Putney Giles to her companion.
"I certainly think that polygamy should be limited by isothermal
lines," replied Lothaw.
"I should say it was a matter of latitude," observed a loud
talkative man opposite. He was an Oxford Professor with a taste
for satire, and had made himself very obnoxious to the company,
during dinner, by speaking disparagingly of a former well-known
Chancellor of the Exchequer,--a great statesman and brilliant
novelist,--whom he feared and hated.
Suddenly there was a sensation in the room; among the females it
absolutely amounted to a nervous thrill. His Eminence, the
Cardinal, was announced. He entered with great suavity of manner,
and, after shaking hands with everybody, asking after their
relatives, and chucking the more delicate females under the chin
with a high-bred grace peculiar to his profession, he sat down,
saying, "And how do we all find ourselves this evening, my dears?"
in several different languages, which he spoke fluently.
Lothaw's heart was touched. His deeply religious convictions were
impressed. He instantly went up to this gifted being, confessed,
and received absolution. "To-morrow," he said to himself, "I will
partake of the communion, and endow the Church with my vast
estates.
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