"It is greatly to be feared that he will." But my Lord Gambara was not so lightly to be dismissed that afternoon.
As we were passing the Porta Fodesta, a little group of country-folk that had gathered there fell away before us, all eyes upon the dazzling beauty of Giuliana--as, indeed, had been the case ever since we had come into the town, so that I had been singularly and sweetly proud of being her escort.

I had been conscious of the envious glances that many a tall fellow had sent after me, though, after all, theirs was but as the jealousy of Phoebus for Adonis.
Wherever we had passed and eyes had followed us, men and women had fallen to whispering and pointing after us.

And so did they now, here at the Fodesta Gate, but with this difference, that, at last, I overheard for once what was said, for there was one who did not whisper.
"There goes the leman of my Lord Gambara," quoth a gruff, sneering voice, "the light of love of the saintly legate who is starving Domenico to death in a cage for the sin of sacrilege." Not a doubt but that he would have added more, but that at that moment a woman's shrill voice drowned his utterance.

"Silence, Giuffre!" she admonished him fearfully.

"Silence, on your life!" I had halted in my stride, suddenly cold from head to foot, as on that day when I had flung Rinolfo from top to bottom of the terrace steps at Mondolfo.