"He must indeed be good; everybody says so."

"He is perfect. That's about the size of it. None of your locking up his

bedroom when he goes into the garden and putting the key into the pocket

of his cassock, same as in the old Pope's days. I go in whenever I like,

and he lets me take whatever I please. At Christmas some rich Americans

wanted a skull-cap to save a dying man, and I got it for the asking. Now

an old English lady wants a stocking to cure her rheumatism, and I'll

get that too. I've saved a little hair from the last cutting, and if you

hear of anybody...."

The valet's story of his perquisites was interrupted by the opening of

the door of the throne room and the entrance of a friar in a brown

habit. It was Father Pifferi.

"Don't rise, my daughter," he said, and closing the door behind the

valet, he gathered up the skirts of his habit and sat down on the

chest-seat in front of her.

"When you came to me with your confidence, my child, and I found it

difficult to advise with you for your peace of mind, I told you I wished

to take your case to a wiser head than mine. I took it to the Pope

himself. He was touched by your story, and asked to see you for

himself."

"But, Father...."

"Don't be afraid, my daughter. Pius the Tenth as a Pope may be lofty to

sternness, but as a man he is humble and simple and kind. Forget that he

is a sovereign and a pontiff, and think of him as a tender and loving

friend. Tell him everything. Hold nothing back. And if you must needs

reveal the confidences of others, remember that he is the Vicar of Him

who keeps all our secrets."

"But, Father...."

"Yes."

"He is so high, so holy, so far above the world and its temptations...."

"Don't say that, my daughter. The Holy Father is a man like other men.

Shall I tell you something of his life? The world knows it only by

hearsay and report. You shall hear the truth, and when you have heard it

you will go to him as a child goes to its father, and no longer be

afraid."

II

"Thirty-five years ago," said Father Pifferi, "the Holy Father had not

even dreamt of being Pope. He was the only child of a Roman banker,

living in a palace on the opposite side of the piazza. The old Baron had

visions, indeed, of making his son a great churchman by the power of

wealth, but these were vain and foolish, and the young man did not share

them. His own aims were simple but worldly. He desired to be a soldier,

and to compromise with his father's disappointed ambitions he asked for

a commission in the Pope's Noble Guard."




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