“Even the priest trembled at the tidings, though I knew that he had looked for them. ‘Signor Andrea,’ he said—it was the night after she left us—‘I will not hold it from you that this is no surprise to me. Yet even I did not think that she would go away like this, without word or message. Who shall tell him? The Virgin be my help—I would not do it for a kingdom!’
“‘Father,’ said I, ‘your words are wise. This can be no surprise to you.’
“He turned quickly, searching me with his bright black eyes.
“‘How?’ exclaimed he; ‘they say that?’
“‘They do not say it,’ I answered, ‘but they may presently, if I do not hold my tongue. Was it not your word that if the man lived you would find him? Securo, I can remember and I can forget, Father.’
“He was much alarmed at this, and taking my arm he drew me gently to the window of the room.
“‘It is time that you and I understood each other, my friend,’ he said; ‘and for the matter of that, I have desired it all along. Though I know nothing—and God is my witness that I speak truth—of the reasons which have induced the girl to leave us at this time, I have no doubt at all that they are to be learnt in whatever house her husband has now chosen for her——’
“‘Eccoli, Father; then you know that he lives!’
“‘It was known to me three weeks ago, as it has been known to you from the first. We are no children, you and I, and we do not play harlequin for fools to laugh. Why, then, should we not talk to each other as men that have a common desire? You are well aware that Alvise, the father of the man Ugo, bribed a corporal to report the lad as dead. I will not stop to point out to you how grave a crime you contemplated in permitting Christine to go to the altar with one who could never be a husband to her. For the sake of the woman’s soul, and for the eternal good of my master, I have acted as became a priest and a servant of Jesus Christ. It remains for you to do what you can to repair the injury which you have brought upon this house. And firstly, it is for you to hold your tongue and to know nothing, whatever question may be put to you. An explanation would lead only to your undoing and to mine—it might lead also to a sin greater than any we have yet contemplated. As the affair stands, it is easy to say some accident must have overtaken Christine—even to hint that she is dead. If the Count should learn what we know, then we shall be the better for pretending ignorance. We can but act like honest men and the true friends of one whom it is a privilege to serve.’
“‘Per Baccho,’ said I, ‘you speak like a book; yet there are things I cannot forget, Father, and the first of them is that I am an old man and a poor one. Not that poverty is any sore to me! Poca roba poco pensiero, is my word. Yet I doubt not that I must return to my home at Sebenico when your master returns. It is hard that I should go empty-handed after all my pains. Surely, my tongue would be the stiller if there were a little weight of silver upon it.’