the Church's business, and that of their Majesties'."

"And his own too, sometimes, I believe," answered the ambassador drily.
"But to be frank, what I do not understand about you, Senor d'Aguilar,
as I know that you have abandoned political ambitions, is why you do not
enter my profession, and put on the black robe once and for all. What
did I say--black? With your opportunities and connections it might be
red by now, with a hat to match."

The Senor d'Aguilar smiled a little as he replied.

"You said, I think, that sometimes I travel on my own business. Well,
there is your answer. You are right, I have abandoned worldly
ambitions--most of them. They are troublesome, and for some people, if
they be born too high and yet not altogether rightly, very dangerous.
The acorn of ambition often grows into an oak from which men hang."

"Or into a log upon which men's heads can be cut off. Senor, I
congratulate you. You have the wisdom that grasps the substance and lets
the shadows flit. It is really very rare."

"You asked why I do not change the cut of my garments," went on
d'Aguilar, without noticing the interruption. "Excellency, to be frank,
because of my own business. I have failings like other men. For
instance, wealth is that substance of which you spoke, rule is the
shadow; he who has the wealth has the real rule. Again, bright eyes may
draw me, or a hate may seek its slaking, and these things do not suit
robes, black or red."

"Yet many such things have been done by those who wore them," replied