Ah! if only weak men were as prone to run away from temptation as
they are to run away from the difficulties that are created by
yielding to it. But they are ever as brave to run the risks of
confronting the tempter, as cowardly to face the results of having
done so.
The Cardinal had not failed to mark the air of constraint and
dispirited lassitude which had characterized the Marchese during the
commencement of their conversation. And he, as others had done,
attributed it to the supposition that the Marchese was very rapidly
growing old--likely enough, was breaking up. Nor did he less observe
the very notable change in him as their interview proceeded--the
result, as the churchman flattered himself, of the charms of his own
eloquence and felicitous manner. He was himself a good twenty years
older than the Marchese; but he had been put into great good humour
that morning by private letters accompanying the official despatch
that has been mentioned, which had hinted at favourable
possibilities in the future as to certain ambitious hopes that had
rarely failed to busy his brain every night as he laid it on the
pillow for many a year. So he smiled inwardly a gentle moralizing
smile as he thought how gratified ambition had power to stir up the
flagging passions and stimulate the sinking energies even as the
golden bowl is on the eve of being broken.
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