. He paused, looked at the
Shade, and said:

"'To-morrow.'

"Then he turned heavenwards once more, spread his wings, and clove
through space as a vessel cuts through the waves, hardly showing her
white sails to the exiles left on some deserted shore.

"The Shade uttered appalling cries, to which the damned responded from
the lowest circle, the deepest in the immensity of suffering, to the
more peaceful zone near the surface on which we were standing. This
worst torment of all had appealed to all the rest. The turmoil was
swelled by the roar of a sea of fire which formed a bass to the terrific
harmony of endless millions of suffering souls.

"Then suddenly the Shade took flight through the doleful city, and down
to its place at the very bottom of Hell; but as suddenly it came up
again, turned, soared through the endless circles in every direction,
as a vulture, confined for the first time in a cage, exhausts itself in
vain efforts. The Shade was free to do this; he could wander through the
zones of Hell icy, fetid, or scorching without enduring their pangs; he
glided into that vastness as a sunbeam makes its way into the deepest
dark.

"'God has not condemned him to any torment,' said the Master; 'but not
one of the souls you have seen suffering their various punishments would
exchange his anguish for the hope that is consuming this soul.'

"And just then the Shade came back to us, brought thither by an
irresistible force which condemned him to perch on the verge of Hell. My
divine Guide, guessing my curiosity, touched the unhappy Shade with his
palm-branch. He, who was perhaps trying to measure the age of sorrow
that divided him from that ever-vanishing 'To-morrow,' started and gave
a look full of all the tears he had already shed.

"'You would know my woe?' said he sadly. 'Oh, I love to tell it. I am
here, Teresa is above; that is all. On earth we were happy, we were
always together. When I saw my loved Teresa Donati for the first time,
she was ten years old. We loved each other even then, not knowing what
love meant. Our lives were one; I turned pale if she were pale, I was
happy in her joy; we gave ourselves up to the pleasure of thinking and
feeling together; and we learned what love was, each through the other.
We were wedded at Cremona; we never saw each other's lips but decked
with pearls of a smile; our eyes always shone; our hair, like our
desires, flowed together; our heads were always bent over one bo