and dread that which may be. How much of care, how much of sorrow has been mine! I am so little accustomed to happiness, that I tremble in its presence."
"I would rather, my dearest! believe that the future owed the past a debt. Many, many years are before us—years of tender watchfulness, of mutual hope, of devoted love. I would that the old tales were true, which held, that life had its annals in those stars which are now looking down upon us, and that I had an enchanter's skill, and could bid them reveal from their shiny depths the truth and worship of a heart that henceforth encircles you with itself. The strength of my love communicates itself. With you and for you everything seems possible."
She did not speak, but stood gazing in silence on the water at their feet.—one bright moonbeam was trembling upon it. Slowly a mass of dense black clouds came sailing upon the air; a sudden wind shook the branches—the dark vapour parted, but a portion swallowed up the line of radiance that had vibrated among the waves, and the whole pool lay in darkness.
"That is my fate!" whispered Francesca. "Struggles, shadows, a transient beauty, and then the night comes—the long last night of death!"
