In appearance he was
an exceedingly handsome man,--tall, with a fine figure and
commanding features,--physical advantages which greatly helped him
to enforce his spiritual authority. As he sat in his high-backed,
gilded chair, turning over papers on his desk, docketing this and
marking that for reference, his dark eyes sparkling with avidity as
he counted up certain dividends obtained from mysterious shares in
"miracle" health resorts, and a smile of satisfaction playing on the
firm, well-shaped curve of his intellectual but hard mouth, he
looked an imposing personage enough, of the very type to awe the
weak and timorous. He was much entertained on this particular
morning,--one might almost say he was greatly amused. Quite a
humorous little comedy was being played at the Vatican,--a mock-
solemn farce, which had the possibility of ending in serious
disaster to the innocent,--and he, as a student of the wily and
treacherous side of human nature, was rather interested in its
development. Cardinal Felix Bonpre, a man living far away in an
obscure cathedral-town of France, where he had become renowned for
good works and saintly living, had now, after many years, come out
of his long voluntary retirement, and had performed a miracle!
"And very well done too!" murmured Monsignor Gherardi, smiling to
himself, "Well prepared, well thought out, and successfully
accomplished! Our good Felix is much cleverer than I gave him credit
for.
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