"Well, well: the money-question need not trouble you," said the cardinal, turning again to the window. Indifference was his pose.
"But it does trouble me. It vitally troubles me. And your amazing summons troubles me as well—now. Why do you come to me after all these years?"
"Precisely, Mr. Rose, after all these years, as you say. It has been suggested to me, and I am bound to say that I agree with the suggestion, that we ought to take your singular persistency during all these years—how many years?"
"Say twenty."
"That we must take your singular persistency during twenty years as a proof of the genuineness of your Vocation."
George turned his face to the little yellow cat, who had climbed to and was nestling on his shoulder.
"And therefore," the cardinal continued, "I am here to-day to summon you to accept Holy Order with no delay beyond the canonical intervals."
"I will respond to that summons within two years."
"Within two years? Life is uncertain, Mr. Rose. We who are here to-day may be in our graves by then." I myself am an old man.