his life in achieving a picture or a group of statuary and
finally be satisfied with his success. He paused; his bent form
grew erect with conscious power; he spread out his hands over
them in the attitude of a father imploring a blessing upon his
children; but those were the same hands that had thrown poison
into the stream of their lives. Giovanni trembled. Beatrice
shuddered nervously, and pressed her hand upon her heart.

"My daughter," said Rappaccini, "thou art no longer lonely in the
world. Pluck one of those precious gems from thy sister shrub and
bid thy bridegroom wear it in his bosom. It will not harm him
now. My science and the sympathy between thee and him have so
wrought within his system that he now stands apart from common
men, as thou dost, daughter of my pride and triumph, from
ordinary women. Pass on, then, through the world, most dear to
one another and dreadful to all besides!"

"My father," said Beatrice, feebly,--and still as she spoke she
kept her hand upon her heart,--"wherefore didst thou inflict this
miserable doom upon thy child?"

"Miserable!" exclaimed Rappaccini. "What mean you, foolish girl?
Dost thou deem it misery to be endowed with marvellous gifts
against which no power nor strength could avail an enemy--misery,
to be able to quell the mightiest with a breath--misery, to be as
terrible as thou art beautiful? Wouldst thou, then, have
preferred the condition of a weak woman, exposed to all evil and
capable of none?"

"I would fain have been loved, not feared," murmured Beatrice,