I give you here!' He
paused a moment and pointed to the grave, then continued: 'All the
atonement that I owe to you, you can never know--I can never
tell!--think only that I bear away with me a companion in the solitude
to which I go in the remembrance of you. Be calm, good, happy still,
for my sake, and while you forgive the senator of former days, forget
not the friend who now parts from you in some sickness and sorrow, but
also in much patience and hope! Farewell!'

His hand trembled as he held it out; a flush overspread the girl's
cheek while she murmured a few inarticulate words of gratitude, and,
bending over it, pressed it to her lips. Vetranio's heart beat quick;
the action revived an emotion that he dared not cherish; but he looked
at the wan, downcast face before him, at the grave that rose mournful
by his side, and quelled it again. Yet an instant he lingered to
exchange a farewell with the old man, then turned quickly, passed
through the gate, and they saw him no more.

Antonina's tears fell fast on the grass beneath as she resumed her
place. When she raised her head again, and saw that her father was
looking at her, she nestled close to him and laid one of her arms round
his neck: the other gradually dropped to her side, until her hand
reached the topmost leaves of the shrubs that grew round the grave.

* * * * *

Shall we longer delay in the farm-house garden? No! For us, as for
Vetranio, it is now time to depart! While peace still watches round the
walls of Rome; while the hearts of the father and daughter still repose
together in security, after the trials that have wrung them, let us
quit the scene! Here, at last, the narrative that we have followed
over a dark and stormy track reposes on a tranquil field; and here let
us cease to pursue it!

So the traveller who traces the course of a river wanders through the
day among the rocks and precipices that lead onward from its troubled
source; and, when the evening is at hand, pauses and rests where the
banks are grassy and the stream is smooth.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Antonina, by Wilkie Collins

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANTONINA ***

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