Padre Monti obeyed with the unquestioning promptness of an
automaton. He stopped instantly, without rounding the period or
finishing the sentence that was in his mouth.
His flushed and ardent manner changed to the calmness of marble as,
lifting up his hands with a devout oremus, he uttered a brief prayer
and left the puzzled people to finish his speech and digest at
leisure his singular sermon.
CHAPTER L.
"BLESSED THEY WHO DIE DOING THY WILL."
It was the practice of the Bourgeois Philibert to leave his
counting-room to walk through the market-place, not for the sake of
the greetings he met, although he received them from every side,
nor to buy or sell on his own account, but to note with quick,
sympathizing eye the poor and needy and to relieve their wants.
Especially did he love to meet the old, the feeble, the widow, and
the orphan, so numerous from the devastation of the long and bloody
war.
The Bourgeois had another daily custom which he observed with
unfailing regularity. His table in the House of the Golden Dog was
set every day with twelve covers and dishes for twelve guests, "the
twelve apostles," as he gayly used to say, "whom I love to have dine
with me, and who come to my door in the guise of poor, hungry, and
thirsty men, needing meat and drink.
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