"And what affair may it be of yours whom I suspect or of what I suspect them where my own are concerned ?" "It is my affair, as it is the affair of every man who would be accounted gentle, to defend the honour of a pure and saintly lady from the foul aspersions of slander." "Knight-errantry, by the Host!" quoth he, and his brows shot up on his steep brow.

Then they came down again to scowl.

"No doubt, my preux-chevalier, you will have definite knowledge of the groundlessness of these same slanders," he said, moving backwards, away from me, towards the door; and as he moved now his feet made no sound, though I did not yet notice this nor, indeed, his movement at all.
"Knowledge ?" I roared at him.

"What knowledge can you need beyond what is afforded by her face?
Look in it, Messer Fifanti, if you would see innocence and purity and chastity! Look in it!" "Very well," said he.

"Let us look in it." And quite suddenly he pulled the door open to disclose Giuliana standing there, erect but in a listening attitude.
"Look in it!" he mocked me, and waved one of his bony hands towards that perfect countenance.
There was shame and confusion in her face, and some anger.