"If He came again, I fear He would not find much of His teaching in
any of the creeds founded on His name! If He came again, then indeed
might the churches tremble, totter and fall!"
"If He came again," pursued Manuel, still in the same soft, even
voice, "how do you think He would come?"
"'Watch ye therefore for ye know not when He cometh,'" murmured the
Cardinal,--" My dear child, I think if He came again it would be
perhaps in the disguise of one who is poor and friendless 'despised
and rejected of men,' as when He first glorified the earth by His
presence; and I fear that in such plight He would find Himself, as
before, unwelcome."
Manuel made no reply just then, as they had arrived at home. The
servant who admitted them told them that Donna Sovrani had a visitor
in her studio,--so that the Cardinal and his young attendant went
straight to their own apartments.
"Read to me, Manuel," then said Bonpre, seating himself near the
window, and looking out dreamily on the rich foliage of the woods
and grassy slopes that stretched before him, "Find something in the
Gospels that will fit what we have seen to-day. I am tired of all
these temples and churches!--these gorgeous tombs and reliquaries;
they represent penances and thank-offerings no doubt, but to me they
seem useless.
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