The San Francisco call., 1905-04-16
CHAPTER xxxI.
At the Feet Our Lady of Sorrows.


George Gordon, at the monastery of
San LaZzarro, looked out OF washed
eyes upon an altered condition. He
was conscious Or new strength and
new weaknesses The man. emerging
from the slough, of those months OF
lawless impulses and ungoverned
recklessnesses, had found no gradual
rejuyenation. After weeks of remorse,
temptation had flung itself upon him
1ull armed. The memory of prayer
had vanQuished IL In that instant of
moral resistance conscience had been
reborn. 1t was the sharp sword di-
viding forever past from present. The
past of debauchery was 'henceforth
impossible to him. What future was
there? He had not only to bear un-
numbed the despair he had tried to
drown, but an anguish born of the
newer yesterday.
The wholesome life of the friars,
their homely occupations and studies
varied by little more than matutlnal
visits of fishboats of the lagoon, aided
him insensibly. His thought needed
something craggy to break upon and
he found II in the Armenian language
which he studied under The tureiage
OF Padre SomaIian, aiding the fridr in
turning into its rugged structure the
sonorous periods or Paradise Lost"
But from time to time, in this rou-
tine, soaring memory would recur
and he would see in shifting chiaros-
euro the scene on the Piazza San
Marco; the faces of the maskers, the
slight, shrinking form of Teresa, the
angry dark eyes of the Fornarina, a
hand snatchIng at q Veil-then the
streaming moonlight tangling to q
halo about girls shocked face so in
nocently touched with horror, face
that would always be distinct TO himi
he a har ha
dignity of that one coarse scene. If
ne could only have told her himself,
and gently But even that, Fate had
denied him-the dogging Nemesis
that stalked him alwaysi But for its
decree they had not met that night.
He would have remained in her mind
as she had seen him by the side of
little PasQuale-a kindly shadow, a
mystery beckoning her sympathy,
then haply forgot. Now she would
remember him always. Not as the
wretched and misunderstood being for
whom she had prayed at La Mira, but
with shrinking and self-reproach, as
a veritable agency of evil-the true
MILFORD malingo. who had bought her
interest with the spurious coin of hy-
pocrisy. So his tormented thought
raced out along the barren grooves of
surmise.
AS he walked under the orchards
rosy roof the prior called to him:
"A wedding party is coming TO the
south landing" he said. Our mon
astery is fortunate this month. This
is the third"
Gordon looked. There, rounding
the sea wall. was a procession
of gondolas, decked superbly, the
foremost draped wholly in white
and trailing bright streamers
in the water, like some great queen
bird leading a covey of soberer plum
age. BY the richness of the banners
and embroidered tenda. it was the cor
tege of some noble bridal. AS he gazed
the faint music of stringed instruments
drifted across the walls.
Gathering closer the coarse brown
monastery robe he had thrown about
him, Gordon followed the padre
through the garden to the further en-
trance, where the brethren. girdled and
cowled, were drawn up, a benign row.
The bride would wait among the ladies
on the beach, since beyond that portal
no woman's foot must go: the bride
groom would enter, to leave his gifts
and to drink glass Of home pressed
violet-scented wine In the great hall.
Gordon paused a little way from the
water-stairs and looked down over the
low wall at the white gondola- One
day, he unused, Teresa would marry
some noble like this. no doubt. for she
had rank and station-one whom she
would love as she might have loved
him. Perhaps she would celebrate her
marriage in the Venetian way, come in
gondola procession maybe to this
very monastery, never guessing that he
once had been within it! In what cor
ner OF the world would he be then?
Under the edge OF the tenda he could
see the shimmering wedding-gown Of
the bride, cloth of gold heavy with
seed pearls. The gentlemen had already
entered the close. AS he gazed, the
gondola swung round and he caught a
fleeing glimpse of her face.
Ieresa. he gasped. and his hand
clutched the wall.
She-so soon! A sudden pain. not
vague but definite. seized him. She
had not cared. then. Her heart had
not suffered, after all! On that night,
when she had swayed forward into the
gondoiier's arms, 1t had been only hor-.
ror at her discovery, not a nearer
grief. What for that quivering instant