"
What was the use of trying to expound a truth, if the majority
preferred a lie?
"Will one bright beam be less intense,
When thy peculiar difference
Is cancelled in the world of sense?"
And Gherardi noted the indefinable touch of fatigue that gave the
slight droop of the shoulders and air of languor to the otherwise
straight slim figure as it passed from his presence,--and smiled. He
had succeeded in putting a check on unselfish ardour, and had thrown
a doubt into the pure intention of enthusiastic toil. That was
enough for the present. And scarcely had Aubrey crossed the
threshold--scarcely had the echo of his departing footsteps died
away--when a heavy velvet curtain in the apartment was cautiously
thrust aside, and Monsignor Moretti stepped out of a recess behind
it, with a dignity and composure which would have been impossible to
any but an Italian priest convicted of playing the spy. Gherardi
faced him confidently.
"Well?" he said, with a more exhaustive enquiry expressed in his
look than in the simple ejaculation.
"Well!" echoed Moretti, as he slowly advanced into the centre of the
room, "You have not done as much as I expected you would. Your
arguments were clever, but not--to a man of his obstinacy,
convincing.
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