“Thank you,” she answered. “I have been looking round already.”
“You are a Catholic, Madame?”
“Yes.”
The priest looked pleased. There was something childlike in the mobility of his face.
“I am glad,” he said simply. “We are not a rich community in Beni-Mora, but we have been fortunate in bygone years. Our great Cardinal, the Father of Africa, loved this place and cherished his children here.”
“Cardinal Lavigerie?”
“Yes, Madame. His house is now a native hospital. His statue faces the beginning of the great desert road, But we remember him and his spirit is still among us.”
The priest’s eyes lit up as he spoke. The almost tragic expression of his face changed to one of enthusiasm.
“He loved Africa, I believe,” Domini said.
“His heart was here. And what he did! I was to have been one of his freres armes, but my health prevented, and afterwards the association was dissolved.”