's coat; and can I
look at it?"

The Capuchin seemed on the point of giving me an answer, when he
suddenly checked himself. I saw his eyes wander away from my face, and
at the same moment heard a door softly opened and closed again behind
me.

Looking round immediately, I observed another monk in the sacristy--a
tall, lean, black-bearded man, in whose presence my old friend with the
snuff-box suddenly became quite decorous and devotional to look at. I
suspected I was in the presence of the father superior, and I found that
I was right the moment he addressed me.

"I am the father superior of this convent," he said, in quiet, clear
tones, and looking me straight in the face while he spoke, with coldly
attentive eyes. "I have heard the latter part of your conversation, and
I wish to know why you are so particularly anxious to see the piece of
paper that was pinned to the dead man's coat?"

The coolness with which he avowed that he had been listening, and the
quietly imperative manner in which he put his concluding question,
perplexed and startled me. I hardly knew at first what tone I ought to
take in answering him. He observed my hesitation, and attributing it to
the wrong cause, signed to the old Capuchin to retire. Humbly stroking
his long gray beard, and furtively consoling himself with a private
pinch of the "delectable snuff," my venerable friend shuffled out of
the room, making a profound obeisance at the door just before he
disappeared.

"Now," said the father superior, as coldly as ever, "I am waiting, sir,
for your reply."

"You shall have it in the fewest possible words," said I, answering him
in his own tone. "I find, to my disgust and horror, that there is an
unburied corpse in an outhouse attached to your convent. I believe that
corpse to be the body of an English gentleman of rank and fortune, who
was killed in a duel. I have come into this neighborhood with the
nephew and only relation of the slain man, for the express purpose of
recovering his remains; and I wish to see the paper found on the body,
because I believe that paper will identify it to the satisfaction of
the relative to whom I have referred. Do you find my reply sufficiently
straightforward? And do you mean to give me permission to look at the
paper?"

"I am satisfied with your reply, and see no reason for refusing you a
sight of the paper," said the father superior; "but I have something to
say first. In speaking of the impression p