Page:The Saint (1906, G. P. Putnam's Sons).djvu/83

Rh smiling. "They are at the Aniene. I must tell you about it—but it is a long story! They will be here presently."

Meanwhile the Abbé Marinier had gone out on the terrace, and now exclaimed:

"Oh, c'est admirable!"

Don Paolo Faré, always loyal to his native Como, murmured, "Beautiful, beautiful indeed!" as if he would have liked to add, "but if you could only see my country!"

Maria joined them, and the introductions were repeated; then Leynì told his story while Marinier let his little sparkling eyes wander over the landscape, from the pyramid-shaped Subiaco, standing out with a dark scenic effect against the bright background in the west, to the wild hornbeams close by, which shut out the east.

Don Fare was devouring Selva with his eyes, Selva, the author of critical essays on the Old and New Testament, and especially of a book on the basis of future Catholic theology, which had elevated and transfigured his faith. Baron Leynì was telling his story. At the station of Mandela it had been very windy, and Professor Dane greatly feared he had taken cold; suspecting that there would be no cognac in the house of such an alcohol hater as Selva, and, moreover, the hour having arrived at which it was his daily custom to take two eggs, he had stopped at the Albergo dell' Aniene for the eggs and cognac. On the terrace of the restaurant, which faced the river, there