Father Secchi refused at once.

He said I was to meet him at the Church of St.Ignasio at one and a half hours before Ave Marie, and he would conduct me through the church into the observatory.

My servant might come into the church with me.

The Ave Marie bell rings half an hour after sunset.
"At the appointed time, the next fine day,--and all days seem to be fine,--we set out on our mission.
"When we entered the church we saw, far in the distance, Father Secchi, standing just behind a pillar.

He slipped out a little way, as much as to say, 'I await you,' but did not come forward to meet us; so the woman and I passed along through the rows of kneeling worshippers, by the strolling students, and past the lounging tourists--who, guide-book in hand, are seen in every foreign church--until we came to the standpoint from which the Father had been watching us.
"Then the Italian woman put up a petition, not one word of which I could understand, but the gestures and the pointing showed that she begged to go on and enter the monastery and see the observatory.