te to ask you
not to try to alter what has happened. Believe me, it is better
so. The world wants you, dear, and it doesn't want me any longer.
Therefore return to life, be brave and strong and great, and think
of me no more until we meet again.

"You will know by what I have done that what you thought was quite
unfounded. Whatever people say of me, you must always believe that
I loved you from the first, and that I have never loved anybody
but you.

"You were angry with me when we parted, but more than ever I love
you now. Don't think our love has been wasted. ''Tis better to
have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.' How beautiful!
ROMA."

Having written her letter, and put her lips to the enclosure, she
addressed the envelope in a bold hand and with a brave flourish: "All'
Illustrissimo Signor Davide Rossi, Camera dei Deputati."

"You'll post this immediately I am gone, Sister," she said.

Elena pretended to put the letter away for that purpose, but she really
smuggled it down to the Major, who despatched it forthwith to the
Chamber of Deputies.

"And now I'll go to sleep," said Roma.

She slept until mid-day with the sun's reflection from the white plaster
of the groined ceiling of the loggia on her still whiter face. Then the
twelve o'clock gun shook the walls of the Castle, and she awoke while
the church bells were ringing.

"I thought it was my dream coming true, Sister," she said.

The doctor came up at that moment in a high state of excitement.

"Great news, Donna Roma. The King...."

"I know!"

"Failing to form a Government to follow that of the Baron, appealed to
Parliament to nominate a successor...."

"So Parliament...."

"Parliament has nominated the Honourable Rossi, the King has called for
him, the warrant for his arrest has been cancelled, and all persons
imprisoned for the recent insurrection have been set at liberty."

Roma's trembling and exultant eyelids told a touching story.

"Is there anything to see?"

"Only the flag on the Capitol."

"Let me look at it."

He helped her to rise. "Look! There it is on the clock tower."

"I see it.... That will do. You can put me down now, doctor."

An ineffable joy shone in her face.

"It _was_ my dream after all, Elena."

After a moment she said, "Doctor, tell the Prefect I am quite ready to
go to Viterbo. In fact