The _cacciatore_ laughed. "Your reverence would have been even safer as a crow," he replied; "but indeed there was no danger. I was firing well above the path at a turtledove, which I missed badly. But it is better to miss than to wound."
Don Agostino looked at the speaker, and there was approval in his glance, either of the sentiment or of the appearance of the sportsman--perhaps of both.
"_Sicuro_," he replied, "it is better to miss than to wound. For my part, I should prefer always to miss; but then I am not a sportsman, as you see. All the same, I am glad you _cacciatori_ do not always miss--from the point of view of the stomach, you know. The _signore_ is from Rome, I conclude?"
Don Agostino glanced at him again, and thought how good-looking the young man was. A gentleman, evidently, by his manner and bearing--but a stranger, for he had certainly never seen him in Montefiano.
"I," he said, "am the _parroco_ of Montefiano--Agostino Lelli, _per servirla_."
The young _cacciatore_ started slightly, and then he hesitated again. Courtesy necessitated his giving his own name in return.
"And I, _reverendo_," he replied, after a slight pause, "am Silvio Rossano, of Rome."
"Rossano?" he said. "A relative, perhaps, of the Senator Rossano?"
"My father," replied Silvio. "Your reverence knows him?"
"_Altrocchè_!" exclaimed Don Agostino, holding out his hand. "Your father is an old friend--one of my oldest friends in days gone by. But I have not seen anything of him for years. _Che vuole_! When one lives at Montefiano one does not see illustrious professors. One sees peasants--and pigs. Not but what there are things to be learned from both of them. And so you are the son of Professor Rossano? But you have not come to Montefiano for sport--no? There is not much game about here, as no doubt you have already discovered."
He glanced at Silvio's game-bag as he spoke. Three or four _beccafichi_ and a turtle-dove seemed to be its entire contents.
Silvio looked embarrassed, though he had felt that the priest's question must come. His embarrassment did not escape Don Agostino, who jumped at the somewhat hasty conclusion that either this young man must be hiding from creditors, or else that he must be wandering in unfrequented places with a mistress. In this latter case, however, Don Agostino thought it improbable that he would be out so early in the morning. It was, no doubt, a question of creditors. Young men went away from Montefiano when they could scrape up enough money to emigrate, but he had never known one to come there.