used to buy me toys when I was a little thing, and
the walk along the shore where I used to take her
until she got too ill. Wherever I go it's the same
thing; every market-girl comes up to me with
bunches of flowers--as if I wanted them now!
And there's the church-yard--I had to get away;
it made me sick to see the place----"

He broke off and sat tearing the foxglove bells
to pieces. The silence was so long and deep that
he looked up, wondering why the Padre did not
speak. It was growing dark under the branches
of the magnolia, and everything seemed dim and
indistinct; but there was light enough to show the
ghastly paleness of Montanelli's face. He was
bending his head down, his right hand tightly
clenched upon the edge of the bench. Arthur
looked away with a sense of awe-struck wonder.
It was as though he had stepped unwittingly on to
holy ground.

"My God!" he thought; "how small and selfish
I am beside him! If my trouble were his own he
couldn't feel it more."

Presently Montanelli raised his head and looked
round. "I won't press you to go back there; at
all events, just now," he said in his most caressing
tone; "but you must promise me to take a
thorough rest when your vacation begins this