He did not care whither he went, but he had no especial reason for climbing the steep ascent to the Capitol.

The crucifix his brother had ordered from him on the previous evening engaged his attention, and it was as much for the sake of being alone and of thinking about the work that he had taken his solitary morning walk, as with the hope of finding in some church a suggestion or inspiration which might serve him.

He knew what was to be found in Roman churches well enough; the Crucifixion in the Trinita dei Pellegrini and the one in San Lorenzo in Lucina--both by Guido Reni, and both eminently unsympathetic to his conception of the subject--he had often looked at them, and did not care to see them again.

At last he entered the Church of the Gesu, and sat down upon a chair in a corner.
He did not look up.

The interior of the building was as familiar to him as the outside.