ols of
thought, and, having once acted as the late Duke's envoy to the French
court, had frequented the Baron d'Holbach's drawing-room and
familiarised himself with the views of the Encyclopaedists; though it
was clear that he valued their teachings chiefly as an argument against
asceticism.

"Life," said he to Odo, as they sat one afternoon in a garden-pavilion
above the river, a marble Mercury confronting them at the end of a vista
of clipped myrtle, "life, cavaliere, is a stock on which we may graft
what fruit or flower we choose. See the orange-tree in that Capo di
Monte jar: in a week or two it will be covered with red roses. Here
again is a citron set with carnations; and but yesterday my gardener
sent me word that he had at last succeeded in flowering a pomegranate
with jasmine. In such cases the gardener chooses as his graft the flower
which, by its colour and fragrance, shall most agreeably contrast with
the original stock; and he who orders his life on the same principle,
grafting it with pleasures that form a refreshing off-set to the
obligations of his rank and calling, may regard himself as justified by
Nature, who, as you see, smiles on such abnormal unions among her
children.--Not long ago," he went on, with a reminiscent smile, "I had
here under my roof a young person who practised to perfection this art
of engrafting life with the unexpected. Though she was only a player in
a strolling company--a sweetheart of my wild nephew's, as you may
guess--I have met few of her sex whose conversation was so instructive
or who so completely justified the Scriptural adage, "the sweetness of
the lips increaseth learning..." He broke off to sip his chocolate. "But
why," he continued, "do I talk thus to a young man whose path is lined
with such opportunities? The secret of happiness is to say with the
great Emperor, 'Everything is fruit to me which thy seasons bring, O
Nature.'"

"Such a creed, monsignore," Odo ventured to return, "is as flattering to
the intelligence as to the senses; for surely it better becomes a
reasoning being to face fate as an equal than to cower before it like a
slave; but, since you have opened yourself so freely on the subject, may
I carry your argument a point farther and ask how you reconcile your
conception of man's destiny with the authorised teachings of the
Church?"

The Bishop raised his head with a guarded glance.

"Cavaliere," said he, "the ancients did not admit the rabble to t