ach
myself. There was a time when I saw my duty to you in another way,
but love came like a hurricane out of the skies and swept all
sense of duty away. My wife! my Roma! You have hazarded everything
for me, and some day I will give up everything for you. D. R."

VII

"DEAREST,--Your letter to Sister Angelica arrived safely, and
worked more miracles in her cloistered heart than ever happened to
the 'Blessed Bambino.' Before it came I was always thinking,
'Where is he now? Is he having his breakfast? Or is it dinner,
according to the difference of time and longitude?' All I knew was
that you had travelled north, and though the sun doesn't
ordinarily set in that direction, the sky over Monte Mario used to
glow for my special pleasure like the gates of the New Jerusalem.

"Your letters are so precious that I will ask you not to fill them
with useless things. Don't tell me to love you. The idea! Didn't I
say I should think of you always? I do! I think of you when I go
to bed at night, and that is like opening a jewel-case in the
moonlight. I think of you when I am asleep, and that is like an
invisible bridge which unites us in our dreams; and I think of you
when I wake in the morning, and that is like a cage of song-birds
that sing in my breast the whole day long.

"But you are dying to hear what is really happening in Rome, so
your own special envoy must send off her budget as a set-off
against those official telegrams. 'Not a day with out a line,' so
my letter will look like words shaken out of a literary pepper-box.
Let me bring my despatches up to date.

"Military rule severer than ever, and poverty and misery on all
sides. Families of reserve soldiers starving, and meetings of
chief citizens to succour them. Donation from the King and from
the 'Black' Charity Circle of St. Peter. Even the clergy are
sending francs, so none can question their sincerity. Bureau of
Labour besieged by men out of work, and offices occupied by
Carabineers. People eating maize in polenta and granturco with the
certainty of sickness to follow. Red Cross Society organised as in
time of war, and many sick and wounded hidden in houses.

"And now for more personal matters. The proclamation is in hand,
and paid for, and will be posted first thing in the morning. F