The Project Gutenberg eBook, Whosoever Shall Offend, by F. Marion Crawford

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Title: Whosoever Shall Offend

Author: F. Marion Crawford

Release Date: November 3, 2004 [eBook #13932]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHOSOEVER SHALL OFFEND***

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WHOSOEVER SHALL OFFEND

by

F. MARION CRAWFORD

Author of _Saracinesca_, _The Heart Of Rome_, etc, etc.

With Eight Illustrations Drawn in Rome with the Author's Suggestions

by Horace T. Carpenter

1905

"Whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me,
it were better for him that a mill stone were hanged about his neck, and
that he were drowned in the depth of the sea"

[Illustration: "SUDDENLY HE HEARD AN ITALIAN VOICE VERY NEAR TO HIM,
CALLING HIM BY NAME, IN A TONE OF SURPRISE"]

ILLUSTRATIONS

"Suddenly he heard an Italian voice very near to him, calling him by
name, in a tone of surprise"

"'I call it the sleeping death,' answered the Professor"

"He flushed again, very angry this time, and he moved away to leave her,
without another word"

" ... the door was darkened, and the girl stood there with a large copper
'conca' ..."

"He moved a step towards the bed, and then another, forcing himself to
go on"

"Ercole left his home after sunset that evening"

"Regina made a steady effort, lifting fully half Aurora's weight with
her"

"She sat there like a figure of grief outlined in black against the
moonlight on the great wall"

CHAPTER I

When the widow of Martino Consalvi married young Corbario, people shook
their heads and said that she was making a great mistake. Consalvi had
been dead a good many years, but as yet no one had thought it was time
to say that his widow was no longer young and beautiful, as she had
always been. Many rich widows remain young and beautiful as much as a
quarter of a century, or even longer, and the Signora Consalvi was very
rich indeed. As soon as she was married to Folco Corbario every one knew
that sh