oul,
"I am acquainted with a dignitary of the Church, who has lost a handsome
silver snuffbox--beautiful repousse work, with his arms engraved on the
lid."

"And I," retaliated he, "I am acquainted with a broken-down old doctor
and his wife, in Trastevere, who shall have meat and wine at dinner for
the next two months--at the expense of a niece of mine. 'I am so glad,'
as Alice of Wonderland says, 'that you married into our family.'"

"Alice of Wonderland--?" doubted Beatrice.

The Cardinal waved his hand.

"Oh, if you prefer, Punch. Everything in English is one or the other."

Beatrice laughed. "It was the I of which especially surprised my English
ear," she explained.

"I am your debtor for two hundred lire. I cannot quarrel with you over a
particle," said he.

"But why," asked she, "why did you give yourself such superfluous pains?
Why couldn't you ask me for the money point-blank? Why lure it from me,
by trick and device?"

The Cardinal chuckled.

"Ah, one must keep one's hand in. And one must not look like a Jesuit
for nothing."

"Do you look like a Jesuit?"

"I have been told so."

"By whom--for mercy's sake?"

"By a gentleman I had the pleasure of meeting not long ago in the
train--a very gorgeous gentleman, with gold chains and diamonds flashing
from every corner of his person, and a splendid waxed moustache, and a
bald head which, I think, was made of polished pink coral. He turned to
me in the most affable manner, and said, 'I see, Reverend Sir, that you
are a Jesuit. There should be a fellow-feeling between you and me. I am
a Jew. Jews and Jesuits have an almost equally bad name!'"

The Cardinal's humorous grey eyes swam in a glow of delighted merriment.

"I could have hugged him for his 'almost.' I have been wondering ever
since whether in his mind it was the Jews or the Jesuits who benefited
by that reservation. I have been wondering also what I ought to have
replied."

"What did you reply?" asked Beatrice, curious.

"No, no," said the Cardinal. "With sentiments of the highest
consideration, I must respectfully decline to tell you. It was too flat.
I am humiliated whenever I recall it."

"You might have replied that the Jews, at least, have the advantage of
meriting their bad name," she suggested.

"Oh, my dear child!" objected he. "My reply was flat--you would have had
it sharp. I should have hurt the poor well-meaning man's feelings, and
perhaps have burdened my own soul with a f