"A priest, and a friar."

"A friar? Then you are not his confessor? Yet you know all. That gentle voice!"

She raised her head slowly, and peered at him through her mask.

The next moment she uttered a faint shriek, and lay with her brow upon his bare feet.


CHAPTER LXXVII

CLEMENT sighed. He began to doubt whether he had taken the wisest course with a creature so passionate.

But young as he was, he had already learned many lessons of ecclesiastical wisdom. For one thing he had been taught to pause: i. e., in certain difficulties, neither to do nor say anything, until the matter should clear itself a little.

He therefore held his peace and prayed for wisdom.