'What is the matter?' he asked quickly. 'Have I shocked you?'
'Yes,' she answered, almost in a whisper and still looking down. 'That is,' she added with hesitation, 'perhaps I did not quite understand you.'
'No, you did not, if you are shocked. I merely meant that although my brother is a very good man, and a very religious man, and believes that he has a vocation, and does his best to be a good priest, he has other interests in life for which I am sure that he cares more, though he may not know it.'
'What other interests?' asked Vittoria, rather timidly.
'Well, only one, perhaps—music. He is a musician first, and a priest afterwards.'
The young girl's face brightened instantly. She had expected something very terrible, perhaps, though quite undefined.
'He says mass in the morning,' continued Orsino, 'and it may take him an hour or so to read his breviary conscientiously in the afternoon. The rest of his time he spends over the piano.'
'But it is not profane music?' asked Vittoria, growing anxious again.
'Oh no!' Orsino smiled. 'He composes masses and symphonies and motetts.'