"Thanks, O Princess, most humbly. I will return the book."
"No, Count, it is yours."
An expression she did not understand darkened his face.
"Are you a Christian?" she asked.
He flushed deeply, and bowed while answering:
"My mother is a Christian."
That night Count Corti searched the book, and found that the strength of faith underlying his mother's prayers for his return to her, and the Princess' determination to die with the monk, were but Christian lights.
"Princess Irene," he said one day, "I have studied the book you gave me; and knowing now who Christ is, I am ready to accept your Creed. Tell me how I may know myself a believer?"
A lamp in the hollow of an alabaster vase glows through the transparency; so her countenance responded to the joy behind it.
"Render obedience to His commands—do His will, O Count—then wilt thou be a believer in Christ, and know it."