Then, without so much as a glance at the disappointed Gonzaga, he rose, and bowing again--a very courtier--he withdrew.
The closing of the door was to Gonzaga a signal to break out in a torrent of bitter reproofs against Francesco, reproofs that were stemmed midway by Valentina.
"You are beside yourself, Gonzaga," she exclaimed.

"What has been done, has been done with my sanction.

I do not doubt the wisdom of it." "Do you not?
God send you never may! But that man will know no peace until he is avenged on us." "Messer Gonzaga," returned Francesco, with an incomparable politeness, "I am an older man than are you, and maybe that I have seen more warring and more of such men.

There is a certain valour lurks in that bully for all his blustering boastfulness and swagger, and there is, too, a certain sense of justice.

Mercy he has had to-day, and time will show how right I am in having pardoned him in Madonna's name.