Page:Lesbia Newman - Dalton - 1889.djvu/151



, Papal Legate in the year 189—the hierarchy had succeeded in winning back this ancient privilege from the late Government—was a man fitly chosen for his responsible post. His rise in the Church was due to no truckling, but, on the contrary, to the possession of a powerful will and natural ascendency over common minds which marked him out to the shrewd Roman curia as a man well able to take care of its interests. His ruling motive was ambition, but not of a vulgar kind; mere place and title he set little store by, unless as they could help him to figure as one of the men who have made epochs in ecclesiastical history. For this end he was ready to discard prejudice of all kinds, and to seize his opportunity in whatever shape it might present itself. Having no political bias, he was on terms with the best London society, whatever party might be in office; particularly he had known and visited the Hawknorbuzzard family, who were not catholics, for some three years before the present juncture.

The afternoon gathering at the marquis’s house in Belgravia next day was fairly large; about half-past four there were over a hundred people in the rooms. Lady Hilda