Don Agostino interrupted him. "I should not call it ridiculous," he said, "if the suppositions I have heard are true. I should rather call it revolting."
"But it would be an unheard-of thing—an impossibility!" said Silvio, angrily, and his eyes flashed ominously.
"No," Don Agostino observed, quietly, "it would be neither the one nor the other, Silvio. Such alliances have been made before now—in Rome, too. There is no consanguinity, you must remember. No dispensation even would be required. But if it is true that such a crime is in contemplation, the child must be saved from it—ah, yes, she must be saved from it at all costs!"
Silvio suddenly grasped the priest's hand. "You will help me to save her, Don Agostino!" he exclaimed. "For her own sake and for her mother's sake—who, as you said a few minutes ago, perhaps sent you here to protect her—you will help me to save her!"
Don Agostino, still holding Silvio's hand in his own, looked into his eyes for a moment without speaking.
"I have seen you to-day," he said, at length, "for the first time, but I trust you for your father's sake and also for your own. Yes, I will help you, if I can help you, to save Bianca Acorari from being sacrificed, for the sake of her mother, anima benedetta. But we must act prudently, and, first of all, I have a condition to make."
"Make any condition you please," said Silvio, eagerly, "so long as you do what I ask of you."
"Is your father aware that you are here—I mean, that you are in the neighborhood of Montefiano?" asked Don Agostino.
Silvio shrugged his shoulders. "I cannot tell you," he replied. "My sister, Giacinta, knows it, and she may have told him. My father, Don Agostino, told me that he had done all he could in asking the consent of the princess to an engagement between his son and her step-daughter, and that, as this consent had been unconditionally refused, I must in future manage my own affairs in my own way. This is what I am doing to the best of my ability."
Don Agostino smiled slightly. "I understand," he said. "Well, Silvio, my condition is that I should see your father and discuss the matter with him before doing anything here. He will give you a good character, I have no doubt, and will assure me that you would make Bianca Acorari a good husband. I owe it to—well, you know now to whom, to make this condition."