The Cardinal's Snuff Box

"Thank you very much," said Peter.

"Of course," she went on, "we may all die of our wetting yet.

It would perhaps show a neighbourly interest if you were to

come up to-morrow, and take our news. Come at four o'clock;

and if we're alive . . . you shall have another pinch of

snuff," she promised, laughing.

"I adore you," said Peter, under his breath. "I'll come with

great pleasure," he said aloud.

"Marietta," he observed, that evening, as he dined, "I would

have you to know that the Aco is bridged. Hence, there is one

symbol the fewer in Lombardy. But why does--you mustn't mind

the Ollendorfian form of my enquiry--why does the chaplain of

the Duchessa wear red stockings?"

"The chaplain of the Duchessa--?" repeated Marietta, wrinkling

up her brow.

"Ang--of the Duchessa di Santangiolo. He wore red stockings,

and shoes with silver buckles. Do you think that's precisely

decorous--don't you think it 's the least bit light-minded--in

an ecclesiastic?"

"He--? Who--?" questioned Marietta.

"But the chaplain of the Duchessa--when he was here this

afternoon."

"The chaplain of the Duchessa!" exclaimed Marietta. "Here this

afternoon? The chaplain of the Duchessa was not here this

afternoon. His Eminence the Lord Prince Cardinal Udeschini was

here this afternoon."

"What!" gasped Peter.

"Ang," said Marietta.

"That was Cardinal Udeschini--that little harmless-looking,

sweet-faced old man!" Peter wondered.

"Sicuro--the uncle of the Duca," said she.

"Good heavens!" sighed he. "And I allowed myself to hobnob

with him like a boon-companion."

"Gia," said she.

"You need n't rub it in," said he. "For the matter of that,

you yourself entertained him in your kitchen."

"Scusi?" said she.

"Ah, well--it was probably for the best," he concluded. "I

daresay I should n't have behaved much better if I had known."

"It was his coming which saved this house from being struck by

lightning," announced Marietta.

"Oh--? Was it?" exclaimed Peter.

"Yes, Signorino. The lightning would never strike a house that

the Lord Prince Cardinal was in."

"I see--it would n't venture--it would n't presume. Did--did

it strike all the houses that the Lord Prince Cardinal was n't

in?"

"I do not think so, Signorino. Ma non fa niente. It was a

terrible storm--terrible, terrible. The lightning was going to

strike this house, when the Lord Prince Cardinal arrived."