‘About me?’ said Gerald, blushing deeply.
‘Yes. It was a whim—(I am the slave of such caprices)—seized me to learn how you came among the Jesuit brothers, and why you left them.’
‘I thought I had told you why myself,’ said the youth proudly.
‘So you had; but I am one of those who can only build on the foundation their own hands have laid, and so I went myself to learn your history.’
‘And has the journey rewarded your exertions?’ said the boy, half mockingly.
A sudden start, and a look of almost savage ferocity on Gabriel’s features, made Gerald tremble for his own rashness; and then, with a measured voice, he repeated the boy’s words:
‘The journey has rewarded my exertions.’
‘May I venture to ask what you have discovered?’ said Gerald timidly.
‘I went to satisfy my own curiosity, not yours, boy. What I have learned may suffice for the one, and not for the other. Here comes Pippo with pleasanter tidings than all this gossip,’ said he, rising, and entering the house.
‘Won’t you come in and have a bit of supper with us, Gerald?’ asked Pippo kindly.