"
Here Don Clemente kissed his disciple on the forehead, thus intimating
what the Abbot's decision had been after their meeting; and into the
kiss he put silent words of praise which his fatherly character and the
humility of his disciple would not permit him to utter.
He did not notice that the disciple was trembling from head to foot.
"Here is what the Abbot wrote after talking with you," said he.
He showed Benedetto the sheet of paper, upon which the Abbot had
written:
"I consent. Send him away at once, that I may not be tempted to detain
him!"
Benedetto embraced his master impulsively, and rested his forehead
against his shoulder without speaking. Don Clemente murmured: "Are you
glad? Now it is I who ask you!"
He repeated his question twice without obtaining an answer. At last he
heard a whisper:
"May I be allowed not to answer? May I pray a moment?"
"Yes, _caro_, yes!"
Beside the monk's narrow bed, and high above the kneeling-desk, a great
bare cross proclaimed: "Christ is risen; now nail thy soul to me!" In
fact some one, perhaps Don Clemente, perhaps one of his predecessors,
had written, below it: "_Omnes superbiae motus ligno crucis affigat_.
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