"Where will you go to?"
"Anywhere--nowhere--I don't know yet."
The Pope looked at the young face, cut deep with lines of despair, and
his heart yearned over it.
"Sit down, my son. Let us think. Though you did not tell me of the
assassination, I soon knew all about it.... Partly in self-defence, you
say?"
"That is so, but I do not urge it as an excuse. And if I did, who else
knows anything about it?"
"Is there nobody who knows?"
"One, perhaps. But it is my wife, and she could have no interest in
saving me now, even if I wished to be saved.... I have read her
letters."
"If I were to tell you it is not so, my son--that your wife is still
ready to sacrifice herself for your safety...."
"But that is impossible, your Holiness. There are so many things you do
not know."
"If I were to tell you that I have just seen her, and, notwithstanding
your want of faith in her, she still has faith in you...."
The deep lines of despair began to pass from Rossi's face, and he made a
cry of joy.
"If I were to say that she loves you, and would give her life for
you...."
"Is it possible? Do you tell me that? In spite of everything? And
she--where is she? Let me go to her. Holy Father, if you only knew! I'll
go and beg her pardon. I cursed her! Yes, it is true that in my blind,
mad passion I.... But let me go back to her on my knees. The rest of my
life spent at her feet will not be enough to wipe out my fault."
"Stay, my son. You shall see her presently."
"Can it be possible that I shall see her? I thought I should never see
her again; but I counted without God. Ah! God is good after all. And
you, Holy Father, you are good too. I will beg her forgiveness, and she
will forgive me. Then we'll fly away somewhere--we'll escape to Africa,
India, anywhere. We'll snatch a few years of happiness, and what more
has anybody a right to expect in this miserable world?"
Exalted in the light of his imaginary future, he seemed to forget
everything else--his crime, his work, his people.
"Is she at home still?"
"She is only a few paces from this place, my son."
"Only a few paces! Oh, let me not lose a moment more. Where is she?"