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 CHAPTER X

THE POPE WINS

Now, Fifi really intended to go out to Fontainebleau the next day to see the Holy Father, for, although she cared little for the opinion of the world in general, she had been deeply impressed by the benignant old man, and she secretly yearned for his approval. And besides, she had an instinctive feeling that the Holy Father would understand better than any one else in the world why she wished to marry Cartouche. That tender, serene soul of the old man, who cherished the affections of his youth and who had sounded the depths and measured the heights of human grandeur and yet esteemed love the greatest thing in the world, would understand a simple, loving heart like Fifi's. It had been so easy to tell him all about Cartouche and herself—and he had comprehended it so readily; just the same, thought Fifi, as if he himself had lived and worked and struggled as she and Cartouche had lived and worked and struggled.