, and bid her wear it back to Him, as white as when she put
it on. Your powerful magnetism would be too much for me. The pure, white
atmosphere, in which I try to discern what things are good and true,
would be discolored. And therefore, Miriam, before it is too late, I
mean to put faith in this awful heartquake which warns me henceforth to
avoid you."

"Ah, this is hard! Ah, this is terrible!" murmured Miriam, dropping her
forehead in her hands. In a moment or two she looked up again, as pale
as death, but with a composed countenance: "I always said, Hilda, that
you were merciless; for I had a perception of it, even while you
loved me best. You have no sin, nor any conception of what it is; and
therefore you are so terribly severe! As an angel, you are not amiss;
but, as a human creature, and a woman among earthly men and women, you
need a sin to soften you."

"God forgive me," said Hilda, "if I have said a needlessly cruel word!"

"Let it pass," answered Miriam; "I, whose heart it has smitten upon,
forgive you. And tell me, before we part forever, what have you seen or
known of me, since we last met?"

"A terrible thing, Miriam," said Hilda, growing paler than before.

"Do you see it written in my face, or painted in my eyes?" inquired
Miriam, her trouble seeking relief in a half-frenzied raillery. "I would
fain know how it is that Providence, or fate, brings eye-witnesses to
watch us, when we fancy ourselves acting in the remotest privacy. Did
all Rome see it, then? Or, at least, our merry company of artists? Or is
it some blood-stain on me, or death-scent in my garments? They say that
monstrous deformities sprout out of fiends, who once were lovely angels.
Do you perceive such in me already? Tell me, by our past friendship,
Hilda, all you know."

Thus adjured, and frightened by the wild emotion which Miriam could not
suppress, Hilda strove to tell what she had witnessed.

"After the rest of the party had passed on, I went back to speak to
you," she said; "for there seemed to be a trouble on your mind, and I
wished to share it with you, if you could permit me. The door of the
little courtyard was partly shut; but I pushed it open, and saw you
within, and Donatello, and a third person, whom I had before noticed in
the shadow of a niche. He approached you, Miriam. You knelt to him! I
saw Donatello spring upon him! I would have shrieked, but my throat
was dry. I would have rushed forward, but my limbs seemed root