Benedetto did
not know he would be obliged to leave. He had spoken of it to him as of
something not yet certain but possible. Benedetto had looked at him in
silence, as if to read in his soul, and then had questioned, with a
smile: "Must I go to prison?" Then di Leyni repented of not having at
once told the whole truth to a man so strong and serene in God, and he
repeated to him all the Senator had said.
"He took my hand," the young man continued, his voice broken with
emotion, "and while he held it and caressed it, he said these precise
words: 'I will not leave Rome. Do you wish me to come and die in your
house?' I was so deeply moved that I had not the strength to answer, for
indeed I am not sure that he is not really in danger of arrest; perhaps
this incredible act of the Senator's may be a pretext to prevent the
arrest taking place in his house. And how could he be carried to another
place of safety, with the police watching for him? I embraced him,
murmured a few meaningless words, and hastened away; hastened here to
speak to this Signora Dessalle.
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