ng nothing!
grass that is green in the field to-day, and to-morrow dry and
withered. Hay, that the insatiable monster death crams his maw with!
_Basta!_ There is no waking the dead! She was a wonder of the world
while she lived, she was wondrous still when her fair silent form was
no longer warmed by a drop of life-blood, and her soul no more
susceptible of joy or of sorrow. There she lay in the room yonder, and
until she was buried I never left her night or day. When sleep overcame
me, I still held a corner of her dress in my hand, and thought myself
highly favoured in that at least in death I was nearer to her than any
other. But by the second night another came. The door opened, and the
captain stole in on tip-toe, as though he might still run a risk of
disturbing her sleep. We did not exchange a word, only I began to weep
like a child when he so mutely, and with such a look of despair in his
eyes, approached the bier. Then he sat down beside her and gazed
steadily upon her face. I went out, I could not endure his presence any
more than if I myself had been her murderer.

"The next day when the funeral took place and the whole village was
gathered in the church-yard, even before the priest had blessed the
coffin, there rose a murmur and a stir among the dense crowd. And the
captain, whom no one knew to be in the place, was seen striding through
the people with a look on his face that terrified them all. He took his
station close beside the grave, and threw two handsfull of earth on the
coffin. Then he knelt down, and every one else was on his homeward way
while he remained prostrate on the newly-made grave, as though he would
force himself through the earth, and make his bed there. I was obliged
to drag him away into my house, where for some days he remained as
though in a trance, and I could hardly get him to take a spoonful of
soup or a drop of wine. Four days passed before he seemed to come to
himself at all, but even then he continued silent, and it was only in
bidding me farewell, before he went off again in my little conveyance,
that he begged me to oblige him by buying for him the house with the
vineyard that he had once before looked at. In eight days he said he
should return, and then make his home with us for life.

"I did not dare to remonstrate, although I could not approve the
plan--partly because, of Domenico, of whom it was known that he had
fled to the mountains, and joined a party of banditti, and p