it in his pocket with his watch. Then she dried her eyes with
her handkerchief and pushed it in his breast.

The night went on, and nothing was to be heard but the chiming of clocks
outside. At length through the silence there came a muffled rumble from
the streets.

"You must go now," she said, and when the next flash came round she
looked up at him with a steadfast gaze, as if trying to gather into her
eyes her last memories of his face.

"Adieu!"

"Not yet."

"It is still dark, but the streets are patrolled and every gate is
closed, and how are you to escape?"

"If the soldiers had wished to take me they could have done so a hundred
times."

"But the city is stirring. Be careful for my sake. Adieu!"

"Roma," said Rossi, "if I do not take you with me it is partly because I
want your help in Rome. Think of the poor people I leave behind me in
poverty and in prison. Think of Elena when she awakes in the morning,
alone with her terrible grief. Some one should be here to represent me
for a time at all events--to take the messages I must send, the
instructions I shall have to give. It will be a dangerous task, Roma, a
task that can only be undertaken by some one who loves me, some one
who...."

"That is enough. Tell me what I can do," she said.

They arranged a channel of correspondence, and then Roma began her
farewells afresh.

"Roma," said Rossi again, "since I must go away before our civil
marriage can be celebrated, is it not best that our spiritual one should
have the blessing of the Church?"

Roma looked at him and trembled.

"When I am gone God knows what may happen. The Baron may be a free man
any day, and he may put pressure on you to marry him. In that case it
will be strength and courage to you to know that in God's eyes you are
married already. It will be happiness and comfort to me, too, when I am
far away from you and alone."

"But it is impossible."

"Not so. A declaration before a parish priest is all that is necessary.
'Father, this is my wife.' 'This is my husband.' That is enough. It will
have no value in the eye of the law, but it will be a religious marriage
for all that."

"There is no time. You cannot wait...."

"Hush!" The clocks were striking three. "At three o'clock there is mass
at St. Andrea delle Frate. That is your parish church, Roma. The priest
and his acolytes are the only witnesses we require."

"If you think ... that is to say ... if it will make you happy, and b