Superstitious as she was, she raised a cry of rapture and excitement: "Ah! _Dio_, that will bring us good luck.

How happy I am, my friend, to see happiness coming to you at the same time as to me! You cannot think how pleased I am! And all will go well now, it's certain, for a house where there is any one whom the Pope welcomes is blessed, the thunder of Heaven falls on it no more!" She laughed yet more loudly as she spoke, and clapped her hands with such exuberant gaiety that Pierre became anxious.

"Hush! hush!" said he, "it's a secret.

Pray don't mention it to any one, either your aunt or even his Eminence.

Monsignor Nani would be much annoyed." She thereupon promised to say nothing, and in a kindly voice spoke of Nani as a benefactor, for was she not indebted to him for the dissolution of her marriage?
Then, with a fresh explosion of gaiety, she went on: "But come, my friend, is not happiness the only good thing?
You don't ask me to weep over the suffering poor to-day! Ah! the happiness of life, that's everything.