“Great interest.”

“It is very praiseworthy in you.  Continue as you have begun, and you may one day belong, completely to our Company,” said Father Caboccini, affectionately.

“I am as yet but a poor auxiliary member,” said Faringhea, humbly; “but no one is more devoted to the Society, body and soul.  Bowanee is nothing to it.”

“Bowanee! who is that, my good friend?”

“Bowanee makes corpses which rot in the ground.  The Society makes corpses which walk about.”

“Ah, yes!  Perinde ac cadaver—­they were the last words of our great saint, Ignatius de Loyola.  But who is this Bowanee?”

“Bowanee is to the Society what a child is to a man,” replied the Asiatic, with growing excitement.  “Glory to the Company—­glory!  Were my father its enemy, I would kill my father.  The man whose genius inspires me most with admiration, respect, and terror—­were he its enemy, I would kill, in spite of all,” said the half-caste, with an effort.  Then, after a moment’s silence, he looked full in Caboccini’s face, and added:  “I say this, that you may report my words to Cardinal Malipieri, and beg him to mention them to—­”

Faringhea stopped short.  “To whom should the cardinal mention your words?” asked Caboccini.

“He knows,” replied the half-caste, abruptly.  “Good night!”

“Good-night, my friend!  I can only approve of your excellent sentiments with regard to our Company.  Alas! it is in want of energetic defenders, for there are said to be traitors in its bosom.”

“For those,” said Faringhea, “we must have no pity.”

“Certainly,” said the good little father; “we understand one another.”

“Perhaps,” said the half-caste.  “Do not, at all events, forget to remind Father Rodin to go to chapel to-morrow morning.”

“I will take care of that,” said Father Caboccini.

The two men parted.  On his return to the house, Caboccini learned that a courier, only arrived that night from Rome, had brought despatches to Rodin.

CHAPTER LXVIII.

The first of June.

The chapel belonging to the house of the reverend fathers in the Rue de Vaugirard, was gay and elegant.  Large panes of stained glass admitted a mysterious light; the altar shone with gold and silver; and at the entrance of this little church, in an obscure corner beneath the organ loft, was a font for holy water in sculptured marble.  It was close to this font, in a dark nook where he could hardly be seen, that Faringhea knelt down, early on the 1st of June, as soon indeed as the chapel doors were opened.  The half-caste was exceedingly sad.  From time to time he started and sighed, as if agitated by a violent internal struggle.  This wild, untamable being, possessed with the monomania of evil and destruction, felt, as may be imagined, a profound admiration for