“And apropos of conversions,” said Beatrice, “see how far we have strayed from our muttons.”
“Our muttons--?” The Cardinal looked up, enquiring.
“I want to know what you think--not of my hat--but of my man.”
“Oh--ah, yes; your Englishman, your tenant.” The Cardinal nodded.
“My Englishman--my tenant--my heretic,” said she.
“Well,” said he, pondering, while the parentheses became marked again,--“I should think, from what you tell me, that you would find him a useful neighbour. Let me see... You got fifty lire out of him, for a word; and the children went off, blessing you as their benefactress. I should think that you would find him a valuable neighbour--and that he, on his side, might find you an expensive one.”
Beatrice, with a gesture, implored him to be serious.
“Ah, please don't tease about this,” she said. “I want to know what you think of his conversion?”
“The conversion of a heretic is always 'a consummation devoutly to be desired,' as well, you may settle it between Shakespeare and Byron, to suit yourself. And there are none so devoutly desirous of such consummations as you Catholics of England--especially you women. It is said that a Catholic Englishwoman once tried to convert the Pope.”
“Well, there have been popes whom it would n't have hurt,” commented Beatrice. “And as for Mr. Marchdale,” she continued, “he has shown 'dispositions.' He admitted that he could see no reason why it should not have been Our Blessed Lady who sent us to the children's aid. Surely, from a Protestant, that is an extraordinary admission?”
“Yes,” said the Cardinal. “And if he meant it, one may conclude that he has a philosophic mind.”
“If he meant it?” Beatrice cried. “Why should he not have meant it? Why should he have said it if he did not mean it?”
“Oh, don't ask me,” protested the Cardinal. “There is a thing the French call politesse. I can conceive a young man professing to agree with a lady for the sake of what the French might call her beaux yeux.”
“I give you my word,” said Beatrice, “that my beaux yeux had nothing to do with the case. He said it in the most absolute good faith. He said he believed that in a universe like ours nothing was impossible--that there were more things in heaven and earth than people generally dreamed of--that he could see no reason why the Blessed Virgin should not have sent us across the children's path. Oh, he meant it. I am perfectly sure he meant it.”
The Cardinal smiled--at her eagerness, perhaps.
“Well, then,” he repeated, “we must conclude that he has a philosophic mind.”
“But what is one to do?” asked she. “Surely one ought to do something? One ought to follow such an admission up? When a man is so far on the way to the light, it is surely one's duty to lead him farther?”
“Without doubt,” said the Cardinal.
“Well--? What can one do?”
The Cardinal looked grave.
“One can pray,” he said.
“Emilia and I pray for his conversion night and morning.”
“That is good,” he approved.
“But that is surely not enough?”
“One can have Masses said.”
“Monsignor Langshawe, at the castle, says a Mass for him twice a week.”
“That is good,” approved the Cardinal.
“But is that enough?”
“Why doesn't Monsignor Langshawe call upon him--cultivate his acquaintance--talk with him--set him thinking?” the Cardinal enquired.
“Oh, Monsignor Langshawe!” Beatrice sighed, with a gesture. “He is interested in nothing but geology--he would talk to him of nothing but moraines--he would set him thinking of nothing but the march of glaciers.”
“Hum,” said the Cardinal.
“Well, then--?” questioned Beatrice.
“Well, then, Carissima, why do you not take the affair in hand yourself?”
“But that is just the difficulty. What can I what can a mere woman--do in such a case?”
The Cardinal looked into his amethyst, as a crystal-gazer into his crystal; and the lines about his humorous old mouth deepened and quivered.
“I will lend you the works of Bellarmine in I forget how many volumes. You can prime yourself with them, and then invite your heretic to a course of instructions.”
“Oh, I wish you would n't turn it to a joke,” said Beatrice.
“Bellarmine--a joke!” exclaimed the Cardinal. “It is the first time I have ever heard him called so. However, I will not press the suggestion.”
“But then--? Oh, please advise me seriously. What can I do? What can a mere unlearned woman do?”
The Cardinal took snuff. He gazed into his amethyst again, beaming at it, as if he could descry something deliciously comical in its depths. He gave a soft little laugh. At last he looked up.
“Well,” he responded slowly, “in an extremity, I should think that a mere unlearned woman might, if she made an effort, ask the heretic to dinner. I 'll come down and stay with you for a day or two, and you can ask him to dinner.”
“You're a perfect old darling,” cried Beatrice, with rapture. “He'll never be able to resist you.”'
“Oh, I 'm not undertaking to discuss theology with him,” said the Cardinal. “But one must do something in exchange for a couple of hundred lire--so I'll come and give you my moral support.”
“You shall have your lovely silver snuffbox, all the same,” said she.
Mark the predestination!
XVI
“CASTEL VENTIROSE, “August 21 st.
“DEAR Mr. Marchdale: It will give me great pleasure if you can dine with us on Thursday evening next, at eight o'clock, to meet my uncle, Cardinal Udeschini, who is staying here for a few days.
“I have been re-reading 'A Man of Words.' I want you to tell me a great deal more about your friend, the author.
Yours sincerely, BEATRICE DI SANTANGIOLO.”
It is astonishing, what men will prize, what men will treasure. Peter Marchdale, for example, prizes, treasures, (and imagines that he will always prize and treasure), the perfectly conventional, the perfectly commonplace little document, of which the foregoing is a copy.
The original is written in rather a small, concentrated hand, not overwhelmingly legible perhaps, but, as we say, “full of character,” on paper lightly blueish, in the prescribed corner of which a tiny ducal coronet is embossed, above the initials “B. S.” curiously interlaced in a cypher.
When Peter received it, and (need I mention?) approached it to his face, he fancied he could detect just a trace, just the faintest reminder, of a perfume--something like an afterthought of orris. It was by no means anodyne. It was a breath, a whisper, vague, elusive, hinting of things exquisite, intimate of things intimately feminine, exquisitely personal. I don't know how many times he repeated that manoeuvre of conveying the letter to his face; but I do know that when I was privileged to inspect it, a few months later, the only perfume it retained was an unmistakable perfume of tobacco.
I don't know, either, how many times he read it, searched it, as if secrets might lie perdu between the lines, as if his gaze could warm into evidence some sympathetic ink, or compel a cryptic sub-intention from the text itself.
Well, to be sure, the text had cryptic subintentions; but these were as far as may be from any that Peter was in a position to conjecture. How could he guess, for instance, that the letter was an instrument, and he the victim, of a Popish machination? How could he guess that its writer knew as well as he did who was the author of “A Man of Words”?
And then, all at once, a shade of trouble of quite another nature fell upon his mind. He frowned for a while in silent perplexity. At last he addressed himself to Marietta.
“Have you ever dined with a cardinal?” he asked.
“No, Signorino,” that patient sufferer replied.
“Well, I'm in the very dickens of a quandary--son' proprio nel dickens d'un imbarazzo.” he informed her.
“Dickens--?” she repeated.
“Si--Dickens, Carlo, celebre autore inglese. Why not?” he asked.
Marietta gazed with long-suffering eyes at the horizon.
“Or, to put it differently,” Peter resumed, “I've come all the way from London with nothing better than a dinner jacket in my kit.”
“Dina giacca? Cosa e?” questioned Marietta.
“No matter what it is--the important thing is what it is n't. It is n't a dress-coat.”
“Non e un abito nero,” said Marietta, seeing that he expected her to say something.
“Well--? You perceive my difficulty. Do you think you could make me one?” said Peter.
“Make the Signorino a dress-coat? I? Oh, no, Signorino.” Marietta shook her head.
“I feared as much,” he acknowledged. “Is there a decent tailor in the village?”
“No, Signorino.”
“Nor in the whole length and breadth of this peninsula, if you come to that. Well, what am I to do? How am I to dine with a cardinal? Do you think a cardinal would have a fit if a man were to dine with him in a dina giacca?”
“Have a fit? Why should he have a fit, Signorino?” Marietta blinked.
“Would he do anything to the man? Would he launch the awful curses of the Church at him, for instance?”
“Mache, Signorino!” She struck an attitude that put to scorn his apprehensions.
“I see,” said Peter. “You think there is no danger? You advise me to brazen the dina giacca out, to swagger it off?”