He regarded the countenance of the unconscious Carmelite intently, and in a manner that denoted the habit of thinking much before he decided.
"Reverend Father," he said, "may I crave a moment of your time, for an affair that concerns the soul of a sinner ?" Though amazed, the monk could not hesitate about answering such an appeal.

Obedient to a gesture of the officer, he followed him from the apartment, and continued at his side while the other threaded the magnificent rooms and descended to his gondola.
"You must be much honored of the Senate, holy monk," observed the latter while they proceeded, "to hold so near a trust about the person of one in whom the state takes so great an interest ?" "I feel it as such, my son.

A life of peace and prayer should have made me friends." "Men like you, father, merit the esteem they crave.

Are you long of Venice ?" "Since the last conclave.

I came into the Republic as confessor to the late minister from Florence." "An honorable trust.