“Your Eminence....”
“I love Americans, Mr. Wondergood.”
“Your Eminence! In Arkansas they tell a story....”
“Ah, I see, you want to get down to business? I understand your impatience. Money matters should never be postponed. Is that not so?”
“It depends entirely upon one’s concern in these matters, Your Eminence.”
The square face of the Cardinal grew serious, and in his eyes there gleamed for a moment a ray of loving reproach:
“I hope you are not vexed at my long dissertation, Mr. Wondergood. I love so much the history of our great city that I could not forego the pleasure...the things you see before you are not Rome. There is no Rome, Mr. Wondergood. Once upon a time it was the Eternal City, but to-day it is simply a large city and the greater it grows the further it is from eternity. Where is that great Spirit which once illumined it?”
I shall not narrate to you all the prattle of this purple parrot, his gently-cannibal look, his grimaces and his laughter. All that the old shaven monkey told me when it finally grew weary was:
“Your misfortune is that you love your fellow beings too much....”
“Love your neighbor....”