登陆注册
15440000000152

第152章 CHAPTER XLVII THE PEASANT AND CONTADINA(3)

"Need I tell you more?" asked Miriam, after proceeding thus far. "It is still a dim and dreary mystery, a gloomy twilight into which Iguide you; but possibly you may catch a glimpse of much that I myself can explain only by conjecture. At all events, you can comprehend what my situation must have been, after that fatal interview in the catacomb. My persecutor had gone thither for penance, but followed me forth with fresh impulses to crime. He had me in his power. Mad as he was, and wicked as he was, with one word he could have blasted me in the belief of all the world. In your belief too, and Hilda's!

Even Donatello would have shrunk from me with horror!""Never," said Donatello, "my instinct would have known you innocent.""Hilda and Donatello and myself,--we three would have acquitted you,"said Kenyon, "let the world say what it might. Ah, Miriam, you should have told us this sad story sooner!""I thought often of revealing it to you," answered Miriam; "on one occasion, especially,--it was after you had shown me your Cleopatra;it seemed to leap out of my heart, and got as far as my very lips.

But finding you cold to accept my confidence, I thrust it back again.

Had I obeyed my first impulse, all would have turned out differently.""And Hilda!" resumed the sculptor. "What can have been her connection with these dark incidents?""She will, doubtless, tell you with her own lips," replied Miriam.

"Through sources of information which I possess in Rome, I can assure you of her safety. In two days more--by the help of the special Providence that, as I love to tell you, watches over Hilda--she shall rejoin you.""Still two days morel" murmured the sculptor.

"Ah, you are cruel now! More cruel than you know!" exclaimed Miriam, with another gleam of that fantastic, fitful gayety, which had more than once marked her manner during this interview. "Spare your poor friends!""I know not what you mean, Miriam," said Kenyon.

"No matter," she replied; "you will understand hereafter. But could you think it? Here is Donatello haunted with strange remorse, and an unmitigable resolve to obtain what he deems justice upon himself. He fancies, with a kind of direct simplicity, which I have vainly tried to combat, that, when a wrong has been done, the doer is bound to submit himself to whatsoever tribunal takes cognizance of such things, and abide its judgment. I have assured him that there is no such thing as earthly justice, and especially none here, under the head of Christendom.""We will not argue the point again," said Donatello, smiling. "I have no head for argument, but only a sense, an impulse, an instinct, Ibelieve, which sometimes leads me right. But why do we talk now of what may make us sorrowful? There are still two days more. Let us be happy!"It appeared to Kenyon that since he last saw Donatello, some of the sweet and delightful characteristics of the antique Faun had returned to him. There were slight, careless graces, pleasant and simple peculiarities, that had been obliterated by the heavy grief through which he was passing at Monte Beni, and out of which he had hardly emerged when the sculptor parted with Miriam and him beneath the bronze pontiffs outstretched hand. These happy blossoms had now reappeared. A playfulness came out of his heart, and glimmered like firelight in his actions, alternating, or even closely intermingled, with profound sympathy and serious thought.

"Is he not beautiful?" said Miriam, watching the sculptor's eye as it dwelt admiringly on Donatello. "So changed, yet still, in a deeper sense, so much the same! He has travelled in a circle, as all things heavenly and earthly do, and now comes back to his original self, with an inestimable treasure of improvement won from an experience of pain.

How wonderful is this! I tremble at my own thoughts, yet must needs probe them to their depths. Was the crime--in which he and I were wedded--was it a blessing, in that strange disguise? Was it a means of education, bringing a simple and imperfect nature to a point of feeling and intelligence which it could have reached under no other discipline?""You stir up deep and perilous matter, Miriam," replied Kenyon. "Idare not follow you into the unfathomable abysses whither you are tending.""Yet there is a pleasure in them! I delight to brood on the verge of this great mystery," returned she. "The story of the fall of man! Is it not repeated in our romance of Monte Beni? And may we follow the analogy yet further? Was that very sin,--into which Adam precipitated himself and all his race, was it the destined means by which, over a long pathway of toil and sorrow, we are to attain a higher, brighter, and profounder happiness, than our lost birthright gave? Will not this idea account for the permitted existence of sin, as no other theory can?""It is too dangerous, Miriam! I cannot follow you!" repeated the sculptor. "Mortal man has no right to tread on the ground where you now set your feet.""Ask Hilda what she thinks of it," said Miriam, with a thoughtful smile. "At least, she might conclude that sin--which man chose instead of good--has been so beneficently handled by omniscience and omnipotence, that, whereas our dark enemy sought to destroy us by it, it has really become an instrument most effective in the education of intellect and soul."Miriam paused a little longer among these meditations, which the sculptor rightly felt to be so perilous; she then pressed his hand, in token of farewell.

"The day after to-morrow," said she, "an hour before sunset, go to the Corso, and stand in front of the fifth house on your left, beyond the Antonine column. You will learn tidings of a friend."Kenyon would have besought her for more definite intelligence, but she shook her head, put her finger on her lips, and turned away with an illusive smile. The fancy impressed him that she too, like Donatello, had reached a wayside paradise, in their mysterious life journey, where they both threw down the burden of the before and after, and, except for this interview with himself, were happy in the flitting moment. To-day Donatello was the sylvan Faun; to-day Miriam was his fit companion, a Nymph of grove or fountain; to-morrow--a remorseful man and woman, linked by a marriage bond of crime--they would set forth towards an inevitable goal.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 仙国纪元

    仙国纪元

    不容于天,不容于地,不容于人世;那就翻了这天,覆了这地,立我仙国,开我纪元。
  • 网游之幽眼圣皇

    网游之幽眼圣皇

    被虚拟游戏头盔砸中脑袋的小乞丐皓羽。玩虚拟游戏的都是有钱人,我要去虚拟世界乞讨,将乞讨进行到底。他在虚拟世界能乞讨到什么?我们拭目以待。
  • 相思谋:妃常难娶

    相思谋:妃常难娶

    某日某王府张灯结彩,婚礼进行时,突然不知从哪冒出来一个小孩,对着新郎道:“爹爹,今天您的大婚之喜,娘亲让我来还一样东西。”说完提着手中的玉佩在新郎面前晃悠。此话一出,一府宾客哗然,然当大家看清这小孩与新郎如一个模子刻出来的面容时,顿时石化。此时某屋顶,一个绝色女子不耐烦的声音响起:“儿子,事情办完了我们走,别在那磨矶,耽误时间。”新郎一看屋顶上的女子,当下怒火攻心,扔下新娘就往女子所在的方向扑去,吼道:“女人,你给本王站住。”一场爱与被爱的追逐正式开始、、、、、、、
  • 千金重生:天为我狂

    千金重生:天为我狂

    和所有豪门重生文一样,我们的女主冷梓曦生于豪门,从小母亲去世,继母与父亲、继妹对她漠不关心。只有他不嫌弃她。于是,他们结婚了。大婚当日,冷梓曦发现原来一切都是骗局,继母的阴谋,丈夫的背叛,继妹的嘲讽使她再也坚持不住。发疯一般的向前跑,被一辆飞驰的汽车撞倒,当场毙命,结束了她那短暂而又悲惨的人生。毫无意外的,冷梓曦重生了,重生在15岁,一切发生了巨大的改变,冷子曦开始奋斗,崛起,开启属于她的女王之路。她不再消沉,她赌博,成为赌神;贩毒,成为毒枭;混黑,成为当之无愧的黑道老大;表演,她是娱乐圈公认的影后……相同的大概,不同的精彩。且看冷梓曦如何从一个任人欺负的小姑娘,变成一个令人闻风丧胆的女王……
  • 麦城向西走

    麦城向西走

    这里有一个城,我慢慢讲故事给你听。我慢慢写,自己看也好,我把很多东西都写进去。
  • 穿越火线之雪豹战队

    穿越火线之雪豹战队

    从浙江一区开始向全服进攻,每个爆破10频道10都是雪豹的房间。(本故事绝对瞎扯)
  • 三千神国

    三千神国

    百世轮回,少年转世化为石头,来到了这个世界,一个未完成的使命,已经继续。无形的大手在推动着一切谜团。天做琴瑟,命运为弦,问天地世间何人敢弹。宏宇化台,冥宙幻剑,寻浩瀚苍穹谁人可舞。唯我秦语敢奏靡音乱九天,离歌笑对人世间。踏宇台,执剑狂舞星空动。执惊鸿之弓,射塌腐朽天道。世间本应被灭的不是魔和妖,而是虚伪的仙人和佛陀。“轮回已经浪费了太多时间,现在兑现承诺,我回来了…………。”这一世不为魔、佛,不化妖、仙,我要用大道为墨笔,宇宙为卷,为你将这世界重画。
  • 总裁从良记

    总裁从良记

    苏小,一个自认平凡的女孩,只希望能找个低调的工作,嫁一个不那么出众的男人,过一种平淡的生活……但当所有的一切都偏离了最初的设想,不得不去面对着尔虞我诈,站在人生巅峰时,谁又会是她的良人?“苏小,我们不合适……”历经万难才在一起的初恋这么说过。?“今天你认我为兄长,带你进礼堂,呵呵,我只想和你一起步入婚姻的殿堂。”默默守护了多年的忠犬这么说过。“…………”一只高冷傲娇这么说过。。。汝非吾良人,怎知吾情深。原来光年尽头,真正懂她的,陪着她一起看遍天下的,只有他………绝对1v1,作者是亲妈,小虐怡情,大虐没有。
  • 花城神兵

    花城神兵

    龙熙国花都城,五百年前的三件神兵天器逐渐显露于世……惊雷滚滚之下,各路狰狞之徒纷纷揭下假面,蛰伏的高人也伺机而动。美若天仙的妹子们各领风骚,迷雾般萦绕的神秘感被层层剥开,却让那些玩弄世界之徒更加猖獗肆虐。主人公能否扳回一城?天雷勾地火的化学效应又将发生在何人之间?少数人的猎杀游戏,是否会燃成不可控制的燎原之势?一场绝世天劫正在酝酿,惊心动魄的对决即将开画!
  • 站着也要看云卷云舒

    站着也要看云卷云舒

    简介无能,反正这就是一篇爆笑的仙界文就对了。