Sixtine came to his rescue: the red robe rid him of the black robe.
The hour of the meeting, given the evening before, rang.
That was all. Why even open the mouth again?
"Il y a un secret, Valérien, que je veux le dire; j' ai pour amant un ange de Dieu, qui, avec une extrême jalousie, veille sur mon corps." Bréviare romain, _Office de sainte Cécile._
"That cloud is pagan, Virgin! Fie! to hide yourself in a cloud in order to love. But why? I see the wings of the angel whose whiteness shines under the fragrant cloud. It is with this, with so little, Virgin I fie! that he has intoxicated you to possess you. And you smile at him, I see your eyes whose splendor shines under the fragrant cloud, in the shadow of the white wings.
"Thou, the immaculate! And for whom is so much purity sullied? For an angel?"
"You fancied it was the Holy Spirit?"--"Yes, the dove pecked my lips and I opened my lips and I gave him the end of my tongue. I speak of the past. It was very pleasant and I have always wanted to begin again."
"Ah! Virgin, fie, you lie like a woman. Doves have no such large wings."--"They are the wings of my mantle."
"Ah? Virgin! Fie! doves have not light feathers."--"But they have, they have! And besides they are not light, _figliuolo_, they are shot-color."
Such aplomb confused Delia Preda. What! a Virgin in whom he had placed his whole confidence, _sub tuum praesidium_!
The colloquy was resumed in this fashion:
"Ah! Virgin! Fie! think of your family, think of your chaste spouse! think of your son! think of God the father! Do you wish to dishonor the creator of heaven and earth? What will become of us, if you awaken his wrath? It is always on us, poor mortals, that his wrath falls, and we will have the plague again."--"_Ecce ancilla Domini!_ my friend. I am under the orders of the Most High, and what if it pleases him to send me an angel?"
Della Preda did not know what reply to make, for he was too religious to question the eternal decrees. He contented himself with remarking to the madonna that if the Most High had sent her an angel, it was not apparently to have love with him.
"Moreover," continued Delia Preda, "I am at peace, for the angels have no sex. It is merely play. Ah, well! the question is controverted."