"My husband is a different kind of man altogether."

"Ah!"

"He has done everything for me, Holy Father--everything. Heaven knows

what I should have been now without him."

"God bless him! God bless both of you!"

"I came to know him by the strangest accident. He is a Liberal too, and

a Deputy, and thinking of the corruptions of the Government, he pointed

to me as the mistress of the Minister. It was not true, but I was

degraded, and ... and I set out to destroy him."

"A terrible vengeance, my child. Only the Minister could have thought of

it."

"Then I found that my enemy was one of my father's friends, and a true

and noble man. Holy Father, I had begun in hate, but I could not hate

him. The darkness faded away from my soul, and something bright and

beautiful came in its place. I loved him, and he loved me. With all our

hearts we loved each other."

"And then?"

"Then he came back to me. I knew all the secrets I had set out to

learn, but I could not give them up, and when I refused he threatened

me."

"And what did you do?"

"I married my husband and withstood every temptation. It wasn't so very

hard, for I cared nothing for wealth and luxury now. I only wanted to be

good. God Himself should see how good I could be."

The Pope's eyes were moist. He was patting the young woman's trembling

hand.

"My blessing rest on you, my daughter, and may the man you have married

be worthy of your love and trust."

"Indeed, indeed he is," said Roma.

"He was your father's friend, you tell me?"

"Yes, your Holiness, and although we met again so recently, I had known

him in England when I was a child."

"A Liberal, you say?"

"Yes, your Holiness."

"The enmity of the Minister was the fruit of political warfare?"

"Nothing but that at first, though now...."

"I see, I see. And the secrets you speak of are only...."

"Only the doings of twenty years ago, which are dead and done with."

"Then your husband is older than you are?"

The young woman broke into a sunny smile, which set the Pope smiling.

"Only ten years older, your Holiness. He is thirty-four."

"Where does he come from, and what was his father?"




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