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"No," said the voice, thoughtfully, "rather for the church, for this is God's church, though the Devil is our Superior General, the founding saint of our Order, so why not beeswax? Leave it to you, a vain and a worldly Venetian, to think it luxury, to confuse it with the wealth in which you ed rather like the pig in his slops "

I laughed softly "Give ic," I said "Be the Aquinas of the Devil Speak on "

"Don't ly and sincerely "I saved you from the fire "

"I would be dead now if you had not "

"You want to burn?"

"No, not to suffer so, no, I can't bear the thought of it, that I or anyone should suffer so But to die, yes "

"And what do you think will be your destination if you do die? Are the fires of Hell not fifty tihted for you and your friends? You are Hell's child; you were from the first moment that the blasphemer Marius infused you with our blood No one can reverse this judgment You are kept alive by blood that is cursed and unnatural and pleasing to Satan, and pleasing to God only because He ive ood or bad "

I laughed again, but as respectfully as I could "There are so many of you," I said I turned my head The numerous candles blinded me, but it wasn't unpleasant It was as if a different species of flame danced on the wicks, than the species that had consumed my brothers

"Were they your brothers, these spoilt and pa

"Do you believe all the rot you're talking tohis tone

He laughed now, and it was a decently, churchly laugh as though hispering together about the absurdity of a sermon But the Blessed Sacrament was not here as it would be in a consecrated church, so hisper?

"Dear one," he said "It would be so siant littlebut an instru to wall you up so that your screa accohtly s That is why I serve the Devil so well; I have never come to like cruelty or evil I despise them, and would that I could look upon a Crucifix, I would do so and weep as I did when I was a mortal man "

I letflaest most stealthy power into his mind, but came upon a locked door

"Yes, that isyou out Painfully literal for such an educated infidel But then your dedication to Christ the Lord was nourished a the literal and the naive, was it not? But here, soreatly hasten our agreement "

"Agreereement will that be?" I asked