With a sort of savage cry, Gherardi snatched her round the waist, but scarcely had he done so when he was flung aside with a force that made him reel back heavily against the wall, and Aubrey Leigh confronted him.
"Aubrey!" cried Sylvie. "Oh, Aubrey!"
He caught her as she sprang to him, and held her fast,—and with perfect self-possession he eyed the priest disdainfully up and down.
"So this," he said coldly, "is the way the followers of Saint Peter fulfil the commands of Christ! Or shall we say this is the way in which they go on denying their Master? It is a strange way of retaining disciples,—a still stranger way of making converts! A brave way too, to intimidate a woman!"
Gherardi, recovering from the shock of Aubrey's blow, drew himself up haughtily.
"I serve the Church, Mr. Leigh!" he said proudly. "And in that high service all means are permitted to us for a righteous end!"
"Ah!—the old Jesuitical hypocrisy!" And Aubrey smiled bitterly. "Lies are permitted in the Cause of Truth! One word, Monsignor! I have no wish to play at any game of double-dealing with you. I have heard the whole of your interview with this lady. It is the first time I have ever played the eavesdropper—but my duty was to protect my promised wife, if she needed protection—and I thought it was possible she might need it—from YOU!"
Gherardi turned a livid paleness, and drew a quick breath.
"I know your moves," went on Aubrey quietly, "and it will be my business as well as my pleasure to frustrate them. Moreover, I shall give your plot into the care of the public press—"
"You will not dare!" cried Gherardi fiercely. "But—after all, what matter if you do!—no one will believe you!"