potent wrath, at that baneful influence which had trampled
down her life, and with it, all she had gathered round her to make that
life happy.

And so, when his mother's anxious, sorrow-laden eyes rested on his,
he felt her glance almost as an insult. _She_ could know nothing of
the thoughts that had been passing through his mind, nor realise how
his own life had shaped itself before him as the gloomy sequel to
his father's. But why should she gaze at him with those anxious,
troubled eyes, at the very moment when he had resolved to cut himself
adrift from all the temptations of ambition? The mute appeal awoke
no answering softness in his breast, and he met it with a look of cold
and obstinate negation.

CHAPTER VI

Two days later he was standing on the high ground near the wall, that
surrounds the old Cathedral precincts in Ancona; his attention was
riveted neither on the battered red marble lions which support the
columns of the porch, nor yet upon the beauties of the bay which lay
beneath him. His eyes wandered indiscriminately over the sailing
vessels and the laden boats and barges, and over the busy, bustling
life of the arsenal and the quays, but his thoughts were in the great
church he had just quitted; for there he had seen _her_. A solemn
ceremonial had brought Theresa to the Cathedral. He had caught sight of
her as she knelt in prayer; she, too, had noticed him, and, what was
more, had shown herself evidently pleased to see him, and had greeted
him with that look of indescribable meaning which had charmed him that
other evening on the Corso. He could not continue gazing at her without
making himself obtrusive or attracting attention; and, feeling the
incense-laden gloom of the cathedral atmosphere intolerable, he had
come outside into the free, fresh air, where his thoughts could wander
in undisturbed harmony with the beauty of his surroundings. He heard
the sound of the people pouring out of church behind him, and watched
them, in their carriages or on foot, winding down the steep road at his
feet. He would not look round, but waited persistently till he should
see her also, immediately below him. Suddenly he heard footsteps,
double footsteps, close behind him; his heart beat fast, a mist grew
before his eyes; he dared not, for all the world, have turned round at
that moment. The footsteps stopped; some one was standing quite near to
him, fronting the old wall. He knew,