"Faithful to her!" exclaimed Concetta. "I would do anything—anything, for the principessina. Imagine if I was glad when my father came home last night and told me I must take her the packet you had given him. I had wanted to go to her, and to tell her that I would do anything she bade me—oh, so often! But how could I venture? Besides, I was afraid of frightening her if I appeared in her room from the cardinal's portrait."
"But she was not frightened?" Don Agostino asked.
"Niente affatto!" returned Concetta, emphatically. "It was I who was frightened when I saw her leaning out of the window in the moonlight and calling to her lover. I feared she might be walking in her sleep, and that she might throw herself down on the terrace. Ah, but she knows now that there are those who are ready to help her—and she will know it better in a few days' time."
Don Agostino looked at her. "How do you mean? Why should she know it better in a few days than she does now?" he asked.
Concetta pursed up her lips. "She will know it," she repeated, "and so will the principessa and the Abbé Roux. I am nothing—only a woman—but there are men who will help her—all Montefiano, if it comes to that."
Don Agostino looked at her with greater attention. He had already heard through Ernana something concerning the ill-feeling the dismissal of Sor Beppe had aroused in Montefiano; and something, too, of the part the Abbé Roux was supposed to have played in bringing about the fattore's dismissal.
"What do you mean?" he repeated. "You may speak openly to me, figlia mia," he continued, "for I also would do all I could to help Donna Bianca Acorari and to protect her from any evil designs against her. Moreover, Donna Bianca's fidanzato is my friend, and his father and I have been friends for many years. After all, it is I, is it not, who have asked your father to convey that packet to the principessina? And he told me of the means whereby it might be conveyed."
Concetta started. "Ah! he told you of the passage?" she exclaimed.
"Certainly," replied Don Agostino. "So you see," he added, "I am aware that it is possible to communicate with Donna Bianca without the fact being known to those who are trying to isolate her from the outer world. If you have the principessina's welfare at heart, as I am sure that you have, you will take me entirely into your confidence, will you not?"
Concetta nodded. "I know nothing for certain as yet," she said, after hesitating for a moment, "but the people are angry, reverendo, very angry."