upon which to drag her from these walls of Pagliano. She would be a
victim of the civil courts; she might, at Pier Luigi's instigation,
be proceeded against as my accomplice in what would be accounted a
dastardly murder for the basest of motives.

I turned to her again.

"You are right," I said. "I see that you are right. Just as I was right
when I said that my atonement lies here and now. The penance for which
I have cried out so long is imposed at last. It is as just as it is
cruelly apt."

I came slowly back to the table, and stood facing her across it. She
looking up at me with very piteous eyes.

"Bianca, I must go hence," I said. "That, too, is clear."

Her lips parted; her eyes dilated; her face, if anything, grew paler.

"O, no, no!" she cried piteously.

"It must be," I said. "How can I remain? Cosimo may appeal for justice
against me, claiming that I hold his wife in duress--and justice will be
done."

"But can you not resist? Pagliano is strong and well-manned. The Black
Bands are very faithful men, and they will stand by you to the end."

"And the world?" I cried. "What will the world say of you? It is you
yourself have made me see it. Shall your name be dragged in the foul
mire of scandal? The wife of Cosimo d'Anguissola a runagate with her
husband's cousin? Shall the world say that?"

She moaned, and covered her face with her hands. Then she controlled
herself again, and looked at me almost fiercely.

"Do you care so much for what men say?"

"I am thinking of you."

"Then think of me to better purpose, my Agostino. Consider that we are
confronted by two evils, and that the choice of the lesser is forced
upon us. If you go, I am all unprotected, and... and... the harm is done
already."

Long I looked at her with such a yearning to take her in my arms and
comfort her! And I had the knowledge that if I remained, daily must I
experience this yearning which must daily grow crueller and more fierce
from the very restraint I must impose upon it. And then that rearing of
mine, all drenched in sanctity misunderstood, came to my help, and made
me see in this an added burden to my penance, a burden which I must
accept if I would win to ultimate grace.

And so I consented to remain, and I parted from her with no more than
a kiss bestowed upon her finger-tips, and went to pray for patience and
strength to bear my heavy cross and so win to my ultimate reward, be it
in this world or the next.

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