"And what of that?" the young man repeated. "How about St. Paul, Abbé Marinier?"
"Ah! my friend! St. Paul, St. Paul—"
By this unfinished sentence the Abbé Marinier probably meant to convey that St. Paul was St. Paul. Di Leynì, on the other hand, reflected that Marinier was Marinier. Don Clemente remarked that not all saints could be sent to China. Why should not the saint of the future be a layman?
"I believe he will be," exclaimed Padre Salvati, The enthusiastic Don Faré, on the contrary, was convinced that he would be a Sovereign Pontiff. The Abbé laughed. "A simple and excellent idea," said he. "But I hear the carriage coming that is to take Dane and myself, and any one else who wishes to join us, to Subiaco, so I will go and take leave of Signor Selva."
He leaned over the parapet to gather a small branch of the olive, planted on the terrace of the ground floor.
"I should offer him this," he said, "and to you, gentlemen, as well," he smilingly added, with a graceful gesture, and then entered the house.
The noise of a two-horse carriage on the road below could in fact be heard. It rounded the cliff upon which the villa stood, and stopped at the gate. A few moments later Maria Selva and Dane, in his heavy overcoat and huge black broad-brimmed hat, came out on the terrace; Giovanni and the Abbé followed.
"Who is coming with us?" Dane asked.
