nd so I feigned sleep instead, and presently had
to snore aloud before my cousin could see it: and, as he stopped
speaking, my Cousin Dorothy came in to bid us good-night.

"Why, I have been half asleep," I said. "I am tired with my journey.
What were you saying, cousin?"

He leered again at that, as if to draw attention to his daughter's
presence.

"Why, we were talking of high matters of state," he said, "when you fell
asleep--matters too high for little maids to hear of. Give me a kiss, my
dear."

When she came to me, I kissed her on the forehead, and not upon the
cheek which she offered me.

"Is that the Italian custom?" cried my Cousin Tom. "Why, we can teach
you better than that--eh, Dolly?"

She said nothing to that; but looked at me a little anxiously and then
at the table where the wine stood; and I thought that I understood her.

"Well, cousin," I said, "I, too, had best be off to bed. We had best
both go. I do not want to lie awake half the night; and if you wake me
when you come to bed, I shall not sleep again."

He tried to persuade me to stay and drink a little more; but I would
not: and for very courtesy he had to come with me.

In spite of my drowsiness, however, when I was once in bed and the light
was out I could not at once sleep. I heard the watchman go by and cry
that it was a fine night; and I heard the carriages go by, and the
chairs; and saw the light of the links on the ceiling at the end of my
bed; and I heard a brawl once and the clash of swords and the scream of
a woman; as well as the snoring of my Cousin Tom, who fell asleep at
once, so full he was of French wine. But it was not these things that
kept me awake, except so far as they were signs to me of where I was.

For here I was in London at last, which, whatever men may say, is the
heart of the world, as Rome is the heart of the Church; and there,
within a gunshot, was the gate of Whitehall where the King lived, and
where my fortunes lay. Neither was I here as a mere Englishman come home
again after seven years, but as a messenger from the Holy See, with work
both to find and to do. To-morrow I must set out, to buy, as I may say,
the munitions of war--my clothes and my new periwigs and my swords and
my horses; and then after that my holy war was to begin. I had my
letters not only to the Court, but to the Jesuits as well--though of
these I had been careful to say nothing to my cousin; for I could
present these very well witho