All four were silent for a moment and understood each other.

Then Giovanni murmured: "'_Non fu dal vel del cuor giawmai disciolto_'"[*1*]; and pressed the hand of him who in his awkward garments still appeared august to him.
"But you must not wear these things!" exclaimed Maria, less mystic than her husband.
Benedetto made a gesture which said, "Let us not speak of that," and looked at the master of his master with eyes full of longing and reverence.
"Are you aware," said he, "how much truth and how much good have come to me from you ?" Giovanni did not know how strongly he had influenced this man through Don Clemente.

He supposed he had read his books.

He was moved, and in his heart thanked God, who was thus gently showing him that he had worked some real good in a soul.
"How happy I should have been," Benedetto continued, "to have worked in your garden, [FN 1: "Of the heart's veil she never was divested." DANTE'S _Paradiso_, Canto iii.
(Longfellow's translation) ] have sometimes seen you, to have heard you speak!" A stifled exclamation escaped Noemi when reminded of that evening full of memories she could not express.

Giovanni took this opportunity of offering hospitality to Benedetto, Don Clemente having told him he intended leaving Jenne that night.