He spoke with a tone of sternness that made his words sound like reproof, and the youth held down his head abashed.
'Don't suppose I am angry with you,' continued the other, but in the self-same tone as before; 'nor that I regard this curious desire of yours as ingratitude. You owe me nothing, or next to nothing, and you 're a rare instance of such in life, if within the next ten years the wish will not occur to you at least twenty times, that I had left you to die beside the dark shores of Bolseno!'
'I can well believe it may be so,' said Gerald with a sigh.
'Not that this is my own philosophy,' said the other, in a voice of powerful meaning. 'I soon made the discovery that life was not a garden, but a hunting-ground, and that the wolves had the best of it! Ay, boy,' cried he, with a kind of savage exultation, 'there's the experience of one whose boast it is to know something of his fellows!'
Gerald was silent, and for some time Gabriel also did not speak. At last, looking steadfastly at the youth, he said: 'I have been up to Rome these last three days. My errand there was to learn something about _you_.'
'About _me_?' said Gerald, blushing deeply.
'Yes. It was a whim--(I am the slave of such caprices)--seized me to learn how you came among the Jesuit brothers, and why you left them.'
'I thought I had told you why myself,' said the youth proudly.
'So you had; but I am one of those who can only build on the foundation their own hands have laid, and so I went myself to learn your history.'
'And has the journey rewarded your exertions?' said the boy, half mockingly.
A sudden start, and a look of almost savage ferocity on Gabriel's features, made Gerald tremble for his own rashness; and then, with a measured voice, he repeated the boy's words:
'The journey _has_ rewarded my exertions.'
'May I venture to ask what you have discovered?' said Gerald timidly.
'I went to satisfy my own curiosity, not yours, boy. What I have learned may suffice for the one, and not for the other. Here comes Pippo with pleasanter tidings than all this gossip,' said he, rising, and entering the house.
'Won't you come in and have a bit of supper with us, Gerald?' asked Pippo kindly.
'No, I cannot eat,' said the boy, as he wiped the tears from his eyes.