"But were it so," muttered Zanoni; and then looking steadfastly at
Viola, he said, with a half-smile, "Hast thou no curiosity to learn more
of the lover thou once couldst believe the agent of the Evil One?"

"None; all that one wishes to know of the beloved one, I know--THAT THOU
LOVEST ME!"

"I have told thee that my life is apart from others. Wouldst thou not
seek to share it?"

"I share it now!"

"But were it possible to be thus young and fair forever, till the world
blazes round us as one funeral pyre!"

"We shall be so, when we leave the world!"

Zanoni was mute for some moments, and at length he said,--

"Canst thou recall those brilliant and aerial dreams which once visited
thee, when thou didst fancy that thou wert preordained to some fate
aloof and afar from the common children of the earth?"

"Zanoni, the fate is found."

"And hast thou no terror of the future?"

"The future! I forget it! Time past and present and to come reposes
in thy smile. Ah, Zanoni, play not with the foolish credulities of my