f his
feet. It had been a beatitude for his soul to be able, in such moments,
to associate his own will with the Divine Will, to accept from this Love
all the pain which he was destined to suffer, without revealing to him
the mysterious reason, a reason hidden in the designs of the Universe,
certainly a reason bringing good; bringing good not only to him who
suffered, but universal good; a good radiating from his poor body,
and without known limits, like the movement of a vibrating atom of the
world. Oh! to suffer great things, like Christ, humbly, to continue the
redemption, as a sinner may, making amends by his own pain for the ills
of others. There on that lonely path leading to the Sacro Speco, In
the roaring of the Anio, among the everlasting hills, Don Clemente had
spoken thus to him.

And now that mortal suffering was past. When the quinine began to ring
in his head, he felt discouraged. These remedies were stupefying him.
He called the Professor; a sister answered him. He begged that a priest
might be sent for from Bocca della Verita.

The Professor, who had gone to rest for an hour, came to reassure
him, and judged it best to tell him what he had before concealed. Don
Clemente had telegraphed to Selva that he would reach Rome the next
morning at ten o'clock. This was a great joy to Benedetto.

"But will it not be too late?" he said. "Will it not be too late?"

No, it would not be too late. At present he was not in immediate danger.
It would be a question of life and death if the fever should return,
but even in the worst event many hours would elapse. Mayda feared he had
spoken too plainly, and whispered to him.

"But you will recover."

He left the room. Benedetto, thinking of Don Clemente, passed from the
quiet of his contentment into a light sleep, into dreams, whither the
spirits of evil descended, and conjured up for him a deceitful vision,
suggested by the Professor's last words. He saw himself confronted by a
colossal marble wall, crowned with rich balustrades, which shone white
in the moonlight. Up there, behind the balustrades, a dense forest
swayed in the wind. Six flights of stairs, these also flanked by
balustrades, slanted down, across the face of the great wall, three
on the left, and three on the right, and terminated upon six landings,
jutting out from the wall. The upper balustrades were divided by small
pilasters, supporting urns. And now, between the urns, six beautiful
maidens appeare