This was a home thrust. Notwithstanding his intimacy with Bulgin, Herman did not regard him as a _real_ priest of _the_ church, but only as the called teacher of a congregation. Therefore, he felt the allusion to his bishop the more heavily. "You were speaking of an adventure?" suggested Herman, anxious to change the subject: "What about it?" Bulgin flung back his head, and burst into a roar of laughter. "I'm laughing at my adventure, not at you, my dear Herman. Just imagine my case. I have a patient on my hands, who is rich, crippled with a dozen diseases, and troubled in his mind on some _doctrinal_ point. In the morning I visit the old gentleman, and after hearing afresh the list of his diseases, I _soothe_ him on the doctrinal point.--Soothe him, and quote the Fathers, and fire him up with a word or two about the Pope. And in the afternoon--" he closed one eye, and looked at Herman in such a manner, that the latter could not avoid a burst of laughter, "in the afternoon, while the old man is asleep, I visit his wife,--young and handsome, and such a love of a woman--and soothe her mind on another doctrinal point. Sometimes my lessons are prolonged until evening, and--ha, ha!--I have my hands full, I assure you." "You called there to-night, on your way home?" asked Herman, with a smile. "Just to see if the old gentleman was better, and,--but wait a moment," he rose from his chair, and hurried into the shadows of the room, turned one of the recesses, between the western windows. There he remained, until Herman grew impatient. "What are you doing," he exclaimed, and as he spoke, Bulgin returned toward the light, "what is this!" and his eyes opened with a wondering stare. "I'm a cardinal; that is all. The dress of Leo the Tenth, before he became Pope. Don't you think I _look_ the character?" He was attired in a robe of scarlet velvet, which covered his unwieldy form from the neck to the feet, and enveloped his arms in its voluminous sleeves. His florid face appeared beneath the broad rim of a red hat, and upon his broad chest hung a golden chain, to which was appended a huge golden cross. The costume was of the richest texture, and gave something of a lordly appearance to the bulky form of the reverend doctor. "I'm a cardinal," said Bulgin with a wink; "There is a nice party of us, who meet to-night, between twelve and one, to confer upon _grave_ matters. Every one wears a mask and costume. Will you go with me? There is the robe of a Jesuit yonder, which will fit you to a hair." Herman's eyes flashed, and he started from his chair. "The wife of your old _patient_,"--he began. "Goes as the cardinal's niece, you know! we didn't know the costume of a cardinal's niece, and so I told her to wear a dress-coat and pantaloons. Will you go?" Herman's face glowed with the full force of his MONOMANIA.