ck to life, can raise me out of the slough into which I have
sunk, give me back my faith and free me from the bondage of those
shameful things that corrupt me and fill me with horror.
Dear--dear--hands!'

He bent over them and pressed his lips to them in a long kiss,
abandoning himself with half-closed eyes to the utter sweetness of it.

'I can feel you tremble,' he murmured in an indefinable tone.

She rose abruptly, trembling from head to foot, giddy, paler still than
on the morning when they walked together beneath the flower-laden trees.
The wind still shook the panes; there was a dull clamour in the distance
as of a riotous crowd. The shrill cries borne on the wind from the
Quirinal increased her agitation.

'Go, Andrea--please go--you must not stay here any longer. You shall see
me some other time--whenever you like, but go now, I entreat you----'

'Where shall I see you again?'

'At the concert to-morrow--good-bye.'

She was as perturbed and agitated as if she had been guilty of some
grave fault. She accompanied him to the door of the room. When she found
herself alone, she hesitated, not knowing what to do next, still under
the sway of her terror. Her temples throbbed, her cheeks and her eyes
burned with fierce intensity, while cold shivers ran through her limbs.
But on her hands she still felt the pressure of that beloved mouth, a
sensation so surpassingly sweet that she wished it might remain there
for ever indelible like some divine impress.

She looked about her. The light was fading, things looked shapeless in
the shadows, the great Buddha gleamed with a weird pale light. The cries
came up from the street fitfully. She went over to a window, opened it
and leaned out. An icy wind blew through the street; in the direction of
the Piazza dei Termini, they were already lighting the lamps. Across the
way, at the Villa Aldobrandini, the trees swayed to and fro, their tops
touched with a faint red glow. A huge crimson cloud hung solitary in the
sky over the Torre delle Milizie.

The evening struck her as strangely lugubrious. She withdrew from the
window and seated herself again where she had just had her conversation
with Andrea. Why had Delfina not returned yet? She earnestly desired to
escape from her thoughts, and yet she weakly allowed herself to linger
in the place where, only a few minutes ago, Andrea had breathed and
spoken, had sighed out his love and his unhappiness. The struggles, the
resolutio