The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1905-04-23

anu lANA4 IL Jul Il Nlil S4lCN
the rain
Gordon went rapidly through The wall
gate TO the whorf where he had first
set foot on the island. His own gon-
dola, battered and tossing, lay there.
He stopped abruptly, for he recog-
nized a figure standing by it, blue-coat-
ed. bareheaded, his long hair stream
ing in the wind. 1t was Shelley. His
hand was Outstretched, and with a
quick movement Gordon STROBE forward
and took il. A swift glance passed
between the troubled, hollow eyes I'M
der the graying hair, and the clear.
wild blue ones. Shelley'S held no re-
proach, only comprehension.
Fletcher told me where TO find you,
he said. you must forgive him"
Where is the child?"
IN the convent Of Bagnacavallo,
near Ravenna."
"And-Jane2"
she is with US now IN Pisa"
A question he could not ask hung on
Gordon's lips as the other added:
she is going TO America with a
troupe Of players"
She no longer wished the child, then,
Allegro might be his. His, TO care for,
TO teach to love him. to come in time
10 I'LL a part, maybe. of that void in
his heart which had ached so con-
stantly for Ada, further from m0 now
than any distance measurable by
leagues
He looked again at the scrap Of pa
per still in his hand, needless of the
wind that tore at his robe ard dashed
him with spume plucked from the tan
neled waves like split milk from a
pan. Why had 1t come at just that
moment TO stay his leap into the here
after? Was there, after all, deeper
than its apparent fatalism, an obscure
purpose in what man calls chance
Was this daughter. born out of the
pale as he himself was beyond the pale,
10 give him The comfort all else con-
spired to deny2 A slender hope grew
tendril-like in him.
While Shelley waited, Gordon untied
the girdle about his waist, stripped off
the brown robe and. folding it, placed
it out of the rain, in the niche where
stood the leaden Virgin. From mis-
pocket he took some bank-nOtes-all
he had with him-laid them on tco of
the robe and weighted them carefully
with fragments Of rock.
Last he lifted the fiat stone under
which was Teresa's prayer. The pa
per was wet and blistered from the
spray. He put il carefully in his pock-
et. Then with one backward glance at
NlLE llADAdclEles ne lCdDCQ 4BAO lnC EOfl-
dola beside Shelley and signed to the
gondOlier TO cast off.
For an hour the padre sat alone
In the library. musing. wondering
what manner of emotion had call
ed that conflict of emotion TO
the others face. AS he rose at
length. the wind ratified the easement
and called his attention.
He paused before it. why did he
have the iron bolts?" he said to him
self. The window was open, too"
Standing, a thought came that made
him start. He crossed himself and
FASTENED out Of the room
A few moments later he was at the
wharf. The gondola was gone, but
by the shrine he found what Gordon
had left.
He lifted the silver cruciix that
hung at his girdle and his lips moved
audibly:
''Oh thou who quoted the tempestw
he prayed in his native tongue. Thou
didst send this racked heart to me in
thy good purpose. Have I failed in
aught toward him? Did I, in my
blindness, offer him less than thy COM
fort? Grant in thy will that I may
once more minister to him and that
when his storm shall calm / may hold
before his eyes this symbol of thy pas
sion and forgiveness"