He laughed a little now, as he mimicked the baby voice. They laughed

together, then they looked at each other, and then with serious eyes

they turned away.

"You'll think it strange, but I date my first conscious and definite

aspiration to the memory of that hour."

"Really?"

"Ten years afterward, when I was in America, the words of that prayer

came back to me in Roma's little lisp. 'Dy kingum tum. Dy will be done

on eard as it is in heben.'"

For some time after that Roma worked on without speaking, feeling

feverish and restless. But just as the silence was becoming painful, and

she could bear it no longer, Felice came to announce lunch.

"You'll stay? I want so much to work on while I'm in the mood," she

said.

"With pleasure," he replied.

She ate hardly at all, for she was troubled by many misgivings. Did he

know her? He did; he must; every word, every tone seemed to tell her

that. Then why did he not speak out plainly? Because, having revealed

himself to her, he was waiting for her to reveal herself to him. And why

had she not done so? Because she was enmeshed in the nets of the society

she lived in; because she was ashamed of the errand that had brought

them together; and most of all because she had not dared to lay bare

that secret of his life which, like an escaped convict, dragged behind

it the broken chain of the prison-house.

David Leone is dead! To uncover, even to their own eyes only, the fact

that lay hidden behind those words was like personating the priest and

listening at the grating of the confessional!

No matter! She must do it! She must reveal herself as her heart and

instinct might direct. She must claim the parentage of the noblest soul

that ever died for liberty, and David Rossi must trust his secret to the

bond of blood which would make it impossible for her to betray the

foster-son of her own father.

Having come to this conclusion, the light seemed to break in her heavy

sky, but the clouds were charged with electricity. As they returned to

the studio she was excited and a little hysterical, for she thought the

time was near. At that moment a regiment of soldiers passed along under

the ilex trees to the Pincio, with their band of music playing as they

marched.

"Ah, the dear old days!" said David Rossi. "Everything reminds me of

them! I remember that when she was six...."




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