want to say one word to you both."

He made them sit down. "I am a little restless," he said, and stood
before the fire. "Something interesting has happened; nothing to do with
public affairs. Do not pitch your expectations too high--but still of
importance, and certainly of great interest--at least to me. I have seen
my child--my ward."

"Indeed an event!" said Lady St. Jerome, evidently much interested.

"And what is he like?" inquired the monsignore.

"All that one could wish. Extremely good-looking, highly bred, and most
ingenuous; a considerable intelligence, and not untrained; but the most
absolutely unaffected person I ever encountered."

"Ah! if he had been trained by your eminence," sighed Lady St. Jerome.
"Is it too late?"

"'Tis an immense position," murmured Berwick.

"What good might he not do?" said Lady St. Jerome; "and if he be so
ingenuous, it seems impossible that he can resist the truth."

"Your ladyship is a sort of cousin of his," said the cardinal, musingly.

"Yes; but very remote. I dare say he would not acknowledge the tie. But
we are kin; we have the same blood in our veins."

"You should make his acquaintance," said the cardinal.

"I more than desire it. I hear he has been terribly neglected, brought
up among the most dreadful people, entirely infidels and fanatics."

"He has been nearly two years at Oxford," said the cardinal. "That may
have mitigated the evil."

"Ah! but you, my lord cardinal, you must interfere. Now that you at last
know him, you must undertake the great task; you must save him."

"We must all pray, as I pray every morn and every night," said the
cardinal, "for the conversion of England."

"Or the conquest," murmured Berwick.

CHAPTER 10

As the cardinal was regaining his carriage on leaving Mrs. Giles's
party, there was, about the entrance of the house, the usual gathering
under such circumstances; some zealous linkboys marvellously familiar
with London life, and some midnight loungers, who thus take their humble
share of the social excitement, and their happy chance of becoming
acquainted with some of the notables of the wondrous world of which
they form the base. This little gathering, ranged at the instant into
stricter order by the police to facilitate the passage of his eminence,
prevented the progress of a passenger, who exclaimed in an audible,
but not noisy voice, as if, he were ejaculating to himself, "A bas les
pretres!"

This exclamati