Angela’s eyes grew dark and wistful.

“Yes,” she answered slowly,—­then with a sudden eagerness in her manner she added, “Do you know, Loyse, I feel as if some very strange influence had crept in among us!  Pray do not think me foolish, but I assure you I have had the most curious sensations since my uncle, Cardinal Bonpre arrived from Rouen—­bringing Manuel--”

“Manuel?  Is that the boy I saw in the church this morning?  The boy who threw himself as a shield between Verginaud and the flying shot?  Yes?  And do you not know who he is?”

“No,” and Angela repeated the story of the way in which Manuel had been found and rescued by the Cardinal; “You see,” she continued, “it is not possible to ask him any questions since he has declined to tell us more than we already know.”

“Strange!” And the Princesse D’Agramont knitted her delicate brows perplexedly.  “And you have had curious feelings since he came, you say?  What sort of feelings?”

“Well, you will only laugh at me,” replied Angela, her cheeks paling a little as she spoke, “but it really is as if some supernatural being were present who could see all my inward thoughts,—­and not only mine, but the thoughts of everyone else.  Someone too who impels us to do what we have never thought of doing before—­”

The Princesse opened her eyes in amazement.

“My dear girl!  You must have been over-working to get such strange fancies into your head!  There is nothing supernatural left to us nowadays except the vague idea of a God,—­and even that we are rather tired of!”

Angela trembled and grew paler than usual.

“Do not speak in that way,” she urged, “The Abbe talked in just such a light fashion until the other day here,—­yet this morning I think--nay, I am sure he believes in something better than himself at last.”

The Princesse was silent for a minute.

“Well, what is to happen next?” she queried, “Excommunication of course!  All brave thinkers of every time have been excommunicated, and many of our greatest and most valuable scientific works are on the Index Expurgatorius.  It is my ambition to get into that Index,—­ I shall never rest till I win the honour of being beside Darwin’s ’Origin of Species’!”

Angela smiled, but her thoughts were elsewhere.

“I hope the Abbe will go away at once,” she said meditatively, “But you have no idea how happy and at ease he is!  He seems to be ready for anything.”

“What does Cardinal Bonpre think?” asked the Princesse.

“My uncle never thinks in any way except the way of Christ,” replied Angela.  “He says, ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee; arise and walk’, to every soul stricken with the palsy of pain and repentance.  He helps the fallen; he does not strike them down more heavily.”

“Ah, so!  And is he fit to be a Cardinal?” queried the Princesse D’Agramont dubiously.

Angela gave her a quick look, but had no time to reply as at that moment a servant entered and announced, “Monsignor Moretti!”