They might, if understood, absolve the
widow for an apparent levity not consonant with her true and
steadfast self. It cast him down, almost as much as his own vanished
dream and everlasting loss, that hard-hearted love could work such a
miracle and banish the wedded past of this woman's life so
completely in favour of a doubtful future with a foreign spouse.
There were things hidden, and he felt a great desire to penetrate
them for the credit of the woman he had loved so well.
CHAPTER X
ON GRIANTE
Dawn had broken over Italy and morning, in honeysuckle colours,
burned upon the mountain mists. Far beneath a lofty hillside the
world still slumbered and the Larian lake, a jewel of gold and
turquoise, shone amid her flowery margins. The hour was very silent;
the little towns and hamlets scattered beside Como, like clusters of
white and rosy shells, dreamed on until thin music broke from their
campaniles. Bell answered bell and made a girdle of harmony about
the lake, floating along the water and ascending aloft until no
louder than the song of birds.
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