d softly aside--I
hid behind a dense screen of foliage through which I could see without
being seen. The clear laugh rang out once again on the stillness--its
brightness pierced my brain like a sharp sword! She was happy--she was
even merry--she wandered here in the moonlight joyous-hearted, while
I--I had expected to find her close shut within her room, or else
kneeling before the Mater Dolorosa in the little chapel, praying for my
soul's rest, and mingling her prayers with her tears! Yes--I had
expected this--we men are such fools when we love women! Suddenly a
terrible thought struck me. Had she gone mad? Had the shock and grief
of my so unexpected death turned her delicate brain? Was she roaming
about, poor child, like Ophelia, knowing not whither she went, and was
her apparent gayety the fantastic mirth of a disordered brain? I
shuddered at the idea--and bending slightly apart the boughs behind
which I was secreted, I looked out anxiously. Two figures were slowly
approaching--my wife and my friend, Guido Ferrari. Well--there was
nothing in that--it was as it should be--was not Guido as my brother?
It was almost his duty to console and cheer Nina as much as lay in his
power. But stay! stay! did I see aright--was she simply leaning on his
arm for support--or--a fierce oath, that was almost a cry of torture,
broke from my lips! Oh, would to God I had died! Would to God I had
never broken open the coffin in which I lay at peace! What was
death--what were the horrors of the vault--what was anything I had
suffered to the anguish that racked me now? The memory of it to this
day burns in my brain like inextinguishable fire, and my hand
involuntarily clinches itself in an effort to beat back the furious
bitterness of that moment! I know not how I restrained the murderous
ferocity that awoke within me--how I forced myself to remain motionless
and silent in my hiding-place. But I did. I watched the miserable
comedy out to its end. I looked dumbly on at my own betrayal! I saw my
honor stabbed to the death by those whom I most trusted, and yet I gave
no sign! They--Guido Ferrari and my wife--came so close to my
hiding-place that I could note every gesture and hear every word they
uttered. They paused within three steps of me--his arm encircled her
waist--hers was thrown carelessly around his neck--her head rested on
his shoulder. Even so had she walked with me a thousand times! She was
dressed in pure white save for one spot of