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74 ARIADNE.had given them up to him, and he inreturnhadgiven her shipwreck and death. It was so threethousand years ago,and it is so to-day, and willbe so to-morrow.From my httle stock of moneyIpaid thatwomanwell,for she had been true and tender;the restIspent in going back to Rome. Theboy came with me.Iwas hard and cruel to himat that time, butIcould not say himnay.Throughout the journey she did not change inany way; the noise, and movement, and manychanges, seemed to perplex and trouble hervaguely, as they trouble a poorlamb sent on thatiron road, but no more. She never spoke,exceptnow and then when she woulcl look wistfully outat some gleam of sky or water or spreadingplain,and ask: " will he be long ? " Neither of menor of Aiiipliion had she the slightest consciousness.It was the madness of one all-absorbentand absorbed idea; indeed, what else is Love?Even the beautiful snow-ranges and the sereneglory of the mountains, from whichIhad hopedsomething, failed to alter her or rouse her. Ithink she did not know them from the clouds, or
ARIADNE. 75see them even. No doubt all she ever saw indaylight orhi darkness was one face alone.It seemed to me asifthat journey would neverend;to meitwaslike ahorrible,distorteddream,a nightmare in which an appalling horror leanedfor everon my heart; all the splendours of earlyspring, of virgin snows,of clear blue ice, of fallingavalanche and glacier spread uponthe mountainside, and underneath in the deep valleysthe lovely light of the fresh green,and of thepurples and azuresmantling the rocks where thegentians blossomed — all these,Isay, only servedto heighten the ghostliness of that long passagethrough the slow short days back to my country.For despair went with me.But tardy and terrible though it was,it drewon towards its end before many suns had risenand set.Itis so beautiful, that highway to our Romeacross the land from Etrurian Arezzo; theUmbrian soil is rich and fresh, masses of oakclothe the hills,avenues of oak and beech andclumps of forest-trees shelter the cattle andbreakthe lines of olive and of vine; behind are the
- Page 31 and 32: ARIADNE. 23times; nervous depressio
- Page 33 and 34: ARIADNE. 25forgot them: what matter
- Page 35: ARIADNE. 27tered many curses and fe
- Page 38 and 39: 30ARIADNE.Would the wealth all fall
- Page 40 and 41: 32ARIADNE.their cuirasses of steel,
- Page 42 and 43: CHAPTER IVIwent to Pippo, andIsaid
- Page 44 and 45: 36ARIADNE.AndItook the other things
- Page 46 and 47: 38 ARIADNE.must have been, all alon
- Page 48 and 49: 40 ARIADNE.Ifelt my head whirl;I, w
- Page 50 and 51: 42 ARIADNE.at a line of the poem no
- Page 52: 44 ARIADNE.me, and stayed on in Par
- Page 55 and 56: ARIADNE. 47had been able to hear no
- Page 57 and 58: ARIADNE. 49aside in a little passag
- Page 59 and 60: ARIADNE. 51Myheart stood stUl. Ihad
- Page 61 and 62: ARIADNE. 53" Oh, my dear! Oh, my de
- Page 63 and 64: ARIADNE. 55He breathed quickly, the
- Page 65 and 66: ARIADNE. 57think he was cruel to he
- Page 67 and 68: ARIADNE. 59garden,Isaw a messenger
- Page 69 and 70: ARIADNE. 61'sorrowful,though knowin
- Page 71 and 72: ARIADNE. 63' Hush !it will be finis
- Page 73 and 74: ARIADNE. 65she is always asking;tha
- Page 75 and 76: ARIADNE. 67" Isuppose he never send
- Page 77 and 78: ARIADNE. 69agony,Irepented then hav
- Page 79 and 80: ARIADNE. 71thinking only of her;but
- Page 81: CHAPTER V— t—Next dayIgot such
- Page 85 and 86: ARIADNE. 77waters, and here and the
- Page 87 and 88: ARIADNE. 79Iwalked on and led her b
- Page 89 and 90: ARIADNE. 81shores, and on the domes
- Page 91 and 92: ARIADNE. 83motionless.Itouched and
- Page 93 and 94: ARIADNE. 85quiet and deserted; the
- Page 95 and 96: ARIADNE. 87went out and sat clown o
- Page 97 and 98: ARIADNE. 89"Yes,Iam here. Hush! spe
- Page 99 and 100: ARIADNE. 91to me, a Roman, to whom
- Page 101 and 102: ARIADNE. 93your avenger. Vengeancei
- Page 103 and 104: ARIADNE. 95spent their lives like w
- Page 105 and 106: ARIADNE. 97him! Do you not know ? W
- Page 107 and 108: ARIADNE. 99some fair pluckt flower
- Page 109 and 110: ARIADNE. 101arise, and the Spada Vi
- Page 111 and 112: ARIADNE. 103racked with pain. No su
- Page 113 and 114: ARIADNE. 105now become equally abso
- Page 115 and 116: ARIADNE. 107and the naked there wer
- Page 117 and 118: ARIADNE. 109saw them. He had been,
- Page 119 and 120: ARIADNE. 111their goodnight's sleep
- Page 121 and 122: ARIADNE. 113her feel she wasliving
- Page 123 and 124: ARIADNE. 115Spring had come,Isay, a
- Page 125 and 126: ARIADNE. 117nightingales, and so pi
- Page 127 and 128: ARIADNE. 119foul patrician jade wru
- Page 129 and 130: ARIADNE. 121aburied village when th
- Page 131 and 132: ARIADNE. 123But for mypromise to he
74 ARIADNE.had given them up to him, and he inreturnhadgiven her shipwreck and death. It was so threethousand years ago,and it is so to-day, and willbe so to-morrow.From my httle stock of moneyIpaid thatwomanwell,for she had been true and tender;the restIspent in going back to Rome. <strong>The</strong>boy came with me.Iwas hard and cruel to himat that time, butIcould not say himnay.Throughout the journey she did not change inany way; the noise, and movement, and manychanges, seemed to perplex and trouble hervaguely, as they trouble a poorlamb sent on thatiron road, but no more. She never spoke,exceptnow and then when she woulcl look wistfully outat some gleam of sky or water or spreadingplain,and ask: " will he be long ? " Neither of menor of Aiiipliion had she the slightest consciousness.It was the madness of one all-absorbentand absorbed idea; indeed, what else is Love?Even the beautiful snow-ranges and the sereneglory of the mountains, from whichIhad hopedsomething, failed to alter her or rouse her. Ithink she did not know them from the clouds, or
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