could not do else."

It was the simplest way in which he could have told Farnese that he
cared nothing for the rank of either, and of reminding his excellency
that Pagliano, being an Imperial fief, was not a place where the Duke of
Parma might ruffle it unchecked.

Messer Pier Luigi hesitated, entirely out of countenance. Then his eyes
turned to Bianca, and his expression softened.

"What says Madonna Bianca?" he inquired, his manner reassuming some
measure of its courtliness. "Is her judgment as unmercifully level?"

She looked up, startled, and laughed a little excitedly, touched by the
tenseness of a situation which she did not understand.

"What say I?" quoth she. "Why, that here is a deal of pother about some
foolish words."

"And there," cried Pier Luigi, "spoke, I think, not only beauty but
wisdom--Minerva's utterances from the lips of Diana!"

In glad relief the company echoed his forced laugh, and all sat down
again, the incident at an end, and my contempt of the Duke increased to
see him permit such a matter to be so lightly ended.

But that night, when I had retired to my chamber, I was visited by
Cavalcanti. He was very grave.

"Agostino," he said, "let me implore you to be circumspect, to keep a
curb upon your bitter tongue. Be patient, boy, as I am--and I have more
to endure."

"I marvel, sir, that you endure it," answered I, for my mood was
petulant.

"You will marvel less when you are come to my years--if, indeed, you
come to them. For if you pursue this course, and strike back when such
men as Pier Luigi tap you, you will not be likely to see old age. Body
of Satan! I would that Galeotto were here! If aught should happen to
you..." He checked, and set a hand upon my shoulder.

"For your father's sake I love you, Agostino, and I speak as one who
loves you."

"I know, I know!" I cried, seizing his hand in a sudden penitence. "I
am an ingrate and a fool. And you upheld me nobly at table. Sir, I swear
that I will not submit you to so much concern again."

He patted my shoulder in a very friendly fashion, and his kindly
eyes smiled upon me. "If you but promise that--for your own sake,
Agostino--we need say no more. God send this papal by-blow takes his
departure soon, for he is as unwelcome here as he is unbidden."

"The foul toad!" said I. "To see him daily, hourly bending over Monna
Bianca, whispering and ogling--ugh!"

"It offends you, eh? And for that I love you! There. Be circumspec