'You are very beautiful, madonna.'
She was startled. 'God save us!' she cried. 'Does the soldier-sage contain a mere man, after all?'
'Your mouth, madonna, is too sweetly formed for acids.'
'The choicest fruits, sir, have an alloy of sharpness. What else about me finds favour in your eyes?'
'In my eyes! My eyes, madonna, are circumspect. They do not prowl hungrily over another's pastures.'
She looked at him between anger and apprehension, and slowly a wave of scarlet came to stain her face and bosom, to tell him that she understood. He lowered himself carefully to a chair, thrusting out his damaged leg, to the knee-joint of which articulation was only just beginning to return.
'I was saying, madonna, that they will be feeling the rigours of the winter in the camp under Bergamo. There was a hard frost last night, and after the frost there will be rains under which the hills thereabouts will melt in mud.' He sighed again. 'You would regret, madonna, to exchange for that the ease and comfort of Pavia.'
'You have the fever again. I am not thinking of making that exchange.'
'No. I am thinking of it for you.'
'You! Saint Mary! And do you dispose of me?'