e remained
out of this world to which you caused me to return--unless, indeed, my
present torment is the expiation that is required of me unless, indeed,
I was but brought back that I might pay with suffering for all the evil
that I have wrought."

He smiled a little. "Is it so with you? Why, then, you afflict yourself
too soon, boy. You are over-hasty to judge. I am her father, and my
little Bianca is a book in which I have studied deeply. I read her
better than do you, Agostino. But we will talk of this again."

He turned away to resume his pacing in the very moment in which he had
fired me with such exalted hopes. "Meanwhile, there is this Farnese
dog with his parcel of minions and harlots making a sty of my house.
He threatens to remain until I come to what he terms a reasonable
mind--until I consent to do his will and allow my daughter to marry his
henchman; and he parted from me enjoining me to give the matter thought,
and impudently assuring me that in Cosimo d'Anguissola--in that guelphic
jackal--I had a husband worthy of Bianca de' Cavalcanti."

He spoke it between his teeth, his eyes kindling angrily again.

"The remedy, my lord, is to send Bianca hence," I said. "Let her seek
shelter in a convent until Messer Pier Luigi shall have taken his
departure. And if she is no longer here, Cosimo will have little
inclination to linger."

He flung back his head, and there was defiance in every line of his
clear-cut face. "Never!" he snapped. "The thing could have been done two
weeks ago, when they first came. It would have seemed that the step was
determined before his coming, and that in my independence I would not
alter my plans. But to do it now were to show fear of him; and that is
not my way.

"Go, Agostino. Let me have the night to think. I know not how to act.
But we will talk again to-morrow."

It was best so; best leave it to the night to bring counsel, for we were
face to face with grave issues which might need determining sword in
hand.

That I slept little will be readily conceived. I plagued my mind
with this matter of Cosimo's suit, thinking that I saw the ultimate
intent--to bring Pagliano under the ducal sway by rendering master of it
one who was devoted to Farnese.

And then, too, I would think of that other thing that Cavalcanti had
said: that I had been hasty in my judgment of his daughter's mind. My
hopes rose and tortured me with the suspense they held. Then came to me
the awful thought