She lifted her pen from the paper. "He'll understand," she thought.
"He'll remember our other letters and read between the lines. Well, so
much the better, and God be good to me!"
"Good-night! Good-night! Good-night! I feel like a child--as if
the years had gone back with me, or rather as if they had only
just begun. You have awakened my soul and all the world is
different. Nearly everything that seemed right to me before seems
wrong to me now, and vice versa. Life? That wasn't life. It was
only existence. I fancy it must have been some elder sister of
mine who went through everything. Think of it! When you were
twenty and I was only ten! I'm glad there isn't as much difference
now. I'm catching up to you--metaphorically, I mean. If I could
only do so physically! But what nonsense I'm talking! In spite of
my poor friend's trouble I can't help talking nonsense to-night."
VI
Two days later Natalina, coming into Roma's bedroom, threw open the
shutters and said: "Letter with a foreign postmark, Excellency--'
Sister Angelica, care of
the Porter.' It was delivered at the Convent, and the porter sent it
over here."
"Give it to me," said Roma eagerly. "It's quite right. I know whom it is
for, and if any more letters come for the same person bring them to me
immediately."
Almost before the maid had left the room Roma had torn the letter open.
It was dated from a street in Soho.
"MY DEAR WIFE,--As you see, I have reached London, and now I am
thinking of you always, wondering what sufferings are being
inflicted upon you for my sake and how you meet and bear them. To
think of you there, in the midst of our enemies, is a spur and an
inspiration. Only wait! If my absence is cruel to you it is still
more hard to me. I will see your lovely eyes again before long,
and there will be an end of all our sadness. Meantime continue to
love me, and that will work miracles. It will make all the slings
and slurs of life seem to be a long way off and of no account.
Only those who love can know this law of the human heart, but how
true it is and how beautiful!
"We reached London in the early morning, when the grey old city
was beginning to stir after its sleepless rest. I had telegraphed
the time of my arrival to the committee of our association, and
early as it was some hundreds of our people were at Charing Cross
to meet me. They must have been surprised to see a man step out of
the train in the disguise of driver of a wine-cart on the
Campagna, but perhaps that helped them to understand the position
better, and they formed into procession and marched to Trafalgar
Square as if they had forgotten they were in a foreign country.