A Golden Book of Venice

ing the interest of his community by the marvel of his progress, so that those who had been his teachers stood reverently aside, before he had attained to man

ance for these Servite friars; yet the good Fra Giulio in those early days, having little learning wherewith to estimate his progress and watching over him like a father, had been griev

ith much asperity. "It is the most marvelous piece of mental mechanism that I have ever dreamed.

enius, my brother; for so God hath endowed our lad. Yet it may be that He meaneth man to garner other blessings besides knowl

," Fra Gianmaria ha

abor; all natural youthful fancies, all joy in t

er, have attained by penances and years of abnegation to that mood which hath been granted the boy as a gift to

s made up to him for all the loves he had resigned,"-now that the name of Fra Paolo was uttered with reverence while his own was unknown, he still expressed his heart in many tender cares, providing the ne

er self which Fra Paolo so rarely expressed. He had been endeavoring to rouse the lad to enthusiasm. "Never have I known one show so little pleasure in natur

" the lad had re

hoed, startled at the q

thou not find this bi

thusiasm. "But hath God created anything nobler than the m

e of disappointment, "it is more for me-

d with a smile which seemed affectionate, yet was baffling, and

Paolo; for sometimes it seemeth to those

ome in contact with the nobler activities-the mental and spiritual forces-through the minds and works of men. I would find such attritio

ift, Paolo mio," Fra Giu

to find too little bea

her I hoped it mig

king of problems that seemed apart? These are the things that move me. I must walk soberly, Fra Giulio, lest I miss some revelation, so sacred and

ed to rise up from the boy's heart and close over its depths. If it had been a moment of self-revelation the young friar was again protect

o get so near, yet be no nearer. "I could wish that thou also shouldst take p

transfigured the grave young face like a consecration. He still remembered the tones of that clear voice saying serenely: "My Father, when God

losophic and scientific truths which had made him famous as an original thinker had come to the lad in glimmerings on that first night among the hills, when, turning

loggia brought him a premonition of the later message

that solitude he had first watched the gentle ebb and flow of his own life

ilosophical questions which he so brillian

night under the stars, when the gifted youth had first stood, distanced as it were from men, remote from human habitations and alone with the One whom only he acknowledge

s of art, flung sometimes in atonement upon their quiet walls by a world-worn artist, or sent in propitiation for some unconfessed sin by a prince of Church

lifting its pink glory to the crest of the colonnade, won his eyes to wander from the absorbing treasures of the great library where he passed his days. Here many a brother had taught himself patience over the fine, endless text of an ancient gospel, or wrought into the exquisite illumination of some missal which stood to him in the place

little human flush of triumph or of self-conceit would have added charm to his argument, but these notes were lacking; clearly, logically, unanswerably, he met each question, convincing without emotion and hastening from the gay court, of which these intellectual tourneys were the delight, to the welcome seclusion of the convent. If he seemed to have missed a real childhood,-i

he had no visible combats, not seeming to be even reached by the things which tempted other men. His wants were fewer than the simplest rule of his convent allowed, and it seemed less that he had triumphed over the usual earthly temptations than that he had been created abnormally free from them that his whole strength might spend

ed to the cloisters of the Servi; and more than once there had been a denunciation to the Inquisition to discuss; some one in authority had found fault

ra Giulio had exclaimed. "They should

pline," bravely muttered a friar who

mper. "The man who speaks only what he knows is old in wisdom;" and turning he addressed the company in great dignity: "It doth appear that Rome approveth Fr

arers whose jealousy wo

exclaimed

affection. "Fra Paolo refused to appear before the Inquisitor who had cited him, who, he alleged, knew not Hebrew nor

of deep and affectionate interest, "that one of so rare learning should remain long in a position of dang

driven," Fra Giulio corrected warmly. "Ther

ossed the candid, boyis

nce is more simple," h

Fat

nmaria, less severely than he was wont to treat such breaches of etiquette; for Fra Francesco had deep, spiritual, lo

er added for his books and labors, since often it suited him to be alone. The breath of jealousy still clouded the serenity of his sky, and he was not without some unfulfilled longings; but no scandal had ever touched h

der who hath been sent to take this duty upon him. And our good Fra Giulio hath been removed in humiliation, a

o it than that?" Fr

her," Fra Francesco an

en told him he recognized the man as one in whom tr

with to refute them, and journeyed swiftly back to Rome, returning, triumphant, to reinstate the good old friar with honor in the home and offices he loved-the manner o