There was a dead pause. At last Moretti spoke.

"I have no place here!" he said, biting his lips hard to keep them
from trembling with rage, "This house which I thought was the abode
of a true daughter of the Church, Donna Sovrani, is apparently for
the moment a refuge for heretics. And I find these heretics kept in
countenance by Cardinal Felix Bonpre, whose reputation for justice
and holiness should surely move him to denounce them were he not
held in check by some malignant spirit of evil, which seems to
possess this atmosphere--"

"Monsignor Moretti," interposed the Cardinal with dignity, "it is no
part of justice or holiness to denounce anything or anybody till the
full rights of the case have been heard. I was as unaware as
yourself that this young man, Cyrillon Vergniaud, was the daring
writer who has sent his assumed name of 'Gys Grandit' like a flame
through Europe. I have read his books, and cannot justly denounce
them, because they are expressed in the language of one who is
ardently and passionately seeking for Truth. Equally, I cannot
denounce the Abbe, because he has confessed his sin, declared
himself as he is, to the public, saved his son from being a
parricide, and has to some extent we trust, made his peace with God.
If you can find any point on which, as a servant of Christ, I can
denounce these two human beings who share with me the strange and
awful privileges of life and death, and the promise of an immortal
hereafter, I give you leave to do so. The works of Gys Grandit do
not blaspheme Christ,--they call, they clamour, they appeal for
Christ through all and in all--"

"And with all this clamour and appeal their writer is willing to