'Bernardo, didst know this Tassino was my servant?'
'Nay, I knew it not.'
'Wouldst have spared him hadst thou known?'
'How could I spare him the truth?'
'But its shame, its punishment?'
'Greater shame could no man have than to debauch innocence. His punishment was his redemption.'
'Ah! I defend him not. Yet, bethink thee, she may have been the temptress?'
'He should have loathed, not loved her, then.'
'Madreperla, mother-of-pearl,' cried Catherine, with a little shriek of laughter, from the fountain; 'come and help me! I have caught a butterfly in my hand, and my father wishes to take it from me and kill it!'
CHAPTER VII