"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. But she turned
without a word, and went quickly down the passage, followed by his evil,
cackling laugh.
Then he looked at me quite solemnly. "I think," said he, "you had best get
to your studies. You will find more than enough to engage you there.
Leave my affairs to me, boy."
There was almost a menace in his voice, and after what had happened it was
impossible to pursue the matter.
Sheepishly, overwhelmed with confusion, I went out--a knight-errant with a
shorn crest.
CHAPTER IV
MY LORD GAMBARA CLEARS THE GROUND
I had angered her! Worse; I had exposed her to humiliation at the hands of
that unworthy animal who soiled her in thought with the slime of his
suspicions. Through me she had been put to the shameful need of listening
at a door, and had been subjected to the ignominy of being so discovered.
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