He speaks, I cannot now repeat his discourse,
it is rather confused in my mind; but at any rate the essence of it is
this, that even heavenly love has its birth, but never reaches maturity
on earth. The old man almost allows himself to be led into making a
confession. With, bursting heart and burning tongue he does confess
to not having felt any inclination towards individuals nor indeed any
inclination which could cause him shame, but an intellectual and moral
aspiration to unite himself with some incorporeal feminine spirit, that
should belong completely to his incorporeal being, at the same time
remaining sufficiently distant from it, to admit of the intervention of
love between the two."
"Gracious!" murmured Noemi. Carlino was so excited, that he did not hear
her.
"The old man," said he, "seems to perceive in this union a human trinity
similar to the Divine Trinity, and therefore finds it just, finds it a
holy thing, that man should aspire to it. At last he is silent, overcome
by the things he has said; and walks towards Notre Dame.
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