friends and intimates in his own rank—­proud, heartless people, who know nothing of your worth and goodness; who, hearing of your low birth, would look on you, and on your husband too, my child, with contempt.  He has not your patience and fortitude.  Think how bitter it would be for him to bear that contempt—­to see you shunned by proud women, and carelessly pitied or patronized by insolent men.  Yet all this, and more, he would have to endure, or else to quit the world he has lived in from his boyhood—­the world he was born to live in.  You love him, I know—­”

Nanina’s tears burst out afresh.  “Oh, how dearly—­how dearly!” she murmured.

“Yes, you love him dearly,” continued the priest; “but would all your love compensate him for everything else that he must lose?  It might, at first; but there would come a time when the world would assert its influence over him again; when he would feel a want which you could not supply—­a weariness which you could not solace.  Think of his life then, and of yours.  Think of the first day when the first secret doubt whether he had done rightly in marrying you would steal into his mind.  We are not masters of all our impulses.  The lightest spirits have their moments of irresistible depression; the bravest hearts are not always superior to doubt.  My child, my child, the world is strong, the pride of rank is rooted deep, and the human will is frail at best!  Be warned!  For your own sake and for Fabio’s, be warned in time.”

Nanina stretched out her hands toward the priest in despair.

“Oh, Father Rocco!  Father Rocco!” she cried, “why did you not tell me this before?”

“Because, my child, I only knew of the necessity for telling you to-day.  But it is not too late; it is never too late to do a good action.  You love Fabio, Nanina?  Will you prove that love by making a great sacrifice for his good?”

“I would die for his good!”

“Will you nobly cure him of a passion which will be his ruin, if not yours, by leaving Pisa to-morrow?”

“Leave Pisa!” exclaimed Nanina.  Her face grew deadly pale; she rose and moved back a step or two from the priest.

“Listen to me,” pursued Father Rocco; “I have heard you complain that you could not get regular employment at needle-work.  You shall have that employment, if you will go with me—­you and your little sister too, of course—­to Florence to-morrow.”

“I promised Fabio to go to the studio,” began Nanina, affrightedly.  “I promised to go at ten o’clock.  How can I—­”

She stopped suddenly, as if her breath were failing her.

“I myself will take you and your sister to Florence,” said Father Rocco, without noticing the interruption.  “I will place you under the care of a lady who will be as kind as a mother to you both.  I will answer for your getting such work to do as will enable you to keep yourself honestly and independently; and I will undertake, if you do not like your life at Florence, to bring you back to Pisa after a lapse of three months only.  Three months, Nanina.  It is not a long exile.”