because he had surprised me with Luisina in my arms.

The friar's face grew dark and grave as he listened. But ere she had
quite done, unable longer to contain myself, I interrupted.

"In that he lied like the muckworm that he is," I exclaimed. "And it
increases my regrets that I did not break his neck as I intended."

"He lied?" quoth she, her eyes wide open in amazement--not at the fact,
but at the audacity of what she conceived my falsehood.

"It is not impossible," said Fra Gervasio. "What is your story,
Agostino?"

I told it--how the child out of a very gentle and Christian pity had
released the poor birds that were taken in Rinolfo's limed twigs, and
how in a fury he had made to beat her, so that she had fled to me for
shelter and protection; and how, thereupon, I had bidden him begone out
of that garden, and never set foot in it again.

"And now," I ended, "you know all the violence that I showed him, and
the reason for it. If you say that I did wrong, I warn you that I shall
not believe you."

"Indeed..." began the friar with a faint smile of friendliness. But my
mother interrupted him, betwixt sorrow and anger.

"He lies, Gervasio. He lies shamelessly. O, into what a morass of sin
has he not fallen, and every moment he goes deeper! Have I not said that
he is possessed? We shall need the exorcist."

"We shall indeed, madam mother, to clear your mind of foolishness," I
answered hotly, for it stung me to the soul to be branded thus a liar,
to have my word discredited by that of a lout such as Rinolfo.

She rose a sombre pillar of indignation. "Agostino, I am your mother,"
she reminded me.

"Let us thank God that for that, at least, you cannot blame me,"
answered I, utterly reckless now.

The answer crushed her back into her chair. She looked appealingly at
Fra Gervasio, who stood glum and frowning. "Is he... is he perchance
bewitched?" she asked the friar, quite seriously. "Do you think that any
spells might have."

He interrupted her with a wave of the hand and an impatient snort

"We are at cross purposes here," he said. "Agostino does not lie. For
that I will answer."

"But, Fra Gervasio, I tell you that I saw them--that I saw them with
these two eyes--sitting together on the terrace steps, and he had his
arm about her. Yet he denies it shamelessly to my face."

"Said I ever a word of that?" I appealed me to the friar. "Why, that was
after Rinolfo left us. My tale never got so far. It is quit