and I am not unreasonable. Only, when I
finish, make some sign--a sigh, a movement of the eyelid, a twitch of
the lips, even in the small corners of the mouth; nothing more than
that, just to show that you have heard, and I shall be satisfied.
Remember all the years that I have been your protector, and this long
journey that I have taken on your account; also all that I did for
your sainted mother before she died at Voa, to become one of the most
important of those who surround the Queen of Heaven, and who, when they
wish for any favour, have only to say half a word to get it. And do not
cast in oblivion that at the last I obeyed your wish and brought you
safely to Riolama. It is true that in some small things I deceived you;
but that must not weigh with you, because it is a small matter and not
worthy of mention when you consider the claims I have on you. In your
hands, Rima, I leave everything, relying on the promise you made me, and
on my services. Only one word of caution remains to be added. Do not let
the magnificence of the place you are now about to enter, the new sights
and colours, and the noise of shouting, and musical instruments and
blowing of trumpets, put these things out of your head. Nor must you
begin to think meanly of yourself and be abashed when you find yourself
surrounded by saints and angels; for you are not less than they,
although it may not seem so at first when you see them in their bright
clothes, which, they say, shine like the sun. I cannot ask you to tie
a string round your finger; I can only trust to your memory, which was
always good, even about the smallest things; and when you are asked, as
no doubt you will be, to express a wish, remember before everything to
speak of your grandfather, and his claims on you, also on your angelic
mother, to whom you will present my humble remembrances."

During this petition, which in other circumstances would have moved me
to laughter but now only irritated me, a subtle change seemed to come
to the apparently lifeless girl to make me hope. The small hand in mine
felt not so icy cold, and though no faintest colour had come to the
face, its pallor had lost something of its deathly waxen appearance; and
now the compressed lips had relaxed a little and seemed ready to part.
I laid my finger-tips on her heart and felt, or imagined that I felt,
a faint fluttering; and at last I became convinced that her heart was
really beating.

I turned my eyes on the