seeing his brother slipping over the
brink, he would put out his hand to save him, to draw him back. He would
not have Paolo die.

He gazed upon the calm features, and he knew that he feared lest they
should be still for ever. The breath came more softly, more and more
faintly. Marzio thought. He bent down low and tried to feel the warm
air as it issued from the lips. His fears grew to terror as the life
seemed to ebb away from the white face. In the agony of his
apprehension, Marzio inadvertently laid his hand upon the injured
shoulder, unconsciously pressing his weight upon the place.

With a faint sigh the priest's eyes opened and seemed to gaze for a
moment on the crucifix standing in the bright light of the lamp. An
expression of wonderful gentleness and calm overspread the refined
features.

"_Qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem descendit de
coelis_."

The words came faintly from the dying man's lips, the last syllables
scarcely audible in the intense stillness. A deathly pallor crept
quickly over the smooth forehead and thin cheeks. Marzio looked for one
instant more, and then with a loud cry fell upon his knees by the
bedside, his long arms extended across his brother's body. The strong
hot tears fell upon the bed coverings, and his breast heaved with
passionate sobbing.

He did not see that Paolo opened his eyes at the sound. He did not
notice the rush of feet in the passage without, as Maria Luisa and Lucia
and Gianbattista ran to the door, followed by old Assunta holding up her
apron to her eyes.

"Courage, Sor Marzio," said Gianbattista, drawing the artist back from
the bed. "You will disturb him. Do you not see that he is conscious at
last?"

Lucia was arranging the pillows under Paolo's head, and Maria Luisa was
crying with joy. Marzio sprang to his feet and stared as though he could
not believe what he saw. Paolo turned his head and looked kindly at his
brother.

"Courage, Marzio," he said, "I have been asleep, I believe--what has
happened to me? Why are you all crying?"

Marzio's tears broke out again, mingled with incoherent words of joy. In
his sudden happiness he clasped the two persons nearest to him, and
hugged them and kissed them. These two chanced to be Lucia and
Gianbattista. Paolo smiled, but the effort of speaking had tired him.

"Well," said Marzio at last, with a kinder smile than had been on his
face for many a day--"very well, children. For Paolo's sake you sha