Belotti reverently kissed his hand and Wilhelm bowed respectfully.
"I had fallen asleep," said Damianus simply and naturally, but in a voice less deep and powerful than would have been expected from his broad breast and tall figure.

"I will read the mass, visit my sick, and then return.

Have you thought better of it, Belotti ?" "It won't do sir, the Virgin knows it won't do.

My dismissal was given for the first of May, this is the eighth, and yet I'm still here--I haven't left the house because I'm a Christian! Now the ladies have a good physician, Sister Gonzaga is doing her duty, you yourself will earn by your nursing a place among the martyrs in Paradise, so, without making myself guilty of a sin, I can tie up my bundle." "You will not go, Belotti," said the priest firmly.

"If you still insist on having your own way, at least do not call yourself a Christian." "You will stay," cried Wilhelm, "if only for the sake of the young lady, to whom you still feel kindly." Belotti shook his head, and answered quietly: "You can add nothing, young sir, to what the holy Father represented to me yesterday.