I was accounted to be very like my father, and that a member of
the house of Cavalcanti, with which Giovanni d'Anguissola had been so
intimate, should detect the likeness was not unnatural. I was convinced,
moreover, that he had been guided thither by merest curiosity at the sight
of that crowd of pilgrims.
"Sir," I said, "I know not your intentions; but in all humility let me say
that I am not here to answer questions of worldly import. The world has
done with me, and I with the world. So that unless you are come hither out
of piety for this shrine, I beg that you will depart with God and molest me
no further. You come at a singularly inauspicious time, when I need all my
strength to forget the world and my sinful past, that through me the will
of Heaven may be done here."
I saw the maid's tender eyes raised to my face with a look of great
compassion and sweetness whilst I spoke. I observed the pressure which she
put on his arm. Whether he gave way to that, or whether it was the sad
firmness of my tone that prevailed upon him I cannot say. But he nodded
shortly.
"Well, well!" he said, and with a final searching look, he turned, the
little lady with him, and went clanking off through the lane which the
crowd opened out for him.
That they resented his presence, since it was not due to motives of piety,
they very plainly signified.
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