A Roman Singer

XIX.

TEMISTOCLE closed the door, then opened it again, and looked out, after which he finally shut it, and seemed satisfied. He advanced with cautious tread to where Hedwig sat by the window.

“Well? What have you done?" she inquired, without looking at him. It is a hard thing for a proud and noble girl to be in the power of a servant. The man took Nino’s letter from his pocket, and handed it to her upon his open palm. Hedwig tried hard to take it with indifference, but she acknowledges that her fingers trembled and her heart beat fast.

“ I was to deliver a message to your excellency, from the old gentleman,” said Temistocle, coming close to her and bending down.

“ Ah ! ” said Hedwig, beginning to break the envelope.

“ Yes, excellency. He desired me to say that it was absolutely and most indubitably necessary that your excellency should be at the little door to-night at twelve o’clock. Do not fear, Signora Contessina; we can manage it very well.”

“ I do not wish to know what you advise me to fear, or not to fear,” answered Hedwig, haughtily ; for she could not bear to feel that the man should counsel her or encourage her.

“ Pardon, excellency ; I thought ” — began Temistocle humbly ; but Hedwig interrupted him.

“Temistocle,” she said, “I have no money to give you, as I told you yesterday. But here is another stone, like the other. Take it, and arrange this matter as best you can.”

Temistocle took the jewel and bowed to the ground, eying curiously the little case from which she had taken it.

“ I have thought and combined everything,” he said. “ Your excellency will see that it is best you should go alone to the staircase; for, as we say, a mouse makes less noise than a rat. When you have descended, lock the door at the top behind you; and when you reach the foot of the staircase, keep that door open. I will have brought the old gentleman, by that time, and you will let me in. I shall go out by the great gate.”

“ Why not go with me ? ” inquired Hedwig.

“ Because, your excellency, one person is less likely to be seen than two. Your excellency will let me pass you. I will mount the staircase, unlock the upper door, and change the key to the other side. Then I will keep watch, and if any one comes I will lock the door and slip away till he is gone.”

“ I do not like the plan,” said Hedwig. “ I would rather let myself in from the staircase.”

“ But suppose any one were waiting on the inside, and saw you come back ?”

“ That is true. Give me the keys, Temistocle, and a taper and some matches.”

“ Your excellency is a paragon of courage,” replied the servant, obsequiously. “ Since yesterday I have carried the keys in my pocket. I will bring you the taper this evening.”

“ Bring it now. I wish to be ready.”

Temistocle departed on the errand. When he returned, Hedwig ordered him to give a message to her father.

“ When the count comes home, ask him to see me,” she said. Temistocle bowed once more, and was gone.

Yes, she would see her father, and tell him plainly what she had suffered from Benoni. She felt that no father, however cruel, would allow his daughter to be so treated, and she would detail the conversation to him.

She had not been able to read Nino’s letter, for she feared the servant, knowing the writing to be Italian and legible to him. Now she hastened to drink in its message of love. You cannot suppose that I know exactly what he said, but he certainly set forth at some length his proposal that she should leave her father, and escape with her lover from the bondage in which she was how held. He told her modestly of his success, in so far as it was necessary that she should understand his position. It must have been a very eloquent letter, for it nearly persuaded her to a step of which she had wildly dreamed, indeed, but which in her calmer moments she regarded as impossible.

The interminable afternoon was drawing to a close, and once more she sat by the open window, regardless of the increasing cold. Suddenly it all came over her, — the tremendous importance of the step she was about to take, if she should take Nino at his word, and really break from one life into another. The long-restrained tears, that had been bound from flowing through all Benoni’s insults and her own anger, trickled silently down her cheek, no longer pale, but bright and flushed at the daring thought of freedom.

At first it seemed far off, as seen in a magician’s glass. She looked, and saw herself as another person, acting a part only half known and half understood. But gradually her own individual soul entered into the figure of her imagination ; her eager heart beat fast; she breathed and moved and acted in the future. She was descending the dark steps alone, listening with supernatural sense of sound for her lover’s tread without. It came ; the door opened, and she was in his arms, — in those strong arms that could protect her from insult and tyranny and cruel wooing; out in the night, on the road, in Rome, married, free and made blessed forever. On a sudden the artificial imagery of her laboring brain fell away, and the thought crossed her mind that henceforth she must be an orphan. Her father would never speak to her again, or ever own for his a daughter that had done such a deed. Like icy water poured upon a fevered body, the idea chilled her and woke her to reality.

Did she love her father? She had loved him, — yes, until she crossed his will. She loved him still, when she could be so horror-struck at the thought of incurring his lasting anger. Could she bear it ? Could she find in her lover all that she must renounce of a father’s care and a father’s affection, — stern affection, that savored of the despot, — but could she hurt him so ?

The image of her father seemed to take another shape, and gradually to assume the form and features of the one man of the world whom she hated, converting itself little by little into Benoni. She hid her face in her hands, and terror staunched the tears that had flown afresh at the thought of orphanhood.

A knock at the door. She hastily concealed the crumpled letter.

“ Come in ! ” she answered boldly ; and her father, moving mechanically, with his stick in his hand, entered the room. He came as he had dismounted from his horse, in his riding boots, and his broad felt hat caught by the same fingers that held the stick.

“ You wished to see me, Hedwig,” he said coldly, depositing his hat upon the table. Then, when he had slowly sat himself down in an armchair, he added,

“ Here I am.” Hedwig had risen respectfully, and stood before him in the twilight. “ What do you wish to say ? ” he asked in German. “ You do not often honor your father by requesting his society.”

Hedwig stood one moment in silence. Her first impulse was to throw herself at his feet, and implore him to let her marry Nino. The thought swept away for the time the remembrance of Benoni and of what she had to tell. But a second sufficed to give her the mastery of her tongue and memory, which women seldom lose completely, even at the most desperate moments.

“ I desired to tell you,” she said, “ that Baron Benoni took advantage of your absence to-day to insult me beyond my endurance.” She looked boldly into her father’s eyes as she spoke.

“Ah!” said he, with great coolness. “ Will you be good enough to light one of those candles on the table, and to close the window ? ”

Hedwig obeyed in silence, and once more planted herself before him, her slim figure looking ghostly between the fading light of the departing day and the yellow flame of the candle.

“ You need not assume this theatrical air,” said Lira calmly. “ I presume you mean that Baron Benoni asked you to marry him ? ”

“Yes, that is one thing, and is an insult in itself,” replied Hedwig, without changing her position.

“ I suspect that it is the principal thing,” remarked the count. “ Very good ; he asked you to marry him. He has my full authority to do so. What then ? ”

“ You are my father,” answered Hedwig, standing like a statue before him, “ and you have the right to offer me whom you please for a husband. But you have no authority to allow me to be wantonly insulted.”

“ I think that you are out of your mind,” said the count, with imperturbable equanimity. “ You grant that I may propose a suitor to you, and you call it a wanton insult when that suitor respectfully asks the honor of your hand, merely because he is not young enough to suit your romantic tastes, which have been fostered by this wretched southern air. It is unfortunate that my health requires me to reside in Italy. Had you enjoyed an orderly Prussian education, you would have held different views in regard to filial duty. Refuse Baron Benoni as often as you like. I will stay here, and so will he, I fancy, until you change your mind. I am not tired of this lordly mountain scenery, and my health improves daily. We can pass the summer and winter, and more summers and winters, very comfortably here. If there is anything you would like to have brought from Rome, inform me, and I will satisfy any reasonable request.”

“ The baron has already had the audacity to inform me that you would keep me a prisoner until I should marry him,” said Hedwig; and her voice trembled as she remembered how Benoni had told her so.

“I doubt not that Benoni, who is a man of consummate tact, hinted delicately that he would not desist from pressing his suit. You, well knowing my determination, and carried away by your evil temper, have magnified into a threat what he never intended as such. Pray let me hear no more about these fancied insults.” The old man smiled grimly at his keen perception.

“ You shall hear me, nevertheless,” said Hedwig in a low voice, coming close to the table, and resting one hand upon it as though for support.

“ My daughter,” said the count, “ I desire you to abandon this highly theatrical and melodramatic tone. I am not to be imposed upon.”

“ Baron Benoni did not confine himself to the course you describe. He said many things to me that I did not understand, but I comprehended their import. He began by making absurd speeches, at which I laughed. Then he asked me to marry him, as I had long known he would do as soon as you gave him the opportunity. I refused his offer. Then he insisted, saying that you, sir, had determined on this marriage, and would keep me a close prisoner here until the torture of the situation broke down my strength. I assured him that I would never yield to force. Then he broke out angrily, telling me to my face that I had lost everything, — name, fame, and honor, — how, I cannot tell ; but he said those words; and he added that I could regain my reputation only by consenting to marry him.”

The old count had listened at first with a sarcastic smile, then with increased attention. Finally, as Hedwig repeated the shameful insult, his brave old blood boiled up in his breast, and he sat gripping the two arms of his chair fiercely, while his gray eyes shot fire from beneath the shaggy brows.

“ Hedwig,” he cried hoarsely, “ are you speaking the truth ? Did he say those words ? ”

“ Yes, my father, and more like them. Are you surprised ? ” she asked bitterly. “ You have said them yourself to me.”

The old man’s rage rose furiously, and he struggled to his feet. He was stiff with riding and rheumatism, but he was too angry to sit still.

“ I ? Yes, I have tried to show you what might have happened, and to warn you and frighten you, as you should be frightened. Yes, and I was right, for you shall not drag my name in the dirt. But another man, — Benoni ! ” He could not speak, for his wrath, and his tall figure moved rapidly about the room, his heart seeking expression in action. He looked like some forgotten creature of harm, suddenly galvanized into destructive life. It was well that Benoni was not within reach.

Hedwig stood calmly by the table, proud in her soul that her father should be roused to such fury. The old man paused in his walk, came to her, and with his hand turned her face to the light, gazing savagely into her eyes.

“ You never told me a lie,” he growled out.

“ Never,” she said boldly, as she faced him scornfully. He knew his own temper in his child, and was satisfied. The soldier’s habit of self-control was strong in him, and the sardonic humor of his nature served as a garment to the thoughts he harbored.

“It appears,” he said, “ that I am to spend the remainder of an honorable life in fighting with a pack of hounds.

I nearly killed your old acquaintance, the Signor Professore Cardegna, this afternoon.” Hedwig staggered back, and turned pale.

“ What! Is he wounded ? ” she gasped out, pressing her hand to her side.

“ Ha ! That touches you almost as closely as Benoni’s insult,” he said savagely. “ I am glad of it. I repent me, and wish that I had killed him. We met on the road, and he had the impertinence to ask me for your hand, — I am sick of these daily proposals of marriage ; and then I inquired if he meant to insult me.”

Hedwig leaned heavily on the table, in an agony of suspense.

“ The fellow answered that if I were insulted he was ready to fight then and there, in the road, with my pistols. He is no coward, your lover, — I will say that. The end of it was that I came home, and he did not.”

Hedwig sank into the chair that her father had left, and hid her face.

“Oh, you have killed him!” she moaned.

“No,” said the count shortly; “I did not touch a hair of his head. But he rode away toward Trevi.” Hedwig breathed again. “Are you satisfied?” he asked, with a hard smile, enjoying the terror he had excited.

“ Oh, how cruel you are, my father ! ” she said, in a broken voice.

“ I tell you that if I could cure you of your insane passion for this singer fellow, I would be as cruel as the Inquisition,” retorted the count. “Now listen to me. You will not be troubled any longer with Benoni, — the beast!

I will teach him a lesson of etiquette. You need not appear at dinner to-night. But you are not to suppose that our residence here is at an end. When you have made up your mind to act sensibly, and to forget the Signor Cardegna, you shall return to society, where you may select a husband of your own position and fortune, if you choose ; or you may turn Romanist, and go into a convent, and devote yourself to good works and idolatry, or anything else. I do not pretend to care what becomes of you, so long as you show any decent respect for your name. But if you persist in pining and moaning and starving yourself, because I will not allow you to turn dancer and marry a strolling player, you will have to remain here. I am not such pleasant company when I am bored, I can tell you, and my enthusiasm for the beauties of nature is probably transitory.”

“ I can bear anything, if you will remove Benoni,” said Hedwig quietly, as she rose from her seat. But the pressure of the iron keys that she had hidden in her bosom gave her a strange sensation.

“ Never fear,” said the count, taking his hat from the table. “ You shall be amply avenged of Benoni and his foul tongue. I may not love my daughter, but no one shall insult her. I will have a word with him this evening.”

“ I thank you for that, at least,” said Hedwig, as he moved to the door.

“ Do not mention it,” said he, and put his hand on the lock.

A sudden impulse seized Hedwig. She ran swiftly to him, and clasped her hands upon his arm.

“ Father ! ” she cried, pleadingly.

“ What ? ”

“ Father, do you love me ? ” He hesitated one moment.

“ No,” he said sternly ; “ you disobey me; ” and he went out in rough haste. The door closed behind him, and she was left standing alone. What could she do, poor child ? For months he had tormented her and persecuted her, and now she had asked him plainly if she still held a place in his heart, and he had coldly denied it.

A gentle, tender maiden, love-sick and mind-sick, yearning so piteously for a little mercy, or sympathy, or kindness, and treated like a mutinous soldier, because she loved so honestly and purely, — is it any wonder that her hand went to her bosom and clasped the cold, hard keys that promised her life and freedom ? I think not. I have no patience with young women who allow themselves to be carried away by an innate bad taste and love for effect, quarreling with the peaceful destiny that a kind Providence has vouchsafed them, and with an existence which they are too dull to make interesting to themselves or to any one else; finally making a desperate and foolish dash at notoriety by a runaway marriage with the first scamp they can find, and repenting in poverty and social ostracism the romance they conceived in wealth and luxury. They deserve their fate. But when a sensitive girl is motherless, cut off from friends and pleasures, presented with the alternative of solitude or marriage with some detested man, or locked up to forget a dream which was half realized and very sweet, then the case is different. If she breaks her bonds, and flies to the only loving heart she knows, forgive her, and pray Heaven to have mercy on her, for she takes a fearful leap into the dark.

Hedwig felt the keys, and took them from her dress, and pressed them to her cheek, and her mind was made up. She glanced at the small gilt clock, and saw that the hands pointed to seven. Five hours were before her in which to make her preparations, such as they could be.

In accordance with her father’s orders, given when he left her, Temistocle served her dinner in her sitting-room; and the uncertainty of the night’s enterprise demanded that she should eat something, lest her strength should fail at the critical moment. Temistocle volunteered the information that her father had gone to the baron’s apartment, and had not been seen since. She heard in silence, and bade the servant leave her as soon as he had ministered to her wants. Then she wrote a short letter to her father, telling him that she had left him, since he had no place for her in his heart, and that she had gone to the one man who seemed ready both to love and to protect her. This missive she folded, sealed, and laid in a prominent place upon the table, addressed to the count.

She made a small bundle,—very neatly, for she is clever with her fingers, — and put on a dark traveling dress, in the folds of which she sewed such jewels as were small and valuable and her own. She would take nothing that her father had given her. In all this she displayed perfect coolness and foresight.

The castle became intensely quiet as the evening advanced. She sat watching the clock. At five minutes before midnight she took her bundle and her little shoes in her hand, blew out her candle, and softly left the room.

XX.

I need not tell you how I passed all the time from Nino’s leaving me until he came back in the evening, just as I could see from my window that the full moon was touching the tower of the castle. I sat looking out, expecting him, and I was the most anxious professor that ever found himself in a ridiculous position. Temistocle had come, and you know what had passed between us, and how we had arranged the plan of the night. Most heartily did I wish myself in the little amphitheatre of my lectureroom at the University, instead of being pledged to this wild plot of my boy’s invention. But there was no drawing back. I had been myself to the little stable next door, where I had kept my donkey, and visited him daily since my arrival, and I had made sure that I could have him at a moment’s notice by putting on the cumbrous saddle. Moreover, I had secretly made a bundle of my effects, and had succeeded in taking it unobserved to the stall, and I tied it to the pommel. I also told my landlady that I was going away in the morning, with the young gentleman who had visited me, and who, I said, was the engineer who was going to make a new road to the Serra. This was not quite true ; but lies that hurt no one are not lies at all, as you all know, and the curiosity of the old woman was satisfied. I also paid for my lodging, and gave her a franc for herself, which pleased her very much. I meant to steal away about ten o’clock, or as soon as I had seen Nino and communicated to him the result of my interview with Temistocle.

The hours seemed endless, in spite of my preparations, which occupied some time ; so I went out when I had eaten my supper, and visited my ass, and gave him a little bread that was left, thinking it would strengthen him for the journey. Then I came back to my room, and Watched. Just as the moonlight was shooting over the hill, Nino rode up the street. I knew him in the dusk by his broad hat, and also because he was humming a little tune through, his nose, as he generally does. But he rode past my door without looking up, for he meant to put his mule in the stable for a rest.

At last he came in, still humming, and apologized for the delay, saying he had stopped a few minutes at the inn to get some supper. It could not have been a very substantial meal that he ate, in that short time.

“What did the man say?” was his first question, as he sat down.

“ He said it should be managed as I desired,” I answered. “ Of course I did not mention you. Temistocle — that is his name — will come at midnight, and take you to the door. There you will find this inamorata, this lady-love of yours, for whom you are about to turn the world upside down.”

“ What will you do yourself, Sor Cornelio?” he asked, smiling.

“ I will go now and get my donkey, and quietly ride up the valley to the Serra di Sant’ Antonio,” I said. “ I am sure that the signorina will be more at her ease if I accompany you. I am a very proper person, you see.”

“ Yes,” said Nino pensively, “ you are very proper. And besides, you can be a witness of the civil marriage.”

“ Diavolo ! ” I cried, “ a marriage !

I had not thought of that.”

“ Blood of a dog ! ” exclaimed Nino, “what on earth did you think of?” He was angry all in a moment.

“Piano, — do not disquiet yourself, my boy. I had not realized that the wedding was so near, — that is all. Of course you will he married in Rome, as soon as ever we get there.”

“ We shall be married in Ceprano tomorrow night, by the Sindaco, or the mayor, or whatever civil bishop they support in that God-forsaken Neapolitan town,” said Nino, with great determination.

“Oh, very well; manage it as you like. Only be careful that it is properly done, and have it registered,” I added. “ Meanwhile, I will start.”

“ You need not go yet, caro mio ; it is not nine o’clock.”

“ How far do you think I ought to go, Nino?” I inquired. To tell the truth, the idea of going up the Serra alone was not so attractive in the evening as it had been in the morning light. I thought it would be very dark among those trees, and I had still a great deal of money sewn between my waistcoats.

“ Oh, you need not go so very far,” said Nino. “ Three or four miles from the town will be enough. I will wait in the street below, after eleven.”

We sat in silence for some time afterwards, and if I was thinking of the gloomy ride before me, I am sure that Nino was thinking of Hedwig. Poor fellow ! I dare say he was anxious enough to see her, after being away for two months, and spending so many hours almost within her reach. He sat low in his chair, and the dismal rays of the solitary tallow candle cast deep shadows on his thoughtful face. Weary, perhaps, with waiting and with long travel, yet not sad, but very hopeful, he looked. No fatigue could destroy the strong, manly expression of his features, and even in that squalid room, by the miserable light, dressed in his plain gray clothes, he was still the man of success, who could hold thousands in the suspense of listening to his slightest utterance. Nino is a wonderful man, and I am convinced that there is more in him than music, which is well enough when one can be as great as he, but is not all, the world holds. I am sure that massive head of his was not hammered so square and broad, by the great hands that forge the thunderbolts of nations, merely that he should be a tenor and an actor, and give pleasure to his fellowmen. I see there the power and the strength of a broader mastery than that which bends the ears of a theatre audience. One day we may see it. It needs the fire of hot times to fuse the elements of greatness in the crucible of revolution. Ihere is not such another head in all Italy as Nino’s that I have ever seen, and I have seen the best in Rome. He looked so grand, as he sat there, thinking over the future. I am not praising his face for its beauty ; there is little enough of that, as women might judge. And besides, you will laugh at my ravings, and say that a singer is a singer, and nothing more, for all his life. Well, we shall see in twenty years ; you will, — perhaps I shall not.

“ Nino,” I asked irrelevantly, following my own train of reflection, “ have you ever thought of anything but music — and love ? ” He roused himself from his reverie, and stared at me.

“ How should you be able to guess my thoughts ? ” he asked at last.

“ People who have lived much together often read each other’s minds. What were you thinking of?” Nino sighed, and hesitated a moment before he answered.

“ I was thinking,” he said, “ that a musician’s destiny, even the highest, is a poor return for a woman’s love.”

“You see: I was thinking of you, and wondering whether, after all, you will always be a singer.”

“ That is singular,” he answered slowly. “ I was reflecting how utterly small my success on the stage will look to me when I have married Hedwig von Lira.”

“ There is a larger stage, Nino mio, than yours.”

“ I know it,” said he, and fell back in his chair again, dreaming.

I fancy that at any other time we might have fallen into conversation and speculated on the good old-fashioned simile which likens life to a comedy, or a tragedy, or a farce. But the moment was ill chosen, and we were both silent, being much preoccupied with the immediate future.

A little before ten I made up my mind to start. I glanced once more round the room to see if I had left anything. Nino was still sitting in his chair, his head bent, and his eyes staring at the floor.

“ Nino,” I said, “ I am going now. Here is another candle, which you will need before long, for these tallow things are very short.” Indeed, the one that burned was already guttering low in the old brass candlestick. Nino rose and shook himself.

“ My dear friend,” he said, taking me by both hands, “you know that I am grateful to you. I thank you, and thank you again, with all my heart. Yes, you ought to go now, for the time is approaching. We shall join you, if all goes well, by one o’clock.”

“ But, Nino, if you do not come ? ”

“ I will come, alone, or with her. If — if I should not be with you by two in the morning, go on alone, and get out of the way. It will be because I am caught by that old Prussian devil. Good-by.” He embraced me affectionately, and I went out. A quarter of an hour later I was out of the town, picking my way, with my little donkey, over the desolate path that leads toward the black Serra. The clatter of the beast’s hoofs over the stones kept time with the beatings of my heart, and I pressed my thin legs close to his thinner sides for company.

When Nino was left alone, — and all this I know from him, — he sat again in the chair, and meditated ; and although the time of the greatest event in his life was very near, he was so much absorbed that he was startled when he looked at his watch and found that it was half past eleven. He had barely time to make his preparations. His man was warned, but was waiting near the inn, not knowing where he was required, as Nino himself had not been to ascertain the position of the lower door, fearing lest he might be seen by Benoni. He now hastily extinguished the light, and let himself out of the house without noise. He found his countryman ready with the mules, ordered him to come with him, and returned to the house, instructing him to follow and wait at a short distance from the door he would enter. Muffled in his cloak, he stood in the street, awaiting the messenger from Hedwig.

The crazy old clock of the church tolled the hour, and a man wrapped in a nondescript garment, between a cloak and an overcoat, stole along the moonlit street to where Nino stood, in front of my lodging.

“ Temistocle ! ” called Nino, in a low voice, as the fellow hesitated.

“ Excellency ” — answered the man, and then drew back. “You are not the Signor Grandi! ” he cried, in alarm.

“ It is the same thing,” replied Nino.

“ Let us go.”

“ But how is this?” objected Temistocle, seeing a new development. “ It was the Signor Grandi whom I was to conduct.” Nino was silent, but there was a crisp sound in the air as he took a banknote from his pocket-book. “ Diavolo ! ” muttered the servant, “ perhaps it may be right, after all.” Nino gave him the note.

“ That is my passport,” said he.

“ I have doubts,” answered Temistocle, taking it, nevertheless, and examining it by the moonlight. “ It has no visa,” he added, with a cunning leer. Nino gave him another. Then Temistocle had no more doubts.

“ I will conduct your excellency,” he said. They moved away, and Temistocle was so deaf that he did not hear the mules and the tramp of the man who led them, not ten paces behind him.

Passing round the rock, they found themselves in the shadow; a fact which Nino noted with much satisfaction, for he feared lest some one might be keeping late hours in the castle. The mere noise of the mules would attract no attention in a mountain town, where the country people start for their distant work at all hours of the day and night. They came to the door. Nino called softly to the man with the mules to wait in the shadow, and Temistocle knocked at the door. The key ground in the lock from within, but the hands that held it seemed weak. Nino’s heart beat fast.

“ Temistocle !” called Hedwig’s trembling voice.

“ What is the matter, your excellency ? ” asked the servant through the keyhole, not forgetting his manners.

“ Oh, I cannot turn the key ! What shall I do ? ”

Nino heard, and pushed the servant aside.

“ Courage, my dear lady,” he said, aloud, that she might know his voice. Hedwig appeared to make a frantic effort, and a little sound of pain escaped her as she hurt her hands.

“ Oh, what shall I do ! ” she cried, piteously. “ I locked it last night, and now I cannot turn the key ! ”

Nino pressed with all his weight against the door. Fortunately, it was strong, or he would have broken it in, and it would have fallen upon her. But it opened outward, and was heavily bound with iron. Nino groaned.

“ Has your excellency a taper ? ” asked Temistocle suddenly, forcing his head between Nino’s body and the door, in order to be heard.

“ Yes. I put it out.”

“ And matches ? ” he asked again.

“ Yes.”

“ Then let your excellency light the taper, and drop some of the burning wax on the end of the key. It will be like oil.” There was a silence. The key was withdrawn, and a light appeared through the hole where it had been. Nino instantly fastened his eye to the aperture, hoping to catch a glimpse of Hedwig. But he could not see anything save two white hands trying to cover the key with wax. He withdrew his eye quickly, as the hands pushed the key through again.

Again the lock groaned, —a little sob of effort, another trial, and the bolts flew back to their sockets. The prudent Temistocle, who did not wish to be a witness of what followed, pretended to exert gigantic strength in pulling the door open, and Nino, seeing him, drew back a moment, to let him pass.

“ Your excellency need only knock at the upper door,” he said to Hedwig, “ and I will open. I will watch, lest any one should enter from above.”

“You may watch till the rising of the dead,” thought Nino, and Hedwig stood aside on the narrow step, while Temistocle went up. One instant more, and Nino was at her feet, kissing the hem of her dress, and speechless with happiness, for his tears of joy flowed fast.

Tenderly Hedwig bent to him, and laid her two hands on his bare head, pressing down the thick and curly hair with a trembling, passionate motion.

“ Signor Cardegna, you must not kneel there, — nay, sir, I know you love me! Would I have come to you else? Give me your hand — now — do not kiss it so hard — no — Oh, Nino, my own dear Nino ” —

What should have followed in her gentle speech is lacking, for many and most sweet reasons. I need not tell you that the taper was extinguished, and they stood locked in each other’s arms against the open door, with only the reflection of the moon from the houses opposite to illuminate their meeting.

There was and is to me something divinely perfect and godlike in these two virgin hearts, each so new to their love, and each so true and spotless of all other. I am old to say sweet things of loving. But I cannot help it; for though I never was as they are, I have loved much in my time. Like our own dear Leopardi, I loved not the woman, but the angel which is the type of all women, and whom not finding I perished miserably as to my heart. But in my breast there is still the temple where the angel dwelt, and the shrine is very fragrant still with the divine scent of the heavenly roses that were about her. I think, also, that all those who love in this world must have such a holy place of worship in their hearts. Sometimes the kingdom of the soul and the palace of the body are all Love’s, made beautiful and rich with rare offerings of great constancy and faith ; and all the countless creations of transcendent genius, and all the vast aspirations of far-reaching power, go up in reverent order to do homage at Love’s altar, before they come forth, like giants, to make the great world tremble and reel in its giddy grooves.

And with another it is different. The world is not his ; he is the world’s, and all his petty doings have its gaudy stencil blotched upon them. Yet haply even he has a heart, and somewhere in its fruitless fallows stands a poor ruin, that never was of much dignity at its best,— poor and broken, and half choked with weeds and briers ; but even thus the weeds are fragrant herbs, and the briers are wild roses, of few and misshapen petals, but sweet, nevertheless. For this ruin was once a shrine, too, that his mean hands and sterile soul did try most ineffectually to build up as a shelter for all that was ever worthy in him.

Now, therefore, I say, Love, and love truly and long, — even forever; and if you can do other things well, do them ; but if not, at least learn to do that, for it is a very gentle thing, and sweet in the learning. Some of you laugh at me, and say, Behold this old-fashioned driveler, who does not even know that love is no longer in the fashion ! By Saint Peter, Heaven will soon be out of the fashion, too, and Messer Satanas will rake in the just and the unjust alike, so that he need no longer fast on Fridays, having a more savory larder ! And no doubt some of you will say that hell is really so antiquated that it should be put in the museum at the University of Rome, for a curious old piece of theological furniture. Truth ! it is a wonder it is not worn out with digesting the tough morsels it gets, when people like you are finally gotten rid of from this world ! But it is made of good material, and will last, never fear ! This is not the gospel of peace, but it is the gospel of truth.

Loving hearts and gentle souls shall rule the world some day, for all your pestiferous fashions ; and old as I am, — I do not mean aged, but well on in years, — I believe in love still, and I always will. It is true that it was not given to me to love as Nino loves Hedwig, for Nino is even now a stronger, sterner man than I. His is the nature that can never do enough ; his the hands that never tire for her ; his the art that would surpass, for her, the stubborn bounds of possibility. He is never weary of striving to increase her joy of him. His philosophy is but that. No quibbles of “ being ” and “ not being,” or wretched speculations concerning the object of existence ; he has found the true unity of unities, and he holds it fast.

Meanwhile, you object that I am not proceeding with my task, and telling you more facts, recounting more conversations, and painting more descriptions. Believe me, this one fact, that to love well is to be all man can be, is greater than all the things men have ever learned and classified in dictionaries. It is, moreover, the only fact that has consistently withstood the ravages of time and social revolution ; it is the wisdom that has opened, as by magic, the treasures of genius, of goodness, and of all greatness, for every one to see ; it is the vital elixir that has made men of striplings, and giants of cripples, and heroes of the poor in heart though great in spirit. Nino is an example : for he was but a boy, yet he acted like a man ; a gifted artist in a great city, courted by the noblest, yet he kept his faith.

But when I have taken breath I will tell you what he and Hedwig said to each other at the gate, and whether at the last she went with him, or stayed in dismal Fillettino for her father’s sake.

F. Marion Crawford.