“Go to your convent, dear, since you are set on it,” he said, laughing; “the Bambino Gesù will content you, and when you return home He will send you the little one.”
He drew near her to kiss and embrace her. With a cold gesture she repulsed him.
“Hoighty, toighty! Hoighty toighty!” he exclaimed; “why all this rudeness to your lawful husband, Don Marco Fiore?” He tried again to draw her to himself and kiss her. Again still more coldly and hostilely she kept him at a distance.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“We must live from to-day in prayer and mortification,” she replied in glacial tones.
“Therefore?” he asked.
“You resume from to-night your bachelor bedroom.”
“Ah; and am I to keep it for ten days?” he said drily.
“Yes, for ten days, till my return.”
“Brava! Brava! And if I am bored in there all alone?” he continued, with signs of annoyance.