"Well, and yourself ?" he inquired.
"I am leaving this evening," replied Pierre, "but I did not wish to quit Rome without pressing your brave hands." "You are leaving?
But your book ?" "My book--I have been received by the Holy Father, I have made my submission and reprobated my book." Orlando looked fixedly at the priest.

There was a short interval of silence, during which their eyes told one another all that they had to tell respecting the affair.

Neither felt the necessity of any longer explanation.

The old man merely spoke these concluding words: "You have done well, your book was a chimera." "Yes, a chimera, a piece of childishness, and I have condemned it myself in the name of truth and reason." A smile appeared on the dolorous lips of the impotent hero.

"Then you have seen things, you understand and know them now ?" "Yes, I know them; and that is why I did not wish to go off without having that frank conversation with you which we agreed upon." Orlando was delighted, but all at once he seemed to remember the young fellow who had opened the door to Pierre, and who had afterwards modestly resumed his seat on a chair near the window.