He spoke perfectly gravely, and made her a little courtly gesture backwards.
'Well,' said she, 'had I been Father Abbot, I had put this pet of my fancy in a cage.'
'You know not of what you speak,' he answered seriously. 'God works great ends with little instruments. The puny bee is yet the very fairy midwife of the forests, I should have broke my heart had he denied me.'
'It would have saved others, alack!'
'What do you mean?'
'Nothing at all. Will you sing me another parable, Bernardo?'
'Ay, Madonna; and on what subject? The woman taken in adultery?'
'If you like; and whom Christ forgave.'
'And He said: "Go, and sin no more"'
She began to weep softly.