a saint. Every act of her life was in
harmony with her faith. This also influenced me strongly. And then I
knew that the greatest sorrow of her life had been my father's unbelief.
I met you, loved you, married you, and I was strengthened in my resolve
to become as you are in matters of religion, because I believed you were
as my mother was. Then, little by little, I discovered you are not like
my mother. Shall I go on?"

"Yes, to the end!"

"I discovered you were kindness itself, that you had the warmest, most
generous heart in the world, but that your faith and your religious
practices rendered these treasures almost useless. You did not strive!
You were satisfied to love me, the child, Italy, your flowers, your
music, the beauty of the lake and the mountains. In this you followed
your heart. As to a higher ideal, it was sufficient for you to believe
and to pray. Without this faith and without these prayers you would have
given the fire that is in your soul to that which is surely true, which
is surely just in this world, you would have felt the same need to be
doing that I feel. You are well aware, are you not, what I could have
wished you to be in certain things? For example, who feels patriotism
more keenly than you do? Surely no one. Well, I could have wished to see
you endeavour to serve your country seriously, and according to your
strength. Now you are indeed going to Piedmont, but your principal
reason for doing so is that we have hardly anything left to live upon."

Franco, frowning angrily, made an impatient gesture of protest. "If you
wish it I will stop," Luisa said humbly.

"No, no. Go on! Let us have the whole of it! It will be better!"

He spoke so excitedly, so angrily, that Luisa was silent, and it was
only after a second, "Go on!" that she continued.

"Without going to Piedmont there would have been enough to do here in
Valsolda, in Val Porlezza, in Vall' Intelvi; what V. does on the Lake of
Como, communicating with different people, keeping the right spirit
alive, preparing all that must be prepared against the coming of war,
if, indeed, it ever comes. I used to tell you so, but you would not be
convinced, you saw so many difficulties in the way. This sluggishness
fostered my repugnance to your conception of religion, and my tendency
towards another conception. For I also felt myself intensely religious.
The conception of religion which was gradually shaping itself clearly in
my mind was, in s