lighted
room, "you have now had time to reflect. Do you accept the separation
offered to you by your wife?"

"I do, my father."

"Then she will enter a convent." Nobili sighed heavily. "You have
broken her heart."

There was a depth of unexpressed reproach in the priest's look. Tears
gathered in his eyes, his deep voice shook.

"But why if she ever loved me"--whispered Nobili into Fra Pacifico's
ear as though he shrank from letting the very walls hear what he was
about to say--

"If she loved you!" burst out Fra Pacifico with rising passion--"if
she loved you! You have my word that she loved you--nay, God help her,
that she loves you still!"

Fra Pacifico drew back from Nobili as he said this. Again Nobili
approached him, speaking into his ear.

"Why, then, if she loved me, could she join with the marchesa against
me? Was I not induced by my love for her to pay her aunt's debts?
Answer me that, my father. Why did she insist upon this ill-omened
marriage?--a proceeding as indelicate as it is--"

"Silence!" thundered Fra Pacifico--"silence, I command you! What you
say of that pure and lovely girl whose soul is as crystal before me,
is absolute sacrilege. I will not listen to it!"

Fra Pacifico's eyes flashed fire. He looked as if he would strike
Count Nobili where he stood. He checked himself, however; then he
continued with more calmness: "To become your wife was needful for the
honor of Enrica's name, which you had slandered. The child put herself
in my hands. I am responsible for this marriage--I only. As to the
marchesa, do you think she consults Enrica? The hawk and the dove
share not the same nest! No, no. Did the marchesa so much as tell
Enrica, when she offered her as wife to Count Marescotti?"

At the sound of Marescotti's name Nobili's assumed composure utterly
gave way. His whole frame stiffened with rage.

"Yes--Marescotti--curse him! And I am the husband of the woman he
refused!"

"For shame, Count Nobili!--you have yourself exonerated her."

"Enrica must have been an accomplice!" cried Nobili, transported
out of himself. Count Marescotti's name had exasperated him beyond
control.

"Fool!" exclaimed Fra Pacifico. "Will you not listen to reason? Has
not Enrica by her own act renounced all claim to you as a wife? Is not
that enough?"

Nobili was silent. Hitherto he had been driven on, goaded by the
promptings of passion, and the firm belief that Enrica was the mere
tool of her aunt. Now th