THE NINTH MAN
a solvent of the fierce and strong things of life that we should all beware of it. Few men have used it as a tool, for the reason that love in its pureness is rarer than the rarest jewels."
"But many have used hate," I told him, "as you have done. And what of us whose hearts must die on the battle-field of love and hate?"
So for that whole week through the battle raged in me as it did through the city. Now I longed for the death of the cobbler's son, and now the thought of having his throat slit in the dark sickened me. When I saw Brother Agnello my soul was bathed in light, and when I went into the shadowed house of the Conti it was as though the soul of me was bathed in blood, for Andrea and Malatesta, the Count's two brothers, were often there, holding long conversations with Bartolommeo about what none doubted, for in the pot-house and in the courtyards of the palaces, and in the palaces themselves, there was talk enough. All knew that Mazzaleone was with us as if there was his appointed place, and so did our lady receive him.
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