turned dull and wan and common by comparison with her beauty.

"Your eminence," she said, "you must pardon Bobby's _gaucherie_. He
presented you to me and called you 'your grace.' He forgot, or did not
know, that you are a cardinal--a prince--and that I should have been
presented to you. Bobby means well, but he is an English peer and a
guardsman, so we don't expect much else of Bobby."

"He has done a very gracious thing today," said the cardinal. "He has
brought me to you."

Lady Nora looked up quickly, scenting a compliment, and ready to meet
it, but the cardinal's face was so grave and so sincere that her
readiness forsook her and she stood silent.

The earl seemed to be interested in a crucifix of the eleventh century.

"While my lord is occupied with the crucifix," said the cardinal, "will
you not walk with me?"

"Willingly," said Lady Nora, and they went out into the church.

"My dear lady," said the cardinal, after an interval of silence, "you
are entering upon life. You have a position, you have wealth, you have
youth, you have health, and," with a bow, "you have beauty such as God
gives to His creatures only for good purposes. Some women, like Helen of
Troy and Cleopatra, have used their beauty for evil. Others, like my
Queen, Margarita, and like Mary, Queen of the Scots, have held their
beauty as a trust to be exploited for good, as a power to be exercised
on the side of the powerless."