The girl from
Affile had already served the coffee, when, at the same moment, Don
Clemente arrived on foot from Santa Scolastica, and Dane, Professor
Salvati, and Professor Minucci, in a two-horse carriage, from Subiaco.
But Don Clemente, who was followed by his gardener, seeing the carriage
approaching the gate of the villa, and understanding that it brought
guests for the Selvas, hastened his steps, that Giovanni might see the
gardener and speak with him a few moments before the meeting.
The Selvas and their three companions had risen from the table, and
Maria, coming out to the terrace on the arm of the gallant Abbe
Marinier, saw, in spite of the growing darkness, the Benedictine on the
steep path leading up from the gate which opened upon the public road.
She greeted him from above, and begged him to wait for a light at the
foot of the stairs. She herself descended the winding stairs with the
light, and signed to Don Clemente that she wished to speak to him,
casting a significant glance in the direction of the man standing behind
him.
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