The old man regarded him anxiously.
"I did not jest!"
The laugh died to silence, then rose again in his throat, but Francesco's eyes were terrible.
"Am I fitted for a monk?" he spoke at last. "You know what my life has been. Have not you placed me in the sphere of the court, even ere I had attained the power to think? How can I become a monk? What do I know of the way of monks? What do I know of their lives? I must have time to think!"
"There is no time," insisted the elder Villani, despair in his eyes.
"There is no time!" Francesco exclaimed aghast.
Then all the blood rushed to his heart.
"You mean that I am to decide, here and now?"
"Here and now!" came the low, inexorable voice.