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"You should have appealed to Cupid!" said the cardinal, laughing "In

such a case aid could cood of ancient Rome, not of the

modern!"

The old man noticed not his words Wholly absorbed in his reminiscences,

he listened only to the voice of his own breast, saw only the form of

the beautiful woman he had once so dearly loved!

"God listened not to h, "or

perhapsheart heard not the voice of God, because I

listened only to her; because with intoxicated senses I was listening

to thein the

confessional, hispering in my ears; because I felt her breath

uponAnd one day,

overcoot his sworn duty

as to confess his immodest and insane love for the wife of another man!"

"Ah, she was, then, married?" remarked the cardinal

"Yes, she was married; sold by her own parents, sacrificed at the shrine