He comes here; he is sent to me. I was to care for him, think
for him, guard over him: I have never even seen him; and he is wounded,
plundered, and a prisoner!'
'But if he avoided you, my father?' murmured Eva, with her eyes fixed
upon the ground.
'Avoided me!' said Besso; 'he never thought of me but as of a Jew
banker, to whom he would send his servant for money when he needed it.
Was I to stand on punctilios with a great Christian noble? I ought to
have waited at his gate every day when he came forth, and bowed to the
earth, until it pleased him to notice me; I ought----'
'No, no, no, my father! you are bitter. This youth is not such as you
think; at least, in all probability is not,' said Eva. 'You hear he is
fanatically Christian; he may be but deeply religious, and his thoughts
at this moment may rest on other things than the business of the world.
He who makes pilgrimage to Sinai can scarcely think us so vile as you
would intimate.'
'What will he think of those whom he is among? Here is the wound, Eva!
Guess, then, child, who has shot this arrow. 'Tis my father!'
'O traitor! traitor!' said Eva, quickly covering her face with her
hands. 'My terror was prophetic! There is none so base!'
'Nay, nay,' said Besso; 'these, indeed, are women's words.
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