r in the light of the Saviour, for weeping may endure
for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." His pale face gleamed
with celestial radiance.

Helena surveyed him in wondering compassion. "Thou art strangely
possessed, Ser Giuseppe," she said.

"It is not strange, Signora, it is all simple--like a child's
thought," he said, meeting her limpid eyes with his profound mystic
gaze.

She was tall and fair, more like those Greek statues which the
sculptors of her day imitated than like a Roman maiden. A simple dress
of white silk revealed the beautiful curves of her figure. Through the
great oriel window near which they stood the cold sunshine touched her
hair and made spots of glory on the striped beast-skins that covered
the floor, and on the hanging tapestries. The pictures and ivories,
the manuscripts and the busts all contributed to make the apartment a
harmonious setting for her noble figure. As he looked at her he
trembled.

"And what is thy life to be henceforward?" she asked.

"Surrender, sacrifice," he said half in a whisper. "My parents are
right. Joseph is dead. His will is God's, his heart is Christ's. There
is no life for me but service."

"And whom wilt thou serve?"

"My brethren, Signora."

"They reject thee."

"I do not reject them."

She was silent for a moment. Then more passionately she cried: "But,
Ser Giuseppe, thou wilt achieve nothing. A hundred generations have
failed to move them. The Bulls of all the Popes have left them
stubborn."

"No one has tried Love, Signora."

"Thou wilt throw away thy life."

He smiled wistfully. "Thou forgettest I am dead."

"Thou art not dead--the sap is in thy veins. The spring-time of the
year comes. See how the sun shines already in the blue sky. Thou shalt
not die--it is thine to be glad in the sun and in the fairness of
things."

"The sunshine is but a symbol of the Divine Love, the pushing buds but
prefigure the Resurrection and the Life."

"Thou dreamest, Giuseppe mio. Thou dreamest with those wonderful eyes
of thine open. I do not understand this Love of thine that turns from
things earthly, that rends thy father's and mother's heart in twain."

His eyes filled with tears. "Pazienza! earthly things are but as
shadows that pass. It is thou that dreamest, Signora. Dost thou not
feel the transitoriness of it all--yea, even of this solid-seeming
terrestrial plain and yon overhanging roof and the beautiful lights
set therein for our passing