Every minute was the fearful scene re-enacted. More than once
he checked himself in his walk, seeming to be about to step on
Marcian's body.
At length, seeing a shadow draw near, he raised his eyes and beheld
Gaudiosus. He tried to speak, but found that his tongue clave to the
roof of his mouth. Automatically he crossed himself, then caught the
priest's hand, and knelt and kissed it.
'Rise, my son,' said Gaudiosus, 'for I would talk with you.'
On one side of the courtyard was a portico with seats, and thither
the old man led.
'Unless,' he began gravely, 'unless the author of all falsehood--
who is so powerful over women--has entered into this maiden to
baffle and mislead me utterly, I feel assured that she is chaste;
not merely unsullied in the flesh, but as pure of heart as her
fallen nature may permit a woman to be.'
Basil gazed at him darkly.
'My father, how can you believe it? Did you not hear her lament
because the man was dead? It is indeed the devil that beguiles you.'
Gaudiosus bent his head, and pondered anxiously.
'Tell me,' he said at length, 'all her story, that I may compare it
with what I have heard from her own lips.
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