When they left the carriage where the mule-path begins, Jeanne proposed timidly, and as one who expects a refusal and knows it is justified, that she should go up to the convents by herself, a small boy, who had run after the carriage all the way from Subiaco, acting as guide. The refusal came indeed, and was most emphatic. Such a thing was out of the question! What was she thinking of? Then Jeanne begged at least to be left alone with him should she find him. Noemi did not know what to answer.
"What if I went up before you?" said she. "If I asked for Padre Clemente, and tried to find out from him what he is, what he is doing, and what he thinks; this, your———"
Jeanne interrupted her, horrified.
"The Padre? Speak to the Padre?" she exclaimed, pressing both hands to Noemi's face, as though to silence her words. "Woe to you if you speak to the Padre!"
They started slowly up the rocky mule-path, Jeanne often stopping, seized with trembling, and vibrating like a taut cord in the wind. In silence she stretched out her hands that Noemi might feel how cold they were, and smiled. In the sea of clouds rushing towards the hills the pale eye of the sun appeared; the sun, too, was curious.
Don Clemente said Mass at about seven o 'clock,
