elf an ambassador--though not in bondage like St. Paul--and
every act I do and every word I utter need be consecrated by prayer and
reflection."

"Who would have supposed anything so weighty within this little town?"
we remarked. "Before arriving we looked upon it as a deserted village,
the ends of the earth. From the train Gerona appears in the last stage
of misery and destitution."

"Can a prophet come out of Galilee?" quoth the priest. "The unexpected
happens. I have long learned not to judge beforehand; above all not to
be prejudiced by appearances. Rags may conceal the noblest heart, and a
silken doublet cover the bosom of a Judas. Confess," laughing, "that
when I took my seat next to you just now you voted me intrusive; said to
yourself: 'Why does this old man usurp my elbow room, with ten vacant
chairs lower down? He is troublesome. I will chill him with a proud
disdain.' And now all is changed and you ask me to sit next you at
dinner. Is it not so?"

So near the truth, indeed, that one felt as though under the searching
X-rays. "Suffering is misanthropical," we replied. "Not physical but
heart pain brings out the sympathies. So it is dangerous to ask a favour
of a man tortured by gout--or headache."

"All which really means that I knew you better than you know yourself,"
returned Pere Delormais, in his rich, round tones. "That is only a
general experience. And now I go my way. If all be well, we meet again
at dinner. Ah! I never speak without that reservation. How many times
have I seen the evening appointment cancelled by death at noon."

[Illustration: STREET IN GERONA.]

He left the room; a tall, stately figure with hair white as snow; a man
full of life and energy, evidently born to command and fill the high
places of earth: a power for good or evil as he should be well or
ill-directed. A very different nature from Anselmo, whom we had left at
mid-day. The one ruling the destinies of men; the other content to
follow in the Divine footsteps of humility and love; satisfied with a
limited horizon; doing good by precept and example but asking no wider
sphere than his little world. Yet in his way capable of influencing
human hearts; of stirring up enthusiasm in a great crusade if only the
torch of ambition inflamed his zeal. Very different the method and
influence of the two men, though each had the same end in view. But in
the many phases of human nature some must be led, others driven. One
will hear the