meeting. The atmosphere surrounding the youthful monk, whose face seemed
illumined by the beauty of his soul, was a stimulus to Giovanni, and
the Benedictine had felt the fascination of his companion's religious
culture, and of the horizons of thought which this brief conversation
had opened up to his faith, eager for rational light. Giovanni had heard
them speak, at Subiaco, of a young man of noble birth who had taken the
habit of the Benedictines at Santa Scolastica after the death of the
woman he loved. He had no doubt that this was he. He had questioned
other monks about him without gaining any information; but he and Don
Clemente had since met repeatedly and had had long talks together.
Giovanni had lent the young man books, and Don Clemente had been to
Selva's house and made Maria's acquaintance. He had shown himself a
musician, and had once played a _Psalm of the Dawn_ to them, which he
had composed for organ and voices after having heard Giovanni liken the
sun in its slow progress from the first mist-enveloped gleam to the
triumphal glory of noonday, to the manifestation of God, as displayed in
the lightning-torn cloud on the rocky summit of Sinai, to the triumphal
glory--not even yet perfectly developed--in the mind of man. On another
occasion Giovanni propounded a question to him which he had already
discussed with Noemi; whether, on leaving this world, human souls at
once acquire knowledge of their future destiny, Don Clemente's answer
had been, that after death--

At this point in Noemi's narrative, Carlino inquired whether he should
set up three tents that they might pass the night on the spot? His
sister and Noemi aroused themselves and started in the direction of the
Rue des Laines. "The answer," continued Noemi, "was, that probably human
souls found themselves in a state and in surroundings regulated, as in
this life, by natural laws; where, as also in this life, the future can
be divined only by indications, and without certainty."