My mother was there quite silent and vexed, and all at once he turned to her and said: 'Here, give her that Attilio she wants, and then perhaps we shall have some peace!' Oh yes! I'm well pleased, very well pleased indeed!" As she spoke her pure virginal face beamed with so much innocent, celestial joy that Pierre and Benedetta could not help laughing.

And at last she went off attended by a maid who had waited for her in the first _salon_.
When they were alone Benedetta made the priest sit down again: "I have been asked to give you some important advice, my friend," she said.

"It seems that the news of your presence in Rome is spreading, and that bad reports of you are circulated.

Your book is said to be a fierce appeal to schism, and you are spoken of as a mere ambitious, turbulent schismatic.
After publishing your book in Paris you have come to Rome, it is said, to raise a fearful scandal over it in order to make it sell.

Now, if you still desire to see his Holiness, so as to plead your cause before him, you are advised to make people forget you, to disappear altogether for a fortnight or three weeks." Pierre was stupefied.