I had grown since then, and I
had ripened more than I was aware. It remained for this moment to reveal
to me the extent. Besides, the subtle influence of sex--all unconscious of
it as I was--stirred me now to prove my new-found manhood.
"Stay!" I said to Giojoso, and in uttering the command I grew very cold and
steady, and my breathing resumed the normal.
He checked in the act of turning away to do my mother's hideous bidding.
"You will give Madonna's order to the grooms, Ser Giojoso, as you have been
bidden. But you will add from me that if there is one amongst them dares
to obey it and to lay be it so much as a finger upon Luisina, him will I
kill with these two hands."
Never was consternation more profound than that which I flung amongst them
by those words. Giojoso fell to trembling; behind him, Rinolfo, the cause
of all this garboil, stared with round big eyes; whilst my mother, all
a-quiver, clutched at her bosom and looked at me fearfully, but spoke no
word.
I smiled upon them, towering there, conscious and glad of my height for the
first time in my life.
"Well?" I demanded of Giojoso. "For what do you wait? About it, sir, and
do as my mother has commanded you."
He turned to her, all bent and grovelling, arms outstretched in ludicrous
bewilderment, every line of him beseeching guidance along this path so
suddenly grown thorny.
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