"I hope you will be merciful. That is your Gospel, you know."
"You think we have the majority?"
"Oh, certainly. The enfranchisement of women settled all that.
They are always clerical, you know."
Monsignor felt the point prick him. He riposted gently.
"Well, you will have to take refuge in Germany," he said.
The face of the other changed a little; his eyelids came down just a fraction.
"That's exactly what I'm going to do, Monsignor—I—but I think there's somebody wanting you."
Monsignor turned. There was a hand beckoning him from behind a face, as if in agitation, from the entrance to door No. XI.
"If you'll excuse me," he said, and hurried off.
"I thought you'd like to be present at the end, Monsignor," whispered the member who had beckoned him. "The Cardinal is just speaking."