couple of caresses after all you have said to me. Enough, I
tell you!"

"Oh, Franco! I know I have hurt you, but it has cost me so much, having
to hurt you! Can't you take me kindly?"

"Ah, take you kindly, indeed! You wish to be free to inflict any wound,
and then expect to be taken kindly! You are superior to every one else!
You judge, you pass sentence, you alone understand what God wishes and
what He does not wish? But this at least I will not have! Say whatever
you like about me, but let those things you do not understand alone. You
had better be working on your boot!"

He was determined to see only pride in his wife, while his own anger was
born almost wholly of pride, of outraged self-esteem; it was an impure
anger which darkened his brain and his heart. Both husband and wife
would have acknowledged the justice of any other accusation sooner than
that of pride.

She silently resumed her seat and tried to resume her work as well, but
she handled the tools nervously without really knowing what she was
doing. Franco went into the hall, banging the door behind him.

It was very cold in the darkness of the hall which had been unoccupied
since five o'clock, but Franco did not notice this. He threw himself
upon the sofa, giving himself up entirely to his grief, to his anger, to
an easy and violent mental defence of himself against his wife. As Luisa
had rebelled against God and against himself--though indeed she had made
a distinction--he now found it convenient to make common cause in his
heart with that other mute and terrible One whom she had offended. At
first astonishment, bitterness, rage, good reasons and bad, formed a
whirling tempest in his brain. Then he found relief for his feelings in
imagining Luisa's repentance, her prayers for forgiveness, and his own
magnanimous answers.

Suddenly he heard Maria screaming and crying. He rose to go and see what
had happened, but he was without a light. He waited a moment thinking
Luisa would go out, but he did not hear her move, and the child was
screaming louder than ever. Very softly he went towards the parlour, and
looked in through the glass door.

Luisa had hidden her face in her arms, which were crossed on the table,
and the light of the candle revealed only her beautiful dark hair.
Franco felt his anger cooling, he opened the door, and called softly,
his tone still gently severe: "Luisa, Maria is crying." Luisa raised her
face, which was very pale, took the