ld be glad to
submit, for the sake of peace in his household. I often sigh for the
good old days of the Inquisition; but it's still possible, in the
blessed seclusion of the family circle, to apply the rack and the
thumbscrew in a modified form. I know a dozen fine young Protestant men
in London whom I'm labouring to convert, and I feel I 'm defeated only
by the circumstance that I'm not in a position to lead them to the altar
in the full meaning of the expression."

"A dozen?" the Cardinal laughed. "Aren't you complicating the question
of mixed marriages with that of plural marriage?"

"'T was merely a little Hibernicism, for which I beg your Eminence's
indulgence," laughed she. "But what puts the most spokes in a
proselytiser's wheel is the Faith itself. If we only deserved the
reputation for sharp practice and double dealing which the Protestants
have foisted upon us, it would be roses, roses, all the way. Why are
we forbidden to let the end justify the means? And where are those
accommodements avec le ciel of which we've heard? We're not even
permitted a few poor accommodements avec le monde."

"Look at my uncle's face," whispered the Duchessa to Peter. The
Cardinal's fine old face was all alight with amusement. "In his fondness
for taking things by their humorous end, he has met an affinity."

"It will be a grand day for the Church and the nations, when we have
an Irish Pope," Mrs. O'Donovan Florence continued. "A good, stalwart,
militant Irishman is what's needed to set everything right. With a sweet
Irish tongue, he'd win home the wandering sheep; and with a strong Irish
arm, he'd drive the wolves from the fold. It's he that would soon sweep
the Italians out of Rome."

"The Italians will soon be swept out of Rome by the natural current
of events," said the Cardinal. "But an Irish bishop of my acquaintance
insists that we have already had many Irish Popes, without knowing it.
Of all the greatest Popes he cries, 'Surely, they must have had Irish
blood.' He's perfectly convinced that Pius the Ninth was Irish. His very
name, his family-name, Ferretti, was merely the Irish name, Farrity,
Italianised, the good bishop says. No one but an Irishman, he insists,
could have been so witty."

Mrs. O'Donovan Florence looked intensely thoughtful for a moment....
Then, "I 'm trying to think of the original Irish form of Udeschini,"
she declared.

At which there was a general laugh.

"When you say 'soon,' Eminence, do y