troubled about it, I fear you can do nothing
to improve it. But my fate in this world I yearn to lay in your hands.
I love you very dearly, Annunciata, and all I need to make me what I
aspire to be is to have you give me a little affection in return.
What do you say, Annunciata? do you think you could? Would you be my
wife, and go with me to my own country and share my life, whatever it
may be."

"But signore," she replied, after a moment's deliberation; "my mother
would not like it, and Babetta would cry the whole day long when I was
gone."

"I am speaking seriously, Annunciata, and you must not evade my
question. It all depends upon you."

"No, it also depends upon mother and Babetta. But I know you would be
good and kind to me, Signore Giovanni, and you would always treat me
well; for you are a good and kind man. I should like to be your wife,
I think, but I do not know whether I should like to go with you across
the great sea."

Cranbrook was hopelessly perplexed, and for an instant even inclined
to question whether she might not be ridiculing him; but a glance at
her puzzled face showed him that she was grappling earnestly with the
great problem, and apparently endeavoring to gain time by uttering the
first thought that suggested itself to her mind. The gloom of the
plane-trees now enveloped them, and only here and there a quivering
ray of moonlight pierced through the dense roof of leaves. The marble
phantoms of the Caesars gazed sternly at the daring intruders who had
come to disturb their centuries' repose, and the Roman senator at the
end of the avenue held his outstretched hand toward them, as if
warning them back from the life that lay beyond the moment's great
resolution. And yet, before the moon had faded out of the sky, the
great resolution was irrevocably taken. When they parted in the hall,
leading up to Cranbrook's room, Annunciata consented with the faintest
show of resistance to being kissed, and she even responded, though
vaguely and doubtingly, to his vehement caresses. "_Felicissima
notte_, Signore Giovanni," she murmured, as she slowly disengaged
herself from his embrace. "You are a dear, good man, and I will go
with you across the great sea."

IV.

Since their first parting, Vincent and Cranbrook had seen little of
each other. They had met occasionally in the Vatican galleries, in the
palace of the Caesars, and on the Monte Pincio, and had then stopped to
shake hands and to exchange