Jeanne again questioned the herder and the gardener.

Was it possible that Benedetto had taken the habit ?--Impossible! The beggar was only a poor fool.
Presently the herder left, and Jeanne, entering the kitchen-garden, sat down tinder an olive tree, reflecting that Noemi could easily learn from the door-keeper where to find her.

The old gardener, whose curiosity was aroused, asked, with many apologies, if she was a relative of Benedetto's, "For it is known that he is a gentleman, a rich man!" said he.
Jeanne did not answer his question.

She wished rather to find out why this belief in Piero's riches prevailed .-- Well, you could see by his manners and by his face; he really had the face of a gentleman .-- And he had not become a monk ?--Well, no .-- And why had he not become a monk ?--That was not known for a certainty, There were many tales told.
It was even said he had a wife, and that his wife had played him what the gardener called "a mean trick." Jeanne was silent, and it suddenly struck the gardener that she might be the wife, the woman who had played the "mean trick." She had perhaps repented, and was come to ask his forgiveness.
"If this story about the wife is true," he added, "I don't say she may not have had her reasons; but as far as goodness goes, she surely did not find a better man.

You see, signora, these fathers are holy men, that is undeniable; but there is no one so holy as he, either at Santa Scolastica or at the Sacro Speco.