Lopez understood how to read their meaning, and asked: "So it is not the
bailiffs you fear; something else is troubling you?"

She nodded again, this time still more eagerly, drew out the crucifix,
which she had hitherto kept concealed under her coverlid, showed it to
him, then pointed upward towards heaven, lastly to herself and him, and
shrugged her shoulders with an air of deep, mournful renunciation.

"You are thinking of the other world," said Lopez; then, fixing his eyes
on the ground, he continued, in a lower tone: "I know you are tortured by
the fear of not meeting me there."

"Yes," she gasped, with a great effort, pressing her forehead against his
shoulder.

A hot tear fell on the doctor's hand, and he felt as if his own heart was
weeping with his beloved, anxious wife.

He knew that this thought had often poisoned her life and, full of tender
sympathy, turned her beautiful face towards him and pressed a long kiss
on her closed eyes, then said, tenderly:

"You are mine, I am yours, and if there is a life beyond the grave, and
an eternal justice, the dumb will speak as they desire, and sing wondrous
songs with the angels; the sorrowful will again be happy there. We will
hope, we will both hope! Do you remember how I read Dante aloud to you,
and tried to explain his divine creation, as we sat on the bench by the
fig-tree. The sea roared below us, and our hearts swelled higher than
its storm-lashed waves. How soft was the air, how bright the sunshine!
This earth seemed doubly beautiful to you and me as, led by the hand of