Presently the Cardinal came to a standstill near her, and closed his book, putting his finger in it, to keep the place.

“It will be, of course, a great loss to Casa Udeschini, when you marry,” he remarked.

Beatrice looked up, astonishment on her brow.

“When I marry?” she exclaimed.  “Well, if ever there was a thunderbolt from a clear sky!”

And she laughed.

“Yes-when you marry,” the Cardinal repeated, with conviction.  “You are a young woman—­you are twenty-eight years old.  You will, marry.  It is only right that you should marry.  You have not the vocation for a religious.  Therefore you must marry.  But it will be a great loss to the house of Udeschini.”

“Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,” said Beatrice, laughing again.  “I haven’t the remotest thought of marrying.  I shall never marry.”

“Il ne faut jamais dire a la fontaine, je ne boirai pas de ton eau,” his Eminence cautioned her, whilst the lines of humour about his mouth emphasised themselves, and his grey eyes twinkled.  “Other things equal, marriage is as much the proper state for the laity, as celibacy is the proper state for the clergy.  You will marry.  It would be selfish of us to oppose your marrying.  You ought to marry.  But it will be a great loss to the family—­it will be a great personal loss to me.  You are as dear to me as any of my blood.  I am always forgetting that we are uncle and niece by courtesy only.”

“I shall never marry.  But nothing that can happen to me can ever make the faintest difference in my feeling for you.  I hope you know how much I love you?” She looked into his eyes, smiling her love.  “You are only my uncle by courtesy?  But you are more than an uncle—­you have been like a father to me, ever since I left my convent.”

The Cardinal returned her smile.

“Carissima,” he murmured.  Then, “It will be a matter of the utmost importance to me, however,” he went on, “that, when the time comes, you should marry a good man, a suitable man—­a man who will love you, whom you will love—­and, if possible, a man who will not altogether separate you from me, who will perhaps love me a little too.  It would send me in sorrow to my grave, if you should marry a man who was not worthy of you.”

“I will guard against that danger by not marrying at all,” laughed Beatrice.

“No—­you will marry, some day,” said the Cardinal.  “And I wish you to remember that I shall not oppose your marrying—­provided the man is a good man.  Felipe will not like it—­Guido will pull a long nose—­but I, at least, will take your part, if I can feel that the man is good.  Good men are rare, my dear; good husbands are rarer still.  I can think, for instance, of no man in our Roman nobility, whom I should be content to see you marry.  Therefore I hope you will not marry a Roman.  You would be more likely to marry one of your own countrymen.  That, of course, would double the loss to us, if it should take you away from Italy.  But remember, if he is a man whom I can think worthy of you, you may count upon me as an ally.”