the service
of the Church," continued the Cardinal, with a smile. "Why did you never
tell me about your brother's peculiar views, Don Paolo?"

"Why should I trouble you with such matters? I am sorry I have said so
much, for no one can understand exactly what Marzio is, who does not
know him. It is an injury to him to let your Eminence know that he is a
freethinker. And yet he is not a bad man, I believe. He has no vices
that I know of, except a sharp tongue. He is sober and works hard. That
is much in these days. Though he is mistaken, he will doubtless come to
his senses, as you say. I do not hate him; I would not injure him."

"Why do you think it can harm him to let me about him? Do you think that
I, or others, would not employ him if we knew all about him?"

"It would seem natural that your Eminence should hesitate to do so."

"Let us see, Don Paolo. There are some bad priests in the world, I
suppose; are there not?"

"It is to be feared--"

"Yes, there are. There are bad priests in all forms of religion. Yet
they say mass. Of course, very often the people know that they are bad.
Do you think that the mass is less efficacious for the salvation of
those who attend it, provided that they themselves pray with the same
earnestness?"

"No; certainly not. For otherwise it would be necessary that the people
should ascertain whether the priest is in a state of grace every time he
celebrates; and since their salvation would then, depend upon that, they
would be committing a sin if they did not examine the relative morality
of different priests and select the most saintly one."

"Well then, so much the more is it indifferent whether the inanimate
vessels we use are chiselled by a saint or an unbeliever. Their use
sanctifies them, not the moral goodness of the artist. For, by your own
argument, we should otherwise he committing a sin if we did not find
out the most saintly men and set them to silver-chiselling instead of
ordaining them bishops and archbishops. It would take a long time to
build a church if you only employed masons who were in a state of
grace."

"Well, but would you not prefer that the artist should be a good man?"

"For his own sake, Don Paolo, for his own sake. The thing he makes is
not at all less worthy if he is bad. Are there not in many of our
churches pillars that stood in Roman temples? Is not the canopy over the
high altar in Saint Peter's made of the bronze roof of the Pantheon? And
besid