could wander through the zones of Hell icy, fetid, or scorching
without enduring their pangs; he glided into that vastness as a
sunbeam makes its way into the deepest dark.

"'God has not condemned him to any torment,' said the Master; 'but
not one of the souls you have seen suffering their various punishments
would exchange his anguish for the hope that is consuming this soul.'

"And just then the Shade came back to us, brought thither by an
irresistible force which condemned him to perch on the verge of Hell.
My divine Guide, guessing my curiosity, touched the unhappy Shade with
his palm-branch. He, who was perhaps trying to measure the age of
sorrow that divided him from that ever-vanishing 'To-morrow,' started
and gave a look full of all the tears he had already shed.

"'You would know my woe?' said he sadly. 'Oh, I love to tell it. I am
here, Teresa is above; that is all. On earth we were happy, we were
always together. When I saw my loved Teresa Donati for the first time,
she was ten years old. We loved each other even then, not knowing what
love meant. Our lives were one; I turned pale if she were pale, I was
happy in her joy; we gave ourselves up to the pleasure of thinking and
feeling together; and we learned what love was, each through the
other. We were wedded at Cremona; we never saw each other's lips but
decked with pearls of a smile; our eyes always shone; our hair, like
our desires, flowed together; our heads were always bent over one book
when we read, our feet walked in equal step. Life was one long kiss,
our home was a nest.

"'One day, for the first time, Teresa turned pale and said, "I am in
pain!"--And I was not in pain!