"Read the Gospel--the Passion according to St.
Mark.

He who follows Christ after all others have forsaken Him must part with his cloak.

It is a mark of holiness." Therefore, as some one must carry this message to Jenne, Don Clemente preferred to do it himself.
He had, moreover, received a strange letter from the parish priest of Jenne.

This priest, a good man, but timid, had written that Benedetto was, to his mind, a most pious Christian, but that he talked too much of religion to the people, and that his discourses sometimes had a flavour of quietism and of rationalism, that there were those who accused him of employing a demoniacal power for the furtherance of his not over-orthodox views, that this accusation was certainly false, but that, nevertheless, prudence forbade the writer to keep Benedetto with him any longer.

Perhaps the wisest course for him would be to retire to some town where he was not known, and to live quietly there.
Their conversation was here interrupted by a call from Maria.
Noemi, overpowered by the heat of the burning sun, and seized with palpitations, must rest again.