The Strolling Saint

er impatient, he would be easily moved to anger now, and not a day passed but h

e serpent; more rarely he was his usual, vulturine self. He watched her curiously, ever between anger and derision, to all of which she presented

ad already discovered to my erstwhile terror. She confided in me a little in those days, but ever with a most saintly resignation. She had been sold into wedlock, she admitted, with a

stom. She had fetched me a volume of the lascivious verse of Panormitano, and we sat side by side on the mar

hair was confined in a golden net that was set with gems-a gift from my Lord Gambara. Concerning this same gift words had pass

he beauty of the lines or the beauty of the woma

hich you shall give me your judgment." And she set before me a sheet upon which there was a

seemed, the matter itself it was that chiefly moved me. At my admission of its moving quality her white hand closed over mine as it had don

rmured. "Your praise is sweet

for all to see and worship; but here was my first glimpse of the rare beauties of her mind. In wh

a twig came from behind us the voice

d apart,

sed were we that our ears had been deafened for the time. He stood there now in his untidy gown of black, and there wa

without glasses, and screwed his eye

rifle uneasy, and Giuliana's face wore an odd look of

ously when he had re

must be wasting your time and perverting your senses with such poor illiterate gibberish as this? And what is it that you have there?" He

touched her bare shoulder with his hideous forefing

ould render yourself his preceptre

dignantly. "Agostino has a

is Messer Cosimo d'Anguissola, and there is Messer Caro. There is even Pordenone, the painter." His lips writhed over their n

e, magnificently tall, and Juno, I imagined, must

oo much!"

ng and contempt unutterable. Then she looked at me, and shrugged her shoulders as who would say

and yet I could think of no words in which I might express it, realizing how utterly I lac

ing me very gra

not the tastes that become a man who is about to enter holy orders." He closed the book

to its shelf

a's room. It stood open, and Giuliana herself in the doorway. We looked at each other, and seeing her so sorrowful, w

me. I took it and held it ti

ympathy; and I, distraught, inflamed by tone and lo

uli

kissed it I started upright and made to advance again; but she snatched her hand from my clasp and waved me away,

ld clearly give, I avoided her, and save at table and

, Madonna sitting in a frozen dignity, and the doctor, a sile

e jests, apparently entirely unconscious of Fifanti's chill reserve and frequent sneers. Indeed, I greatly marvelled that

as about to b

town, and solicited my escort. It was an honour that never before had been offered me. I r

garrisoned Piacenza. And presently we came upon the works of this new building, and stepped out into mid-street to avoid the scaffoldings, and so pursued our way into the city's main square-the Piazza del

is cage there was what appeared at first to be a heap of rags, but which presently resolved itself into a human shape, crouching in that narrow, cruel space,

rmed us, and he had been confined there by order of my

nished indignation that Monna Giuliana seiz

returning home that I touched upon the matter. She chid me for the lack of cauti

ara torturing a poor wretch for sacrilege!" I cried

rself of an amazing piece of casuistry. "If a man being a sinner himself, shall

ught you that," said I, an

me with a very

cisely do you

disorders of his life. 'Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor?' is his philosophy

t love him

an ecclesiastic...O, but there!" I broke off shor

greatly to be fea

efore us, all eyes upon the dazzling beauty of Giuliana-as, indeed, had been the case ever since we had come into the town, so that I had been singularly and sweetly proud of

pointing after us. And so did they now, here at the Fodesta Gate, but with this difference

ering voice, "the light of love of the saintly legate who is

moment a woman's shrill voice drowned his utterance. "Silence,

I wore a sword for the first time in my life-a matter from which I gathered great satisfaction-having been adjudged worthy of the honour by virtue that I was to be Mado

ted in a whispe

w at once that did I make an ensample of this scurrilous scandalmonger I should thereby render her the talk of that vile

ing Po. And then, at last, when we were quite alone, and within

plained to me the queer behaviour and the odd speeches of Fifanti himself since that evening in the garden when the Car

brutally direct by a queer pain I

that my suspicions fell from me upon the instant,

tle cry of pain that I set my teeth ha

oked at h

that lout is shared by yo

her cheeks faintly tinted. And then, quite suddenly, she

again beside her. "If I could not avenge you there, I can avenge you here.

y arm. "What would

pardon, or else tear out his lying throat,"

nto that which does not concern you. I do not know that I have given you the right to demand of my husba

ge smouldering within me. But it was flaring up again by the time we reached the house with no more words spo

uent habit when at his studies, but he opened to my knock. I stalked

ong, sir doctor," said I, with all the

d, rather, at a child who had struck him, undecided whether t

is hands behind him and stood before me, his head thrust forward, his

. "I have be

," he said in his sour, contemptuous m

rbouring an infa

offend me did it not comfort me," he sne

. that-O God! I can

ust his head farther forward. He looked

... that..." I clenched my hands together, and looked into his leer

usly now, a cold glit

t. I think not. Since God has made you a fool, it but remain

taunts," I said. "You have a

s untidily shod feet slip-s

hat... You understand me," he mocked me, with a mimicry of my own confusion. "And what aff

would be accounted gentle, to defend the honour of a pu

preux-chevalier, you will have definite knowledge of the groundlessness of these same slanders," he said, moving backwards, away from

ond what is afforded by her face? Look in it, Messer Fifanti,

aid he. "Let u

open to disclose Giuliana standing the

waved one of his bony hands to

ger. But she turned without a word, and went quickly d

"you had best get to your studies. You will find more tha

ice, and after what had happened it

confusion, I went out-a kni