should dismiss their carriages and regain the city on foot. De Crucis
readily consented; and they were soon descending the hill of Posilipo.
Here and there a turn in the road brought them to an open space whence
they commanded the bay from Procida to Sorrento, with Capri afloat in
liquid gold and the long blue shadow of Vesuvius stretching like a
menace toward the city. The spectacle was one of which Odo never
wearied; but today it barely diverted him from the charms of his
companion's talk. The abate de Crucis had that quality of repressed
enthusiasm, of an intellectual sensibility tempered by self-possession,
which exercises the strongest attraction over a mind not yet master of
itself. Though all he said had a personal note he seemed to withhold
himself even in the moment of greatest expansion: like some prince who
should enrich his favourites from the public treasury but keep his
private fortune unimpaired. In the course of their conversation Odo
learned that though of Austrian birth his companion was of mingled
English and Florentine parentage: a fact perhaps explaining the mixture
of urbanity and reserve that lent such charm to his manner. He told Odo
that his connection with the Holy Office had been only temporary, and
that, having contracted a severe cold the previous winter in Germany, he
had accepted a secretaryship in the service of the Papal Nuncio in order
to enjoy the benefits of a mild climate. "By profession," he added, "I
am a pedagogue, and shall soon travel to Rome, where I have been called
by Prince Bracciano to act as governor to his son; and meanwhile I am
taking advantage of my residence here to indulge my taste for
antiquarian studies."

He went on to praise the company they had just left, declaring that he
knew no better way for a young man to form his mind than by frequenting
the society of men of conflicting views and equal capacity. "Nothing,"
said he, "is more injurious to the growth of character than to be