the morning, the case of doubtful
healing, and that in which the healing had not been effected, the
warnings which had been swiftly sown by hidden hands against the
corrupter of the people, the false Catholic. On leavin