"Pray do nothing so unnecessary, so unwished for— Ah, Giulia! it was not thus I hoped you would welcome me! You will never understand that I am your true friend, and prefer your conversation to that of any one else. Your welfare, your safety, are dear to me; and yet you always distrust me."
"How can you say so?" said she, dropping her eyes.
"How, indeed, save that you always betray it! Come, cannot we be friends?" said he, pleasantly. "Once we might have been more, and now need we be less?"
"By no means, Cardinal, and—"
"I am always Ippolito, to you—"
"By no means, Cardinal; I enjoy using your title, it is so noble, so imposing, it becomes you so well. You have taken a decided part at last, and I esteem you all the more for it. Your learning and genius will adorn your high vocation. What influence you now possess! how many look up to you! Surely your position must be an enviable one?"
A complex expression crossed his face, as he said, with emphasis,
"Very! And yours?"
"Oh, mine is what it has long been. It has its lights and its shadows."