. But
this is Easter, Signora, and the Blessed Virgin wouldn't bring you bad
news to-day. Listen! That's the Gloria. I can always hear the church
bells on Holy Saturday. The first time after I was deaf Joseph was a
baby, and I took the wrappings off his little feet while the bells were
ringing, and he walked straight away! Ah, my poor darling!... But I'm
making the Signora cry."

The letter was dated from Zuerich. It ran:--

"MY DEAR ROMA,--Your letters and I seem to be running a race which
shall return to you first. I was compelled to leave Berlin before
my long-delayed correspondence could arrive from London, and now
it seems probable that I must leave Zuerich before it can follow me
from Berlin. As a consequence I have not heard from you for
weeks--not since your letter about your friend, you remember--and
I am in agonies of impatience to know what has happened to you in
the interval.

"I came to Switzerland the day before yesterday, pushed on by the
urgency of affairs at home. Here we hold the last meeting of our
international committee before I go back to Italy. This will be
to-morrow (Friday) night, and according to present plans I set out
for Rome on Saturday morning.

"How different my return will be from my flight a few weeks ago!
Then I was plunged in despair, now I am buoyed up with hope; then
my soul was furrowed by doubts, now it is braced up with
certainties; then my idea was a dream, now it is a practical
reality.

"O Roma, my Roma, it is a good thing to live. After all, the world
is no Gethsemane, and when a man has a beautiful life like yours
belonging to him he may be forgiven if he forgets the voices which
assail him with fears. They have come to me sometimes, dearest, in
this long and cruel silence, and I have asked myself hideous
questions. What is happening to my dear one in the midst of my
enemies? What sufferings are being inflicted upon her for my sake?
She is brave, and will bear anything, but did I do right to leave
her behind? Bruno died rather than betray me, and she will do
more--infinitely more in her eyes--she will see _me_ die, rather
than imperil a cause which is a thousand times more dear to me
than my life.

"Addio, carissima! Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal
upon thine arm, for love is strong as death. If there were any
possibility o