Angela
Sovrani listened attentively, her violet eyes darkening and
deepening as she heard,--now and then she raised them to look at the
youthful waif who stood so quietly while the story of his troubles
was told in the gentle and sympathetic way which was the Cardinal's
usual manner of speech, and which endeared him so much to all. "And
for the present," finished Bonpre, smiling--"he stays with me, and
already I have found him skilled in the knowledge of many things,--
he can read Scripture with a most musical and clear emphasis,--and
he is a quick scribe, so that he will be valuable to me in more ways
than one."
"Ah!" and the Abbe turned himself round in his chair to survey the
boy more attentively, "You can read Scripture? But can you
understand it? If you can, you are wiser than I am!"
Manuel regarded him straightly.
"Was it not once said in Judaea that "IT IS THE SPIRIT THAT
QUICKENETH'?" he asked.
"True!--And from that you would infer . . . ?"
"That when one cannot understand Scripture, it is perhaps for the
reason that 'THE LETTER KILLETH, BECAUSE LACKING THE SPIRIT THAT
GIVETH LIFE."
The boy spoke gently and with grace and modesty,--but something in
the tone of his voice had a strange effect on the cynical
temperament of Abbe Vergniaud.
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