ntle motion. Great iron gateways came in view
from time to time, through which you caught a glimpse of an avenue of
lofty beech trees, or some verdant cloister inhabited by antique
statues, or a long green arcade pierced here and there by a laughing ray
of pale sunshine.

Wrapped in her ample furs, her veil drawn down, her hands encased in
thick chamois leather gloves, Elena sat and mutely watched the passing
landscape. Andrea breathed with delight the subtle perfume of heliotrope
exhaled by the costly fur, while he felt Elena's arm warm against his
own. They felt themselves far from the haunts of men--alone--although
from time to time the black carriage of a priest would flit past them,
or a drover on horseback, or a herd of cattle.

Just before they reached the bridge she said--'Let us get out here.'

Here in the open country the light was translucent and cold as the
waters of a spring, and when the trees waved in the wind their
undulation seemed to communicate itself to all the surrounding objects.

She clung close to his arm, stumbling a little on the uneven ground. 'I
am going away this evening,' she said,--'this is the last time----'

There was a moment's silence; then in plaintive tones, and with frequent
pauses in between, she began to speak of the necessity of her departure,
the necessity of their rupture. The wind wrenched the words from her
lips, but she continued in spite of it, till Andrea interrupted her by
seizing her hand.

'Don't!' he cried--'be quiet.'

They walked on struggling against the fierce gusts of wind.

'Don't go--don't leave me! I want you--want you always.'

He had managed to unfasten her glove and laid hold of her bare wrist
with a caressing insistent clasp that was full of tormenting desire.

She threw him one of those glances that intoxicate like wine. They were
quite near the bridge now, all rosy under the setting sun. The river
looked motionless and steely throughout its sinuous length. Reeds swayed
and shivered on the banks, and some stakes, fixed in the clay of the
river-bed to fasten nets, shook with the motion of the water.

He then endeavoured to move her by reminiscences. He recalled those
first days--the ball at the Farnese palace, a certain hunting party out
in the Campagna, their early morning meetings in the Piazza di Spagna in
front of the jewellers' windows, or in the quiet and aristocratic Via
Sistina when she came out of the Barberini palace followed by the flo