left the bridge of the Scalilla on the right--only a log, thrown across
to the wild left bank of the turbulent little torrent. On the way they
talked much of the strange Saint. Giovanni wondered that Don Clemente
had never in the past told him anything of the character of this
under-gardener. He approved of the little sermon in the open air. He
had once mentioned the subject of it to Don Clemente, pointing out to
Mm that those words of Christ are neither properly observed, nor
taught; even the best of Christians apply them only to the use of
the sacraments. If the faithful realised that they must not enter the
church, bringing an impure heart, the Christian peoples would indeed
become examples to the world, and no one would then dare affirm that
morality is much the same everywhere, and has nothing to do with
religious beliefs.

He also highly approved of thus reciting "Our Father" in church, but he
did not approve of the miracles. He suspected weakness in a man who did
not know how to break resolutely with popular superstition when it was
flattering to himself.

What could Noemi say about this man's character? What opinion had she
formed of him from Jeanne's confidences? Noemi was embarrassed. All that
Jeanne had told her about him convinced her that Maironi had behaved
very badly to her friend, that he had never really loved her and at the
same time awoke in Noemi an intellectual curiosity, which, though she
struggled against it, was always returning--a curiosity to know if that
man would have loved her better than Jeanne. She replied that Maironi's
character was an enigma to her. And his intellect? His culture? She
could say nothing concerning either his intellect or his culture, but
if such a woman as Jeanne Dessalle had loved him so devotedly, he must
certainly be both intelligent and cultured. And his former religious
views? To this last question Noemi's answer was that from some facts
Jeanne had mentioned, from the decisive influence which the religious
traditions of his family had had upon him at a crisis in their love,
she judged him to have been a Catholic of the old school, not a Catholic
like--Here Noemi broke off blushing and smiling. Giovanni smiled also,
but Maria looked slightly annoyed. The subject was at once dropped.

They proceeded for some time in silence, exchanging only now and then a
word of greeting with some mountaineer on his way down to the mills at
Subiaco, mounted on his mule, laden with