The San Francisco call., 1905-04-30
Copyright. 1905. Bobbs-Merrm Coz

v Dlrlho2y git, g Bible, and
German magazine given her
by the nun who had taught
sher that tongue. II her heart she
bore far heavier burden, for in that
3 hour She had held child in her arms
and listened TO u story that had sunk
into her soul. Her face was deathly
White and her limbs dragged.
Calling to Tita to wait she left the
road and climbed path that zigzagged
up a wooded knoll overlooking the mar
cissus-scented valley and the hurrying
river that flowed past the convent
rNzlis. The briers tore her hands. but
siie paid no heed. climbing breath
iessly.
The soarser crown Of the hillock was
canopied by shaggy Vine-fesIoons and
oappied by The shadow-play of firs,
whose aged roots were covered with
aScSilcped Fungus grOMths. As 2 child
this had been her faYorite spot.
With one Of these giant tree-fungi for
z seat she had loved TO day-dream,
gazing down across the convent in
closure and the stream that flowed sill
VERY on, past Ravenna. 10 the sea.
She stood moment knee-deeD in the
bracken. her form tense with suffer
9ng, then dropped the books on the
ground and throwing herself down,
burst. into tears. She wept long and
passjonately, in utter desolation.
She had listened to the Superior's
story wieh her face buried in the
80 chihd's frock, now burning. now
dreIched with cold. The touch had
given her a wild delight and yet an
agony unfathomable. As she lay and
wepJ, tenderness and torture still
mingled inextricably in her emotions.
G She. knew now VIII Gordon had been
in Ravenna that spring day. He had
told the truth; il had been with no
thought Of her.
A sudden Nemory OF his words in
the casa garden came with sivkening
force: BY a tie that holds me. and
by a bond you believe in. L have. no
right TO stand here now" Was this
the tie he had meant2 Not the un-
loving wife i'm England. but the moth
er of this child-a later. nearer one?
. when he had come that once to her,
was il at best out OF pity? Did he
love this other woman? Was this
why she herself had seen him no
more?
Before the acute shaft of this pain
the facts she had learned of his life
in London fell unheeded. They be-
longed 10 that far dim past that he
had forssken and that had forsaken
him, But the one fact she knew now
had to do with his present. here in
Italy@the present that held hert She
was facing for the first time in her
life the hydra. elemental passion
jealousy. And in the grip of its merci-
8ess talons everything of truth in her
sWavered
For moment she lost hold on her
e own heart her instinct. her trust in
Gordon's words. the faith that had re-
turned TO her at San Lazzarro. What
II ali-all-What the whole world said,
what this magazine told of hin-were
true after all. and she. desolate and
ErieVing the only one deceived What
II il were, She drew the magazine
close 10 her tear-swollen eyes, only TO
thrust ii from her desperately.
No. no." she said Not that. 1t
is 2 lie, i will not believe it,'
In her anguish she sat up. fiinging
her hat aside and leaned against a
tree. Her glance fell on the great SAT-
from fungus that jutted, a crumpled
half-disk, above its roots. Into the
brittle shiny surface words had been
etched with a sharp point-lines in
English, almost covered it. She be-
gan to read the unfamiliar tongue
aloud. deciphering the words slowly
at first, then with more confidence:
River. that rollest by the ancient walls.
Where dweIls the lady OF my love-when she
Walks by the brink, and there perchance re-
A faint and neeting memory Of me-
A color tinged her paleness; she
bent closer in a startled wonder.
q
A mirror OF my heart, where she may read
A thousand thoughts I now betray TO thee
wild as thy wave and headlong as thy
5 speed.
What do ssy--a mirror Of my heart?
Are not thy waters sweeping. dark and
Such as nay feelings were and are. thou art:
And such thou art were my passions long
And left long wrecks behind. and now again.
Borne in our old unchanged career. ws
Thou tendest wildly onward to the main.
And Ito losing one I should not love.
She drew herself half-u9right with
q sob. She. was not mistaken No
other could have written those lines
rhythmically sad and passionate,
touched with abnegation. He had
sbeen near her when she had not
guessed=had been here, in this very
nook where she row sat- Recently.
100, for new growth had not blotted
the characters Her heart beat
poignantly:
TIE wave that bears my tears returns no more:
VIII size return. by whom that shall
Both tread thy banks. both wander on thy
! near thy source. she by the dark blue deep
she will look on thee-I have lookd on thee
Fun Of that thought; and from that moment
Thy waters could dream OF. name or see.
cNithout the insepsrable sigh for her-'
For whom had he longed when he
his child. denied him now-was
hidden in the convent below? No,
The mist of anguish melted. She felt
her bitterness ebbing fast away.
What else nattered? Nothing, Not
what this convent heidi Not all his
past. though even the worst of all
The tales she had ever heard were
true: though what the pamphlet at
her feet alleged were true a thousand
times sover-though II were the worst
crime of all man punished on earth,
Nothing, nothing. At this moment
she knew that. for all the dreams Of
Cod bred in her. without him, pray
ers and faith and life itself for naught
as human hearts are made.
Clasping her hands she read to
the end:
Her bright eyes viii be imased in thy stream
Yest they will meet the wave gaze on now:
Nine cannot witness. even in a dream.
That happy wave repass me IN its now!