Only when that night the moment
came to go down to the carriage, and he realised that he could not stand
alone, he said to the Professor, smiling, and placing his hand on his
friend's arm:
"You know that, if I continue thus, you will have a dead man in your
house to-morrow or the day after?"
The Professor replied that he would not lie to him, that this was
possible, but not certain.
"You know," Benedetto continued, no longer smiling, "that first you will
have--"
"I understand what you mean," the Professor interrupted him. "Come in
peace, dear friend. I am not a believer, as you are, but I wish I were;
and I will throw my doors open respectfully to all whom you may wish me
to see. Meanwhile shall we not take this with us?"
From the wall he took the Crucifix which Benedetto had brought with him,
and then lifted the sick man in his powerful arms.
The journey was accomplished without accident. Stretched across the
landau, upon a bank of cushions, Benedetto, who seemed to have shrunk in
stature, answered the Professor's frequent questions more often with
a smile than with his feeble voice.
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