The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1921-08-26

DonatellO'S had been the hand; but
hers had been the look, except for
which the hand had not been lifted.
She turned to her fellow-criminal,
the youth so lately innocent, whom
she had drawn into her doom, and
pressed him close, close to her bosom,
with a clinging embrace that brought
their hearts together. "Yes, Donated
I 10, you speak the TRUTH" said she.
"My heart consented. The deed knots
us together like the coil Of serpent.
They threw one glance at the heap
of death below to assure themselves
that it was not all a dream-then
turned from the fatal precipice and
made their way back into the city
arm in arm and heart in heart.
An agreement had been entered into
before the moonlight tragedy had
taken place that the four friends
should meet next morning in the
Church of the Capuchins to study to-
gether Guides famous picture of st.
Michael and Satan. Thither at the
hour agreed upon Miriam and Dona-
tello turned their steps. Conscious
of secret guilt, they were the more
anxious TO keep a casual engagement.
But, when they drew near the
church, Kenyon alone was waiting for
them. Hilda had promised to be of
the party, but she was not there. The
three pushed back the heavy curtain
and entered the nave, only TO have
their gaze arrested at once by con-
spicuous object. On slightly elevated
bier lay the dead body of a monk, tall
candles burning at his head and feet.
The rigid figure was clad in the brown
wooden frock of the Capuchins, with
the hood drawn over the head but
so as to leave the features uncovered.
Something seemed to act like mag
net upon Miriam. She passed between
two of the lighted candles and looked
down. MY God,' she murmured,
''what is this?" She grasped Dona-
tello's hand and felt him give con-
vulsive shudder. No wonder that their
blood curdled. The dead face of the
monk gazing at them beneath its half
closed eyelidS was the same visage
that had glared upon their naked souls
the night before as DonatellO had flung
him over the precipice. What did it
mean? Kenyon drew near, perceived
their agitation, and started to say
something. But Miriam laid her
finger to her lips and quietly said,
Hush" From the shadowy church
the tree emerged into the Roman sun
light, Kenyon to go in search of Hill
da, but leaving a darker shadow still
to settle down upon the lovers. The
young Italian was petrified with hor-
ror. Miriam tried to cheer him, assur-
ing him of her undying love. But she
met with 10 response. They parted,
almost as strangers, it being agreed
that Donatello should seek his castle
in the mountains.
Thither, in the summer, Kenyon
went to pay a long-planned visit. He
found the poor faun sadly changed.
The idea of a lifelong penance had
taken firm possession of DonatellO.
He was intent on finding some meth
cd of self-torture. Kenyon, knowing
now something of what had happened,
arranged with Miriam that she should
be in the public square of Perugia on
specified day, near the statue of
Pope julius. There the lovers met
again. The sense of their mutual
crime had stunned, but not destroyed
the youths affection. They needed
one another. Kenyon cheered and en-
couraged them. Their two lives flowed
together and the great bronze statue
of the Pope, his hand outreached in
papal benediction, beneath which
they had met, appeared to impart a
blessing on their marriage.
So Kenyon went back to Rome to
WOO the gentle Hilda. whose sensitive
soul was burdened by the knowledge
of the awful guilt of her friends. The
secret weighed upon her heavily. She
sought the seclusion of great churches,
and at last, Protestant though she
was, she found relief by pouring out
in the confessional at st. Peters the
story of the crime that she had wit
messed.
But for Miriam and Donatello the
end was not yet reached. The sense
of sin had awakened in the faun-like
youth what human love could not as
suage Miriam could not rid him Of
the idea that he must surrender him
self to justice. Kenyon had glimpses
of the pair, now taking part in reyel-
ries, but again concealed behind habili-
ments of woe. In a desolate spot in
the Campagna Miriam at last dis
closed the mystery surrounding her
own past. 1t was the story of mar
riage to be forced upon her from which
her soul revolted. She escaped, though
not without unjust suspicious of a
crime. Concealing her identity she
gave herself to art. Then, in the Cat
acombs, the man whom she loathed,
half brute and half religious maniac,
had reappeared, logging her steps and
threatening to disclose her to the
wor1d-with what catastrophe the
sculptor knew.
As for Hilda and Kenyon, they went
forward into happiness, their pure
love consecrating all they did. But
even as they plighted their troth TO
one another in the Pantheon before the
tomb of Raphael, upon turning around
they saw a kneeling figure on the
pavement. 1t was Miriam, who reach
ed out her hands in a blessing, but a
blessing which seemed also to repel.
AS for Donatello, remorse eventually
worked its way and when heard OF
laSr ho in dyInpQOn deem as