"Thank you," said Lady Nora; "your poor are now provided for."
"Alas, no," said the cardinal; "my pigeons are my aristocratic acquaintance. They would leave me if I did not feed them. My real poor have two legs, like the pigeons, but G.o.d gave them no feathers. They are the misbegotten, the maladroit, the unlucky,--I stand by that word,-- the halt, the blind, those with consciences too tender to make their way, reduced gentlefolk, those who have given their lives for the public good and are now forgotten, all these are my poor, and they honor me by their acquaintance. My pigeons fly to my balcony. My poor never come near me. I am obliged, humbly, to go to them."
"Will money help?" exclaimed Lady Nora; "I have a balance at my banker"s."
"No, no, my lady," said the cardinal; "money can no more buy off poverty than it can buy off the bubonic plague. Both are diseases. G.o.d sent them and He alone can abate them. At His next coming there will be strange sights. Some princes and some poor men will be astonished."
Just then, a woman, short, plump, red-cheeked and smiling, came toward them. She was no longer young, but she did not know it.
"Your eminence," said Lady Nora, "I present my aunt, Miss O"Kelly."
Miss O"Kelly sank so low that her skirts made what children call "a cheese" on the white deck.
"Your imminence," she said, slowly rising, "sure this is the proud day for Nora, the Tara, and meself."
"And for me, also," said the cardinal. "From now until nine o"clock I shall air my English speech, and I shall have two amiable and friendly critics to correct my mistakes."
"Ah, your imminence," laughed Miss O"Kelly, "I don"t speak English. I speak County Clare."
"County Clare!" exclaimed the cardinal; "then you know Ennis? Fifty odd years ago there was a house, just out of the town of Ennis, with iron gates and a porter"s lodge. The Blakes lived there."
"I was born in that house," said Miss O"Kelly. "It was draughty, but it always held a warm welcome."
"I do not remember the draught," said the cardinal, "but I do remember the welcome. When I was an undergraduate at Oxford, I made a little tour of Ireland, during a long vacation. I had letters from Rome. One of them was to the chapter at Ennis. A young priest took me to that house. I went back many times. There was a daughter and there were several strapping sons. The boys did nothing, that I could discover, but hunt and shoot. They were amiable, however. The daughter hunted, also, but she did many other things. She kept the house, she visited the poor, she sang Irish songs to perfection, and she flirted beyond compare. She had hair so black that I can give you no notion of its sheen; and eyes as blue as our Venetian skies. Her name was Nora--Nora Blake. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen--until yesterday."
"She was my mother!" exclaimed Miss O"Kelly.
"And my grandmother," said Lady Nora.
The cardinal drew a breath so sharp that it was almost a sob, then he took Lady Nora"s hand.
"My child," he said, "I am an old man. I am threescore years and ten, and six more, and you bring back to me the happiest days of my youth.
You are the image of Nora Blake, yes, her very image. I kiss the images of saints every day," he added, "why not this one?" and he bent and kissed Lady Nora"s hand.
There was so much solemnity in the act that an awkward pause might have followed it had not Miss O"Kelly been Irish.
"Your imminence," she said, "since you"ve told us your age, I"ll tell you mine. I"m two-and-twenty and I"m mighty tired of standin". Let"s go aft and have our tay."
They had taken but a few steps when Lady Nora, noticing the cardinal"s limp, drew his arm through her own and supported him.
"I know the whole story," she whispered. "You loved my grandmother."
"Yes," said the cardinal, "but I was unworthy."
IV
They had their tea, two white-clad stewards serving them. The cardinal took a second cup and then rose and went to the side. He crumbled a biscuit along the rail.
"I have often wondered," he said, "if my pigeons come for me or for my crumbs. Nora Blake used to say that her poor were as glad to see her without a basket as with one. But she was a saint. She saw things more clearly than it is given to us to see them."
The women looked at each other, in silence.
"No," said the cardinal, after an interval, "they do not come; they are as satisfied with Pietro"s crumbs as with mine. Love is not a matter of the stomach;" and he brushed the crumbs overboard. "Perhaps the fishes will get them," he added, "and they will not know whence they came.
Anonymous charity," he continued, coming back to his chair, "is the best. It curbs the pride of the giver and preserves the pride of the recipient. Open giving is becoming a trade. It is an American invention.
Very rich men in that country offer so much for an object--a college--a hospital--a library--if some one else will give so much. The offer is printed in the newspapers of the land and its originator reaps much--what is the word I wish?--acclaim? no; kudos? no;--ah, yes, advertis.e.m.e.nt; that is the word. Thank G.o.d that charity does not thus masquerade in Italy. There are men here, in poor old Venice, who give half their goods to feed the poor. Are their names published? No. The newspapers reason thus--"Here is a gentleman; let us treat him as one,"
We have no professional philanthropists in Italy. After all," he added, "mere giving is the lowest form of charity. If all the wealth of the world were divided the world would be debauched. Binding up wounds, pouring in oil and wine, bringing the wronged man to an inn, giving him your companionship, your sympathy, so that he shows his heart to you and lets you heal its bruises--that is your true charity."
"That"s what I"m telling Nora," exclaimed Miss O"Kelly; "she"s forever drawing checks. There was my nephew, Nora"s cousin, Phelim. He gave away all he had. He gave it to the piquet players in the Kildare Club. "Aunt Molly," he said to me, "piquet has cost me fifteen thousand pounds, and I am just beginning to learn the game. Now that I know it a bit, no one will play with me. Your bread cast on the waters may come back, but it"s ten to one it comes back mouldy, from the voyage." Phelim is the flower of the family, your imminence. He is six foot three. He was out twice before he was two-and-twenty. The first time was with Liftennant Doyle of the Enniskillens. "Twas about a slip of a girl that they both fancied. The Liftennant fired at the word and missed. "Try your second barrel," called Phelim, "I"m still within bounds" (that"s pigeon-shootin" talk, your imminence). The Liftennant laughed and the two went off to the club, arm in arm, and they stayed there two days.
There"s waiters in the club yet, that remembers it. The next time Phelim was out, "twas with a little attorney-man from Cork, named Crawford.
There was no girl this time; "twas more serious; "twas about a horse Phelim had sold, and the little attorney-man had served a writ, and Phelim went down to Cork and pulled the little man"s nose. Whin the word was given the attorney-man fired and nicked Phelim"s ear. Phelim raised his pistol, slow as married life, and covered the little man. "Take off your hat!" called Phelim. The little man obeyed, white as paper, and shakin" like a leaf. "Was the horse sound?" called Phelim. "He was,"
said the little man "Was he six years old?" called Phelim. "At least,"
said the little man. "None of your quibbles," called Phelim. "He was six, to a minute," said the little man, looking into the pistol, "Was he chape at the price?" asked Phelim. "He was a gift," said the attorney "Gentlemen," says Phelim, "you have heard this dyin" confession--we will now seal it," and he sent a bullet through the attorney-man"s hat. I had it all from Dr. Clancey, who was out with them. They sent Phelim to Parliament after that, but he took the Chiltern Hundreds and came home.
He said his duties interfered with the snipe-shootin". You"d like Phelim, your imminence."
"I am sure I should," said the cardinal.
"He"s in love with Nora," said Miss O"Kelly.
"Ah," said the cardinal, "I spoke too quickly."
Meanwhile the shadows began to creep across the deck. The cardinal rose from his chair.
"At what hour do you dine?" he asked.
"I made the hour early when I heard you order your barca for nine," said Lady Nora; "I said half-past seven."
"Then," said the cardinal, "I should excuse you, but I do it reluctantly. I am keeping you from your toilet."
Miss O"Kelly laughed. "Your imminence," she said, "when a woman reaches my age it takes her some time to dress. I told you I was two-and-twenty.
It will take my maid nearly an hour to make me look it," and, with a courtesy, she went below.
Lady Nora stayed behind. "Your eminence," she said, "the evening will be fine; shall we dine on deck?"
"That will be charming," said the cardinal.
"Whenever you wish to go to your room," said Lady Nora, "you have but to press this b.u.t.ton, and the head steward will come." She still loitered.
"I think it very likely," she said, hesitating, "that the Earl of Vauxhall will drop in; he often does. I should have mentioned it before, but I was so delighted at your staying that I forgot all about him."
"My dear lady," said the cardinal, "to supplant the Earl of Vauxhall in your thoughts is great honor."
She looked at him quickly, blushed, cast down her eyes, and began, nervously, to play with a gold boat-whistle that hung at her belt. When she had exhausted the possibilities of the whistle she looked up again, and the cardinal saw that there were tears upon her cheeks. When she knew that he had seen them she disregarded them, and threw up her head, proudly.
"Yes," she said, "I think of him far too often; so often that it makes me angry, it makes me ashamed. He is an earl; he is tall and straight and beautiful and clean, and--he loves me--I know it," she exclaimed, her face illumined; "but why," she went on, "should I give myself to him on these accounts? Why should he not earn me? Why does he compel me to so one-sided a bargain? I, too, am tall and straight and clean, and not ill-favored, and, in addition, I have that curse of unmarried women--I have money. Why does he not _do_ something to even up the transaction?
Why does he not write a page that some one will read? Why does he not write a song that some one will sing? Why does he not do something that will make the world call me his wife, instead of calling him my husband?