Agostino had figured her to himself in all that soft and sacred innocence and freshness of bloom in which he had left her, a fair angel child, looking through sad, innocent eyes on a life whose sins and sorrows, and deeper loves and hates, she scarcely comprehended,—­one that he might fold in his arms with protecting tenderness, while he gently reasoned with her fears and prejudices; but the figure that stood there in the curtained arch, with its solemn, calm, transparent paleness of face, its large, intense dark eyes, now vivid with some mysterious and concentrated resolve, struck a strange chill over him.  Was it Agnes or a disembodied spirit that stood before him?  For a few moments there fell such a pause between them as the intensity of some unexpressed feeling often brings with it, and which seems like a spell.

“Agnes!  Agnes! is it you?” at last said the knight, in a low, hesitating tone.  “Oh, my love, what has changed you so?  Speak!—­do speak!  Are you angry with me?  Are you angry that I brought you here?”

“My Lord, I am not angry,” said Agnes, speaking in a cold, sad tone; “but you have committed a great sin in turning aside those vowed to a holy pilgrimage, and you tempt me to sin by this conversation, which ought not to be between us.”

“Why not?” said Agostino.  “You would not see me at Sorrento.  I sought to warn you of the dangers of this pilgrimage,—­to tell you that Rome is not what you think it is,—­that it is not the seat of Christ, but a foul cage of unclean birds, a den of wickedness,—­that he they call Pope is a vile impostor”—­

“My Lord,” said Agnes, speaking with a touch of something even commanding in her tone, “you have me at advantage, it is true, but you ought not to use it in trying to ruin my soul by blaspheming holy things.”  And then she added, in a tone of indescribable sadness, “Alas, that so noble and beautiful a soul should be in rebellion against the only True Church!  Have you forgotten that good mother you spoke of?  What must she feel to know that her son is an infidel!”

“I am not an infidel, Agnes; I am a true knight of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and a believer in the One True, Holy Church.”

“How can that be?” said Agnes.  “Ah, seek not to deceive me!  My Lord, such a poor little girl as I am is not worth the pains.”

“By the Holy Mother, Agnes, by the Holy Cross, I do not seek to deceive you!  I speak on my honor as a knight and gentleman.  I love you truly and honorably, and seek you among all women as my spotless wife, and would I lie to you?”

“My Lord, you have spoken words which it is a sin for me to hear, a peril to your soul to say; and if you had not, you must not seek me as a wife.  Holy vows are upon me.  I must be the wife of no man here; it is a sin even to think of it.”

“Impossible, Agnes!” said Agostino, with a start.  “You have not taken the veil already?  If you had”—­