"A storm is coming," he said, looking at the colours in the sunset.

"It has come and gone," she whispered, and then his arm folded closer

about her waist.

It took him half-an-hour to say adieu. After the last kiss and the last

handshake, their arms would stretch out to the utmost limit, and then

close again for another and another and yet another embrace.

XV

When at length Rossi was gone, Roma ran into her bedroom to look at her

face in the glass. The golden complexion was heightened by a bright spot

on either cheek, and a teardrop was glistening in the corner of each of

her eyes.

She went back to the boudoir. David Rossi was no longer there, but the

room seemed to be full of his presence. She sat in the chair again, and

again she stood by the window. At length she opened her desk and wrote a

letter:-

"DEAREST,--You are only half-an-hour gone, and here I am sending

this letter after you, like a handkerchief you had forgotten. I

have one or two things to say, quite matter-of-fact and simple

things, but I cannot think of them sensibly for joy of the

certainty that you love me. Of course I knew it all the time, but

I couldn't be at ease until I had heard it from your own lips; and

now I feel almost afraid of my great happiness. How wonderful it

seems! And, like all events that are long expected, how suddenly

it has happened in the end. To think that a month ago--only a

little month--you and I were both in Rome, within a mile of each

other, breathing the same air, enclosed by the same cloud, kissed

by the same sunshine, and yet we didn't know it!

"Soberly, though, I want you to understand that I meant all I said

so savagely about going on with your work, and not letting your

anxiety about my welfare interfere with you. I am really one of

the women who think that a wife should further a man's aims in

life if she can; and if she can't do that, she should stand aside

and not impede him. So go on, dear heart, without fear for me. I

will take care of myself, whatever occurs. Don't let one hour or

one act of your life be troubled by the thought of what would

happen to me if you should fall. Dearest, I am your beloved, but I

am your soldier also, ready and waiting to follow where my captain

calls: "'Teach me, only teach, Love!

As I ought

I will speak thy speech, Love!

Think thy thought.' "And if I was not half afraid that you would think it bolder than

is modest in your bride to be, I would go on with the next lines

of my sweet quotation.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024