niú méng héng héng shàonián shí dài de míng zì jiào yà sè ． bó dùn。 zài 'èr、 sān juàn zhōng， huà míng fèi lì sī． lǐ wǎ léi cí， niú méng shì tā de chuò hào
qióng mǎ． huá lún héng héng huá lún yī shēng de nǚ 'ér， yà sè shàonián shí dài de péng yǒu， hòu yǔ qiáo wàn ní． bō lā jié hūn
láo lún zuǒ． méng tài ní lǐ héng héng jiào shì， yà sè zhēn zhèng de shēng fù， hòu shēng wéi hóng yī zhù jiào
gé lā dí sī héng héng yà sè de mǔ qīn， lǎo bó dùn de hòu qī， méng tài ní lǐ de qíng rén， tiān zhù jiào tú
jié mǔ sī． bó dùn héng héng yà sè míng yì shàng de yì mǔ cháng xiōng， bó dùn fù zǐ lún chuán gōng sī de zhù rén
zhū lì yà héng héng jié mǔ sī． bó dùn de qī zǐ
tuō mǎ sī． bó dùn héng héng yà sè míng yì shàng de yì mǔ cì xiōng
jí mǔ sī héng héng bó dùn jiā de guǎn jiā
jí 'ān． bā dì sī tǎ héng héng bó dùn jiā de mǎ chē fū
ēn lǐ kē héng héng lāi hēng jiān yù kānshǒu cháng
kǎi dì héng héng qióng mǎ de nǚ pú ?
bǐ 'ān kǎ héng héng niú méng zài fó luó lún sà de nǚ pú
qǐ dá． lāi ní héng héng jí bǔ sài nǚ láng
mǎ 'ěr dì ní héng héng qīng nián yì dà lì dǎng fó luó lún sà zhī bù de dǎng yuán， bō lā hé qióng mǎ de péng yǒu， wén xué wěi yuán huì chéng yuán
fǎ bù lǐ qí héng héng dà xué jiào shòu， wén xué wěi yuán huì chéng yuán
gé lā xī ní héng héng fù yù de dà lǜ shī， wén xué wěi yuán huì de chéng yuán
lāi jiā héng héng wén xué wěi yuán huì chéng yuán
jiā lì héng héng qīng nián yì dà lì dǎng fó luó lún sà zhī bù de dǎng yuán， wén xué wěi yuán huì de chéng yuán
lǐ kǎ 'ěr duō héng héng yī shēng， qīng nián yì dà lì dǎng fó luó lún sà zhī bù de dǎng yuán， wén xué wěi yuán huì de chéng yuán
sà kē ní héng héng wén xué wěi yuán huì chéng yuán
mǐ xiē 'ěr héng héng hóng dài huì huì yuán， yà píng níng shān qū de sī fàn zǐ
duō mǐ ní jì nuò héng héng hóng dài huì fù zé rén zhī yī， yà píng níng shān qū de sī fàn zǐ
mǎ 'ěr kē ní héng héng hóng dài huì huì yuán， yà píng níng shān qū de sī fàn zǐ
xī shuài héng héng bù liè xī gài lā chéng bǎo zhōng de wèi bīng
kǎ 'ěr dí héng héng bǐ sà shén xué yuàn xīn yuàn cháng， mì tàn
fèi lā lǐ héng héng bù liè xī gài lā de tǒng lǐng， shàng xiào
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
MY most cordial thanks are due to the many persons who helped me to collect, in Italy, the materials for this story. I am especially indebted to the officials of the Marucelliana Library of Florence, and of the State Archives and Civic Museum of Bologna, for their courtesy and kindness.
qióng mǎ． huá lún héng héng huá lún yī shēng de nǚ 'ér， yà sè shàonián shí dài de péng yǒu， hòu yǔ qiáo wàn ní． bō lā jié hūn
láo lún zuǒ． méng tài ní lǐ héng héng jiào shì， yà sè zhēn zhèng de shēng fù， hòu shēng wéi hóng yī zhù jiào
gé lā dí sī héng héng yà sè de mǔ qīn， lǎo bó dùn de hòu qī， méng tài ní lǐ de qíng rén， tiān zhù jiào tú
jié mǔ sī． bó dùn héng héng yà sè míng yì shàng de yì mǔ cháng xiōng， bó dùn fù zǐ lún chuán gōng sī de zhù rén
zhū lì yà héng héng jié mǔ sī． bó dùn de qī zǐ
tuō mǎ sī． bó dùn héng héng yà sè míng yì shàng de yì mǔ cì xiōng
jí mǔ sī héng héng bó dùn jiā de guǎn jiā
jí 'ān． bā dì sī tǎ héng héng bó dùn jiā de mǎ chē fū
ēn lǐ kē héng héng lāi hēng jiān yù kānshǒu cháng
kǎi dì héng héng qióng mǎ de nǚ pú ?
bǐ 'ān kǎ héng héng niú méng zài fó luó lún sà de nǚ pú
qǐ dá． lāi ní héng héng jí bǔ sài nǚ láng
mǎ 'ěr dì ní héng héng qīng nián yì dà lì dǎng fó luó lún sà zhī bù de dǎng yuán， bō lā hé qióng mǎ de péng yǒu， wén xué wěi yuán huì chéng yuán
fǎ bù lǐ qí héng héng dà xué jiào shòu， wén xué wěi yuán huì chéng yuán
gé lā xī ní héng héng fù yù de dà lǜ shī， wén xué wěi yuán huì de chéng yuán
lāi jiā héng héng wén xué wěi yuán huì chéng yuán
jiā lì héng héng qīng nián yì dà lì dǎng fó luó lún sà zhī bù de dǎng yuán， wén xué wěi yuán huì de chéng yuán
lǐ kǎ 'ěr duō héng héng yī shēng， qīng nián yì dà lì dǎng fó luó lún sà zhī bù de dǎng yuán， wén xué wěi yuán huì de chéng yuán
sà kē ní héng héng wén xué wěi yuán huì chéng yuán
mǐ xiē 'ěr héng héng hóng dài huì huì yuán， yà píng níng shān qū de sī fàn zǐ
duō mǐ ní jì nuò héng héng hóng dài huì fù zé rén zhī yī， yà píng níng shān qū de sī fàn zǐ
mǎ 'ěr kē ní héng héng hóng dài huì huì yuán， yà píng níng shān qū de sī fàn zǐ
xī shuài héng héng bù liè xī gài lā chéng bǎo zhōng de wèi bīng
kǎ 'ěr dí héng héng bǐ sà shén xué yuàn xīn yuàn cháng， mì tàn
fèi lā lǐ héng héng bù liè xī gài lā de tǒng lǐng， shàng xiào
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
MY most cordial thanks are due to the many persons who helped me to collect, in Italy, the materials for this story. I am especially indebted to the officials of the Marucelliana Library of Florence, and of the State Archives and Civic Museum of Bologna, for their courtesy and kindness.
yà sè zuò zài bǐ sà shén xué yuàn de tú shū guǎn lǐ， liú lǎn zhe yī duī bù dào shǒu gǎo。
zhè shì liù yuè de yī gè yán rè de wǎn shàng， chuāng hù quándōu sàn kāi， bǎi yè chuāng què shì bàn yǎn zhe， wéi de shì yòu xiē liáng yì。 shén xué yuàn yuàn cháng méng tài ní lǐ shén fù tíng xià bǐ lái， cí xiáng dì wàng zhe mái zài shǒu gǎo lǐ de nà yī tóu hēi fā。
“ Carino ［ yì dà lì yǔ： qīn 'ài de ］， zhǎo bù dào má？ méi guān xì de， nà yī jié wǒ jiù zhòng xiě yī biàn。 kě néng shì bèi sī diào liǎo， ràng nǐ bái máng liǎo zhè me cháng de shí jiān。 ”
méng tài ní lǐ de shēng yīn dī chén 'ér hún hòu， yuè 'ěr de yīn sè gěi tā de huà yǔ zēng tiān liǎo yī zhǒng tè shū de mèi lì。 yī wèi tiān shēng de yǎn shuō jiā cái huì jù bèi zhè zhǒng yì yáng dùn cuò de shēng yīn。 tā zài gēn yà sè shuō huà shí， yǔ diào zhōng zǒng shì hán zhe yī zhǒng 'ài yì。
“ bù， Padre［ yì dà lì yǔ： shén fù， tiān zhù jiào tú duì jiào shì de chēng hū。 zhè gè cí yě kě zhǐ fù qīn。 yà sè yī zhí chēng méng tài ní lǐ wéi“ Padre”， kě jiàn tā duì méng tài ní lǐ huái yòu hěn shēn de gǎn qíng。］， wǒ yī dìng yào zhǎo dào tā。 wǒ gǎn kěn dìng nín shì fàng zài zhè lǐ de。 zài xiě yī biàn， bù kě néng hé yǐ qián de yī mó yī yàng。”
méng tài ní lǐ jì xù fú 'àn gōng zuò。 yī zhǐ hūn hūn yù shuì de jīn guī zǐ tíng zài chuāng wài， zhèng zài nà lǐ wú jīng dǎ cǎi dì míng jiào。“ cǎo méi！ cǎo méi！” shuǐ guǒ xiǎo fàn de jiào mài shēng cóng jiē dào nà tóu chuán lái， yōu cháng 'ér yòu qī liáng。
“《 má fēng bìng rén de zhì liáo》， jiù zài zhè lǐ。” yà sè cóng fáng jiān nà biān zǒu guò lái， tā nà qīng yíng de bù fá zǒng ràng tā de jiā rén gǎn dào nǎo huǒ。 tā cháng dé yòu shòu yòu xiǎo， bù xiàng shì sān shí nián dài de yī wèi yīng guó zhōng chǎn jiē jí qīng nián， gèng xiàng shì yī fú shí liù shì jì xiào xiàng huà zhōng de yī wèi yì dà lì rén。 cóng cháng cháng de méi máo、 mǐn gǎn de zuǐ chún dào xiǎo qiǎo de shǒu jiǎo， tā shēn shàng de měi yī gè bù wèi dū xiǎn dé guò yú jīng zhì， tài ruò bù jìn fēng liǎo。 yào shì 'ān jìng dì zuò zài nà lǐ， bié rén huì wù yǐ wéi tā shì yī gè shēn zhe nán zhuāng de nǚ hái， cháng dé chǔ chǔ dòng rén。 dàn shì zài tā zǒu dòng de shí hòu， tā nà qīng yíng 'ér yòu mǐn jié de tǐ tài shǐ rén xiǎng dào yī zhǐ xùn fú de bào zǐ， yǐ jīng méi yòu liǎo lì zhǎo。
“ zhēn de zhǎo dào liǎo má？ yà sè， méi yòu liǎo nǐ， wǒ gāi zěn me bàn ní？ wǒ kěn dìng huì lǎo shì diūsānlàsì de。 suàn liǎo， wǒ xiàn zài jiù bù xiě liǎo。 dào huā yuán qù bā， wǒ lái bāng nǐ wēn xí gōng kè。 nǎ gè xiǎo dì fāng nǐ yòu shénme bù dǒng de？”
tā men zǒu jìn xiū dào yuàn de huā yuán， zhè lǐ hěn yōu jìng， lǜ shù chéng yìn。 shén xué yuàn suǒ zhàn de jiàn zhù céng shì duō míng wǒ huì de yī zuò xiū dào yuàn。 liǎng bǎi duō nián yǐ qián， zhè gè sì sì fāng fāng de yuàn luò céng bèi shōu shí dé zhěng zhěng qí qí。 bǐ zhí de huáng yáng shù zhī jiān cháng zhe cóng cóng de mí dié xiāng hé xūn yī cǎo， bèi jiǎn dé duǎn duǎn de。 xiàn zài， nà xiē céng jīng zāi zhǒng guò tā men de bái páo xiū shì quándōu rù tǔ wéi 'ān， méi yòu rén zài qù xiǎng qǐ tā men。 dàn shì yōu xiāng de yào cǎo réng zài jìng mì de zhòng xià yè wǎn kāi huā tù yàn， jìn guǎn zài yě méi yòu rén qù cǎi jí huā ruǐ páozhì cǎo yào liǎo。 cóng shēng de yě hé lán qín hé lóu dǒu cài tián mǎn liǎo shí bǎn lù de lièfèng， yuàn zhōng yāng de shuǐ jǐng yǐ jīng ràng wèi gěi liǎo yáng chǐ yè hé zòng héng jiāo cuò de jǐng tiān cǎo。 méi guī huā péng péng， fēn pī de gēn shēn chū tiáo màn yuè guò liǎo xiǎo jìng； huáng yáng shù lí shǎn yào zhe shuò dà de hóng méi sù huā； gāo gāo de máo dì huáng zài zá cǎo de shàng miàn dī chuí xià liǎo tóu； wú rén zhào kàn de lǎo pú táo téng yě bù jiēguǒ， téng tiáo cóng yī kē yǐ wéi rén men yí wàng de gǒu qǐ shù zhī shàng chuí guà xià lái， yáo huàng zhe yè mào de zhī tóu， màn yōu yōu de， què bù tíng xià lái， dài zhe yī zhǒng 'āi yuàn。
yī kē xià jì kāi huā de mù lán shù tǐng lì zài yuàn luò de yī jiǎo， gāo dà de shùgàn xiàng shì yī zuò yóu mào mì de shù yè duī chéng de jù tǎ， sì xià tàn chū rǔ bái sè de huā duǒ。
yī zhǐ zuò gōng cū cāo de mù dèng 'āi zhe shùgàn， méng tài ní lǐ jiù zuò zài shàng miàn。 yà sè zài dà xué lǐ zhù xiū zhé xué， yīn wéi tā zài shū shàng yù dào liǎo yī dào nán tí， suǒ yǐ jiù lái zhǎo tā de“ Padre” jiě huò dá yí。 tā bìng bù shì shén xué yuàn de xué shēng， dàn shì méng tài ní lǐ duì tā lái shuō què shì yī běn bǎi kē quán shū。
“ zhè huì 'ér wǒ gāi zǒu liǎo。” děng nà yī gè zhāng jié jiǎng jiě wán liǎo yǐ hòu， yà sè shuō dào，“ yào shì méi yòu bié de shì qíng， wǒ jiù zǒu liǎo。”
“ wǒ bù xiǎng jiē zhe qù gōng zuò， dàn shì rú guǒ nǐ yòu shí jiān de huà， wǒ xī wàng nǐ néng dài shàng yī huì 'ér。”
“ nà hǎo！” tā kào zài shùgàn shàng， tái tóu tòu guò yǐng yǐng chuò chuò de shù yè， yáo wàng jì jìng de tiān kōng。 dì yī pī 'àn dàn de xīng xīng yǐ jīng zài nà lǐ shǎn shuò。 hēi sè de jié máo xià miàn cháng zhe yī shuāng shēn lán sè de yǎn jīng， mèng huàn yī bān shén mì。 zhè shuāng yǎn jīng yí chuán zì tā nà wèi chū shēng yú kāng wò 'ěr jùn de mǔ qīn。 méng tài ní lǐ zhuǎn guò tóu qù， bì miǎn kàn jiàn nà shuāng yǎn jīng。
“ nǐ kàn shàng qù tǐng lěi， Carino。” méng tài ní lǐ shuō dào。
“ méi bàn fǎ。” yà sè de shēng yīn dài zhe juàn yì， Padre lì jí jiù zhù yì dào liǎo。
“ nǐ bù yīnggāi zhè me zǎo jiù shàng dà xué， nà huì 'ér zhào liào bìng rén zhěng yè dū shuì bù liǎo jué， shēn tǐ dū gěi tuō kuǎ liǎo。 nǐ zài lí kāi lǐ wō nà zhī qián， wǒ yīnggāi jiān chí ràng nǐ hǎohǎo xiū xī yī duàn shí jiān。”
“ bù， Padre， nà yòu shénme yòng ní？ mǔ qīn qù shì yǐ hòu， nà gè guǐ jiā wǒ jiù dài bù xià qù liǎo。 zhū lì yà huì bǎ wǒ bī fēng de！”
zhū lì yà shì tā tóng fù yì mǔ xiōng cháng de qī zǐ， duì tā lái shuō tā shì yī gēn dú cì。
“ wǒ bù yīnggāi ràng nǐ hé jiā rén zhù zài yī qǐ，” méng tài ní lǐ qīng shēng dì shuō dào，“ wǒ qīng chǔ nà yàng duì nǐ yī diǎn hǎo chù dōuméi yòu。 dàn shì wǒ xī wàng nǐ néng jiē shòu nǐ nà wèi zuò yī shēng de yīng guó péng yǒu de yāo qǐng， rú guǒ nǐ zài tā jiā zhù shàng yī gè yuè， huí tóu zài qù shàng xué， nǐ de shēn tǐ huì hǎo dé duō。”
“ bù， Padre， wǒ bù gāi nà yàng zuò 'ā！ huá lún yī jiā réndōu fēi cháng hǎo， hé qì dé hěn， dàn shì tā men jiù shì bù míng bái。 ér qiě tā men hái jué dé wǒ kě lián， wǒ cóng tā men de liǎn shàng néng gòu kàn chū lái。 tā men huì shè fǎ 'ān wèi wǒ， tán qǐ mǔ qīn。 qióng mǎ dāng rán bù huì nà yàng， tā zǒng shì zhī dào bù gāi shuō xiē shénme， shèn zhì zài wǒ men hěn xiǎo de shí hòu tā jiù zhè yàng。 dàn shì qí tā de rén huì shuō de。 hái yòu héng héng”
“ hái yòu shénme， wǒ de hái zǐ？”
yà sè cóng yī gēn dī chuí de máo dì huáng zhī tiáo shàng luō xià liǎo jǐ duǒ huā lái， shén jīng zhì dì yòng shǒu róu suì tā men。
“ nà gè xiǎo zhèn wǒ dài bù xià qù liǎo。” tā zài piàn kè zhī hòu shuō dào。
“ nà lǐ de jǐ jiā diàn pū， zài wǒ xiǎo shí tā cháng qù gěi wǒ mǎi wán jù； yán hé de dào lù， tā zài bìng zhòng yǐ qián wǒ cháng fú tā qù sàn bù。 bù guǎn wǒ zǒu dào nǎ lǐ， zǒng shì ràng wǒ chù jǐng shēng qíng。 měi yī wèi mài huā de gū niàn dū huì xiàng wǒ zǒu lái， shǒu lǐ pěng zhe xiān huā héng héng hǎo xiàng wǒ xiàn zài hái xū yào tā men shìde！ hái yòu jiào táng héng héng wǒ bì xū lí kāi nà lǐ， kàn jiàn nà gè dì fāng jiù ràng wǒ shāng xīn bù yǐ héng héng”
tā dǎ zhù liǎo huà tóu， zuò xià lái bǎ máo dì huáng sī chéng liǎo suì piàn。 yōu cháng 'ér yòu shēn chén de jì jìng， yǐ zhì yú tā tái qǐ tóu lái， nà mèn shén fù wèishénme bù shuō huà。 mù lán shù xià， tiān sè jiàn jiàn dì 'àn liǎo xià lái， yī qiēdōu xiǎn dé ruò yǐn ruò xiàn。 dàn shì hái yòu yī sī yú guāng， kě yǐ kàn jiàn méng tài ní lǐ liǎn sè shàbái， guài xià rén de。 tā zhèng dī zhe tóu， yòu shǒu jǐn jǐn dì zhuā zhù mù dèng de biān jiǎo。 yà sè zhuǎn guò tóu qù， xīn zhōng yóu rán chǎn shēng yī zhǒng jìng wèi zhī qíng， jīng 'ě bù yǐ。 tā fǎng fó shì zài wú yì zhī jiān tà shàng liǎo shèng dì。
“ wǒ de shàng dì！” tā xiǎng，“ zài tā shēn biān， wǒ xiǎn dé duō me miǎo xiǎo， duō me zì sī！ jí shǐ shì tā yù dào liǎo wǒ zhè yàng de bù xìng， tā yě bù kě néng jué dé gèng jiā shāng gǎn。”
méng tài ní lǐ suí jí tái qǐ tóu lái， sì xià kàn liǎo kàn。
“ wǒ bù huì qiǎngpò nǐ huí dào nà lǐ qù， xiàn zài wú lùn rú hé wǒdōu bù huì nà me zuò，” tā mǎn hán shēn qíng dì shuō dào，“ dàn shì nǐ bì xū dāyìng wǒ yī tiáo， jīn nián fàng shǔ jiǎ shí hǎohǎo dì xiū xī yī xià。 wǒ kàn nǐ zuì hǎo hái shì yuǎn lí lǐ wō nà dì qū， wǒ kě bù néng yǎn kàn zhe nǐ de shēn tǐ kuǎ xià qù。”
“ Padre， nín zài shén xué yuàn fàng jiǎ shí dào nǎ 'ér qù？”
“ wǒ huì dài zhe xué shēng jìn shān， jiù xiàng yǐ wǎng nà yàng， zhào kàn tā men zài nà lǐ 'ān dùn xià lái。 kě shì dào liǎo bā yuè zhōng xún， fù yuàn cháng xiū wán jiǎ hòu jiù huì huí lái。 nà shí wǒ jiù huì qù 'ā 'ěr bēi sī shān sǎnsǎn xīn。 nǐ huì gēn wǒ qù má？ wǒ kě yǐ dài nǐ dào shān lǐ zuò cháng tú lǚ xíng， ér qiě nǐ huì yuàn yì yán jiū yī xià 'ā 'ěr bēi sī shān de tái xiǎn hé dì yī。 kě shì， zhǐ yòu wǒ yī gè rén zài shēn biān， nǐ huì jué dé shí fēn fá wèi má？”
“ Padre！” yà sè pāi qǐ shǒu lái， zhū lì yà shuō zhè zhǒng dòng zuò bào lù chū“ diǎn xíng de wài guó pài tóu”。“ néng hé nín qù， jiào wǒ gànshénme wǒdōu yuàn yì。 zhǐ shì héng héng wǒ bù zhī dào héng héng” tā dǎ zhù liǎo huà tóu。
“ nǐ rèn wéi bó dùn xiān shēng huì bù tóng yì má？”
“ tā dāng rán bù huì lè yì de， dàn shì tā yě bù hǎo duì wǒ héng jiā gān shè liǎo。 wǒ xiàn zài dōuyǐ shí bā suì liǎo， xiǎng gànshénme jiù néng gànshénme。 huà yòu shuō huí lái， tā zhǐ shì wǒ de tóng fù yì mǔ xiōng cháng， wǒ kàn bù chū wǒ jiù gāi duì tā fǔ shǒu tiē 'ěr。 tā duì mǔ qīn zǒng shì bù hǎo。”
“ dàn shì tā rú guǒ dàngzhēn fǎn duì， wǒ kàn nǐ zuì hǎo jiù bù yào wéi bèi tā de yì yuàn。 bù rán de huà， nǐ huì fā xiàn zài jiā lǐ de chǔjìng huì gèng nán héng héng”
“ yī diǎn yě bù huì gèng nán！” yà sè nù xíng yú sè， dǎ duàn liǎo tā de huà。“ tā men zǒng shì hèn wǒ， guò qù hèn wǒ， jiāng lái hái huì hèn wǒ héng héng zhè yǔ wǒ zuò shénme méi yòu guān xì。 cǐ wài， wǒ shì tóng nín、 tóng wǒ de chàn huǐ shén fù yī dào wài chū， jié mǔ sī hái zěn me néng dàngzhēn fǎn duì ní？”
“ kě shì nǐ yào jì zhù， tā shì yī wèi xīn jiào tú。 nǐ hái shì gěi tā xiě fēng xìn bā， wǒ men bù fáng děng yī děng， kàn tā zěn me shuō。 dàn shì nǐ yě bù yào cāo zhī guò jí， wǒ de hái zǐ。 bù guǎn rén jiā shì hèn nǐ hái shì 'ài nǐ， dōuyào jiǎn diǎn nǐ zì jǐ de suǒ zuò suǒ wéi。”
tā wěi wǎn dì dào chū zé bèi de huà lái， yī diǎn yě bù huì ràng yà sè tīng liǎo liǎn hóng。
“ shì de， wǒ zhī dào。” tā dá dào， bìng qiě tàn xī liǎo yī shēng。“ kě zhè yě tài nán liǎo héng héng”
“ xīng qī 'èr wǎn shàng nǐ méi néng guò lái， dāng shí wǒ jué dé hěn yí hàn。” méng tài ní lǐ shuō dào， tū rán zhī jiān huàn liǎo yī gè huà tí，“ ā léi zuǒ zhù jiào dào zhè 'ér lái liǎo， wǒ shì xiǎng ràng nǐ jiàn jiàn tā。”
“ wǒ dāyìng liǎo yī gè xué shēng， yào qù tā de zhù chù kāi huì。 dāng shí tā men zài nà 'ér děng wǒ。”
“ shénme huì？”
tīng dào liǎo zhè gè wèn tí， yà sè hǎo xiàng yòu xiē jiǒng pò。“ tā、 tā bù、 bù shì yī cì zhèng、 zhèng cháng de huì yì，” tā shuō dào， yīn wéi jǐn zhāng 'ér yòu diǎn kǒu chī。“ yòu gè xué shēng cóng rè nà yà lái liǎo， tā gěi wǒ men zuò liǎo yī cì fā yán， suàn shì、 shì héng héng jiǎng yǎn bā。”
“ tā jiǎng liǎo yī xiē shénme？”
yà sè yòu xiē yóu yù。“ Padre， nín bù yào wèn tā de míng zì， hǎo má？ yīn wéi wǒ dāyìng guò héng héng”
“ wǒ bù huì wèn nǐ shénme， ér qiě rú guǒ nǐ yǐ jīng dāyìng guò bǎo mì， nǐ dāng rán jiù bù gāi gào sù wǒ。 dàn shì dào liǎo xiàn zài， wǒ xiǎng nǐ gāi xìn rèn wǒ liǎo bā。”
“ Padre， wǒ dāng rán xìn rèn nǐ。 tā jiǎng dào liǎo héng héng wǒ men， yǐ jí wǒ men duì rén mín de zé rèn héng héng hái yòu， duì wǒ men zì jǐ de zé rèn， hái jiǎng dào liǎo héng héng wǒ men kě yǐ zuò xiē shénme， yǐ biàn bāng zhù héng héng”
“ bāng zhù shuí？”
“ bāng zhù nóng mín héng héng hé héng héng”
“ hé shénme？”
“ yì dà lì。”
yī zhèn cháng jiǔ de chén mò。
“ gào sù wǒ， yà sè，” méng tài ní lǐ shuō bà zhuǎn shēn kàn zhe tā， yǔ diào fēi cháng zhuāng zhòng。“ zhè shì nǐ kǎo lǜ liǎo duō cháng shí jiān？”
“ zì cóng héng héng qù nián dōng tiān。”
“ shì zài nǐ mǔ qīn qù shì zhī qián？ tā zhī dào zhè shì má？”
“ bù、 bù zhī dào。 wǒ、 wǒ nà shí duì cǐ bìng bù guān xīn。”
“ nà me xiàn zài nǐ héng héng guān xīn zhè shì má？”
yà sè yòu jiū xià liǎo yī bǎ máo dì huáng huā guān。
“ shì zhè yàng de， shén fù，” tā kāi kǒu shuō dào， yǎn jīng kàn zhe dì shàng。“ zài wǒ qù nián zhǔn bèi rù xué kǎo shì shí， wǒ jié shí liǎo xǔ duō xué shēng。 nǐ hái jì dé má？ e， yòu xiē xué shēng kāi shǐ duì wǒ tán lùn héng héng suǒ yòu zhè xiē shì qíng， bìng qiě jiè shū gěi wǒ kàn。
dàn shì wǒ duì zhè shì mò bù guān xīn。 dāng shí wǒ zhǐ xiǎng zǎo diǎn huí jiā qù kàn mǔ qīn。 nǐ zhī dào de， zài nà suǒ dì láo yī bān de fáng zǐ lǐ， hé tā men dī tóu bù jiàn tái tóu jiàn， tā shí fēn gū dān。 zhū lì yà nà zhāng zuǐ néng bǎ tā gěi qì sǐ。 hòu lái dào liǎo dōng tiān， tā bìng dé fēi cháng lì hài， wǒ jiù bǎ nà xiē xué shēng hé tā men nà xiē shū quán gěi wàng liǎo。 hòu lái， nǐ zhī dào de， wǒ jiù gēn běn bù dào bǐ sà lái liǎo。 rú guǒ wǒ xiǎng dào liǎo zhè shì， wǒ dāng shí kěn dìng huì gēn mǔ qīn shuō de。 dàn shì wǒ jiù shì méi yòu xiǎng qǐ lái。 hòu lái wǒ fā xiàn tā yào sǐ liǎo héng héng nǐ zhī dào de， wǒ jīhū shì yī zhí péi zhe tā， zhí dào tā sǐ qù。 wǒ jīng cháng zhěng yè bù shuì， qióng mǎ · huá lún bái tiān huì lái huàn wǒ shuì jué。 e， jiù shì zài nà xiē màn màn cháng yè lǐ， wǒ zhè cái xiǎng qǐ liǎo nà xiē shū lái， yǐ jí nà xiē xué shēng suǒ shuō de huà héng héng bìng qiě sī kǎo tā men shuō de duì bù duì， yǐ jí wǒ men de zhù duì zhè shì huì zěn me shuō。”
“ nǐ wèn guò tā má？” méng tài ní lǐ de shēng yīn bìng bù shí fēn píng jìng。
“ wèn guò， Padre。 yòu shí wǒ xiàng tā qí dǎo， qiú tā gào sù wǒ gāi zuò xiē shénme， huò zhě qiú tā ràng wǒ tóng mǔ qīn yī qǐ sǐ qù。 dàn shì wǒ dé bù dào rèn hé de dá fù。”
“ nǐ yī gè zì yě méi yòu gēn wǒ tí guò。 yà sè， wǒ xī wàng dāng shí nǐ néng xìn rèn wǒ。”
“ Padre， nín zhī dào wǒ xìn rèn nín！ dàn shì yòu xiē shì qíng nín bù néng suí biàn shuō。 wǒ héng héng zài wǒ kàn lái， nà shí méi rén néng gòu bāng wǒ héng héng shèn zhì lián nín hé mǔ qīn dū bāng bù shàng wǒ。 wǒ bì xū cóng shàng dì nà lǐ zhí jiē dé dào wǒ zì jǐ de dá fù。 nín zhī dào de， zhè guān xì dào wǒ de yī shēng hé wǒ zhěng gè de líng hún。”
méng tài ní lǐ zhuǎn guò shēn qù， níng shì zhe zhī fán yè mào de mù lán shù。 zài 'àn dàn de mù sè zhī zhōng， tā de shēn xíng biàn dé mó hú qǐ lái， jiù xiàng shì yī gè hēi 'àn de guǐ hún， qián fú zài yán sè gèng 'àn de shù zhī zhī jiān。
“ hòu lái ní？” tā màn shēng xì yǔ dì tóng dào。
“ hòu lái héng héng tā jiù sǐ liǎo。 nín zhī dào de， zuì hòu de sān tiān wǎn shàng wǒ yī zhí péi zhe tā héng héng”
tā shuō bù xià qù liǎo， tíng dùn liǎo piàn kè， dàn shì méng tài ní lǐ yī dòng yě bù dòng。
“ zài tā men bǎ tā 'ān zàng zhī qián de liǎng tiān lǐ，” yà sè jì xù shuō dào， shēng yīn fàng dé gèng dī，“ wǒ shénme shì qíng dōubù néng xiǎng。 hòu lái， wǒ zài zàng lǐ yǐ hòu jiù bìng dǎo liǎo。 nín zǒng jì dé， wǒdōu bù néng lái zuò chàn huǐ。”
“ shì de， wǒ jì dé。”
“ e， nà tiān shēn yè wǒ qǐ shēn zǒu jìn mǔ qīn de fáng jiān。 lǐ miàn kōng dàng dàng de， zhǐ yòu shén shí lǐ nà gè jù dà de shí zì jià hái zài nà lǐ。 wǒ xīn xiǎng yě xǔ shàng dì huì gěi yú wǒ bāng zhù。 wǒ guì liǎo xià lái， děng zhe héng héng děng liǎo yī zhěng yè。 dào liǎo zǎo chén， wǒ xǐng wù liǎo guò lái héng héng Padre， méi yòu yòng de。 wǒ jiě shì bù qīng。 wǒ wú fǎ gào sù nín wǒ kàn jiàn liǎo shénme héng héng wǒ zì jǐ yī diǎn 'ér dōubù zhī dào。 dàn shì wǒ zhī dào shàng dì yǐ jīng huí dá liǎo wǒ， ér qiě wǒ bù gǎn wéi kàng tā de yì yuàn。”
tā men mò bù zuò shēng， zài hēi 'àn zhī zhōng zuò liǎo yī huì 'ér。 méng tài ní lǐ suí hòu zhuǎn guò shēn lái， bǎ shǒu fàng zài yà sè de jiān shàng。
“ wǒ de hái zǐ，” tā shuō，“ shàng dì bù xǔ wǒ shuō tā méi yòu gēn nǐ jiǎng guò huà。
dàn shì jì zhù zài fā shēng zhè jiàn shì de shí hòu nǐ de chǔjìng， bù yào bǎ bēi tòng huò zhě huàn bìng suǒ chǎn shēng de huàn xiǎng dāng zuò shì tā xiàng nǐ fā chū liǎo zhuāng yán de gǎn zhào。 rú guǒ tā de què shì tōng guò sǐ wáng de yīn yǐng duì nǐ zuò chū liǎo dá fù， nà me qiān wàn bù yào qū jiě tā de yì sī。 nǐ de xīn lǐ dào dǐ zài xiǎng xiē shénme ní？”
yà sè zhàn qǐ shēn lái。 yī zì yī dùn dì zuò liǎo huí dá， hǎo xiàng shì zài bèi sòng yī duàn jiào yì wèn dá。
“ xiàn shēn yú yì dà lì， bāng zhe bǎ tā cóng nú yì hé kǔ nán zhōng jiě jiù chū lái， bìng qiě qū zhú 'ào dì lì rén， shǐ tā chéng wéi yī gè gòng hé guó， méi yòu guó wáng， zhǐ yòu。”
“ yà sè， xiǎng xiǎng nǐ zài shuō xiē shénme！ nǐ shèn zhì dōubù shì yì dà lì rén 'ā。”
“ zhè méi yòu shénme qū bié， wǒ shì wǒ zì jǐ。 jì rán wǒ yǐ jīng dé dào liǎo shàng dì de qǐ shì， nà wǒ jiù yào wéi tā 'ér xiàn shēn。”
yòu shì yī zhèn chén jì。
“ gāng cái nǐ jiǎng de jiù shì yào shuō de huà héng héng” méng tài ní lǐ màn tiáo sī lǐ dì shuō dào， dàn shì yà sè dǎ duàn liǎo tā de huà。
“ shuō： ‘ fán wèiwǒ 'ér xiàn shēn de réndōu jiāng huò dé xīn shēng。 ’”
méng tài ní lǐ bǎ yī zhǐ gēbo chēng zhe yī gēn shù zhī， lìng yī zhǐ shǒu zhē zhù shuāng yǎn。
“ zuò yī huì 'ér， wǒ de hái zǐ，” tā zuì zhōng shuō dào。
yà sè zuò liǎo xià lái， Padre， jǐn jǐn dì wò zhù shuāng shǒu。
“ jīn wǎn shàng wǒ bù néng gēn nǐ zhǎn kāi biàn lùn，” tā shuō，“ zhè jiàn shì duì wǒ lái shuō tài tū rán liǎo héng héng wǒ méi yòu xiǎng guò héng héng wǒ bì xū 'ān pái shí jiān zǎi xì kǎo lǜ yī xià。 rán hòu wǒ men zài què qiē dì tán tán。 dàn shì xiàn zài， wǒ yào nǐ jì zhù yī jiàn shì。
rú guǒ nǐ zài zhè jiàn shì shàng yù dào liǎo má fán， rú guǒ nǐ héng héng sǐ liǎo， nǐ huì ràng wǒ xīn suì de。”
“ Padre héng héng”
“ bù， ràng wǒ bǎ huà shuō wán。 yòu yī cì wǒ gào sù guò nǐ， zài zhè gè shì shàng chú liǎo nǐ zhī wài wǒ méi yòu yī gè rén。 wǒ bìng bù rèn wéi nǐ wán quán lǐ jiě zhè huà de yì sī。
rén zài nián qīng de shí hòu hěn nán lǐ jiě zhè huà de yì sī。 rú guǒ wǒ xiàng nǐ zhè me dà， wǒ yě lǐ jiě bù liǎo。 yà sè， nǐ jiù xiàng wǒ de héng héng jiù xiàng wǒ de héng héng wǒ zì jǐ de 'ér zǐ。 nǐ dǒng má？ nǐ shì wǒ yǎn lǐ de guāng míng， nǐ shì wǒ xīn zhōng de xī wàng。 wèile bù ràng nǐ zǒu cuò yī bù lù， huǐ liǎo nǐ de yī shēng， wǒ qíng yuàn qù sǐ。 dàn shì wǒ wú néng wéi lì。 wǒ bù yào qiú nǐ duì wǒ zuò chū shénme chéng nuò。 wǒ zhǐ yào qiú nǐ jì zhù zhè yī diǎn， bìng qiě shì shì xiǎo xīn。 zài nǐ yì rán jué rán dì zǒu chū zhè yī bù shí hǎohǎo xiǎng yī xiǎng， rú guǒ bùwèi liǎo nǐ nà zài tiān de mǔ qīn， nà yě wèile wǒ xiǎng yī xiǎng。”
“ wǒ huì de héng héng 'ér qiě héng héng shén fù， wèiwǒ qí dǎo bā， wéi yì dà lì qí dǎo bā。”
tā mò mò dì guì liǎo xià lái， méng tài ní lǐ mò mò dì bǎ shǒu fàng zài tā nà chuí xià de tóu shàng。 guò liǎo yī huì 'ér， yà sè tái qǐ tóu lái， qīn wěn liǎo yī xià nà zhǐ shǒu， rán hòu tà zhe zhān mǎn lù shuǐ de cǎo dì， qīng qīng dì lí qù。 méng tài ní lǐ dú zì zuò zài mù lán shù xià， zhí lèng lèng dì wàng zhuóyǎn qián de hēi 'àn。
“ shàng dì yǐ jīng jiàng zuì yú wǒ liǎo，” tā xiǎng，“ jiù xiàng jiàng zuì yú dà wèi yī yàng。 wǒ yǐ jīng diàn wū liǎo tā de shèng suǒ， bìng yòng 'āng zàng de shǒu xiè dòu liǎo shèng tǐ héng héng tā duì wǒ yī zhí dōuhěn yòu nài xīn， xiàn zài zhōng yú jiàng zuì yú wǒ。‘ nǐ zài 'àn zhōng xíng zhè shì， wǒ què yào zài yǐ sè liè zhòng rén miàn qián、 rì guāng zhī xià bào yìng nǐ。 gù cǐ nǐ suǒ dé de hái zǐ bì dìng yào sǐ。’［ yǐn zì《 shèng jīng》 zhī《 sǎ mǔ 'ěr jì xià》］”
（ dì yī bù · dì yī zhāng wán）
"Can't you find it, carino? Never mind; I must rewrite the passage. Possibly it has got torn up, and I have kept you all this time for nothing."
Montanelli's voice was rather low, but full and resonant, with a silvery purity of tone that gave to his speech a peculiar charm. It was the voice of a born orator, rich in possible modulations. When he spoke to Arthur its note was always that of a caress.
"No, Padre, I must find it; I'm sure you put it here. You will never make it the same by rewriting."
Montanelli went on with his work. A sleepy cockchafer hummed drowsily outside the window, and the long, melancholy call of a fruitseller echoed down the street: "Fragola! fragola!"
"'On the Healing of the Leper'; here it is." Arthur came across the room with the velvet tread that always exasperated the good folk at home. He was a slender little creature, more like an Italian in a sixteenth-century portrait than a middle-class English lad of the thirties. From the long eyebrows and sensitive mouth to the small hands and feet, everything about him was too much chiseled, overdelicate. Sitting still, he might have been taken for a very pretty girl masquerading in male attire; but when he moved, his lithe agility suggested a tame panther without the claws.
"Is that really it? What should I do without you, Arthur? I should always be losing my things. No, I am not going to write any more now. Come out into the garden, and I will help you with your work. What is the bit you couldn't understand?"
They went out into the still, shadowy cloister garden. The seminary occupied the buildings of an old Dominican monastery, and two hundred years ago the square courtyard had been stiff and trim, and the rosemary and lavender had grown in close-cut bushes between the straight box edgings. Now the white-robed monks who had tended them were laid away and forgotten; but the scented herbs flowered still in the gracious mid-summer evening, though no man gathered their blossoms for simples any more. Tufts of wild parsley and columbine filled the cracks between the flagged footways, and the well in the middle of the courtyard was given up to ferns and matted stone-crop. The roses had run wild, and their straggling suckers trailed across the paths; in the box borders flared great red poppies; tall foxgloves drooped above the tangled grasses; and the old vine, untrained and barren of fruit, swayed from the branches of the neglected medlar-tree, shaking a leafy head with slow and sad persistence.
In one corner stood a huge summer-flowering magnolia, a tower of dark foliage, splashed here and there with milk-white blossoms. A rough wooden bench had been placed against the trunk; and on this Montanelli sat down. Arthur was studying philosophy at the university; and, coming to a difficulty with a book, had applied to "the Padre" for an explanation of the point. Montanelli was a universal encyclopaedia to him, though he had never been a pupil of the seminary.
"I had better go now," he said when the passage had been cleared up; "unless you want me for anything."
"I don't want to work any more, but I should like you to stay a bit if you have time."
"Oh, yes!" He leaned back against the tree-trunk and looked up through the dusky branches at the first faint stars glimmering in a quiet sky. The dreamy, mystical eyes, deep blue under black lashes, were an inheritance from his Cornish mother, and Montanelli turned his head away, that he might not see them.
"You are looking tired, carino," he said.
"I can't help it." There was a weary sound in Arthur's voice, and the Padre noticed it at once.
"You should not have gone up to college so soon; you were tired out with sick-nursing and being up at night. I ought to have insisted on your taking a thorough rest before you left Leghorn."
"Oh, Padre, what's the use of that? I couldn't stop in that miserable house after mother died. Julia would have driven me mad!"
Julia was his eldest step-brother's wife, and a thorn in his side.
"I should not have wished you to stay with your relatives," Montanelli answered gently. "I am sure it would have been the worst possible thing for you. But I wish you could have accepted the invitation of your English doctor friend; if you had spent a month in his house you would have been more fit to study."
"No, Padre, I shouldn't indeed! The Warrens are very good and kind, but they don't understand; and then they are sorry for me,--I can see it in all their faces,--and they would try to console me, and talk about mother. Gemma wouldn't, of course; she always knew what not to say, even when we were babies; but the others would. And it isn't only that----"
"What is it then, my son?"
Arthur pulled off some blossoms from a drooping foxglove stem and crushed them nervously in his hand.
"I can't bear the town," he began after a moment's pause. "There are the shops where she used to buy me toys when I was a little thing, and the walk along the shore where I used to take her until she got too ill. Wherever I go it's the same thing; every market-girl comes up to me with bunches of flowers--as if I wanted them now! And there's the church-yard--I had to get away; it made me sick to see the place----"
He broke off and sat tearing the foxglove bells to pieces. The silence was so long and deep that he looked up, wondering why the Padre did not speak. It was growing dark under the branches of the magnolia, and everything seemed dim and indistinct; but there was light enough to show the ghastly paleness of Montanelli's face. He was bending his head down, his right hand tightly clenched upon the edge of the bench. Arthur looked away with a sense of awe-struck wonder. It was as though he had stepped unwittingly on to holy ground.
"My God!" he thought; "how small and selfish I am beside him! If my trouble were his own he couldn't feel it more."
Presently Montanelli raised his head and looked round. "I won't press you to go back there; at all events, just now," he said in his most caressing tone; "but you must promise me to take a thorough rest when your vacation begins this summer. I think you had better get a holiday right away from the neighborhood of Leghorn. I can't have you breaking down in health."
"Where shall you go when the seminary closes, Padre?"
"I shall have to take the pupils into the hills, as usual, and see them settled there. But by the middle of August the subdirector will be back from his holiday. I shall try to get up into the Alps for a little change. Will you come with me? I could take you for some long mountain rambles, and you would like to study the Alpine mosses and lichens. But perhaps it would be rather dull for you alone with me?"
"Padre!" Arthur clasped his hands in what Julia called his "demonstrative foreign way." "I would give anything on earth to go away with you. Only--I am not sure----" He stopped.
"You don't think Mr. Burton would allow it?"
"He wouldn't like it, of course, but he could hardly interfere. I am eighteen now and can do what I choose. After all, he's only my step-brother; I don't see that I owe him obedience. He was always unkind to mother."
"But if he seriously objects, I think you had better not defy his wishes; you may find your position at home made much harder if----"
"Not a bit harder!" Arthur broke in passionately. "They always did hate me and always will--it doesn't matter what I do. Besides, how can James seriously object to my going away with you--with my father confessor?"
"He is a Protestant, remember. However, you had better write to him, and we will wait to hear what he thinks. But you must not be impatient, my son; it matters just as much what you do, whether people hate you or love you."
The rebuke was so gently given that Arthur hardly coloured under it. "Yes, I know," he answered, sighing; "but it is so difficult----"
"I was sorry you could not come to me on Tuesday evening," Montanelli said, abruptly introducing a new subject. "The Bishop of Arezzo was here, and I should have liked you to meet him."
"I had promised one of the students to go to a meeting at his lodgings, and they would have been expecting me."
"What sort of meeting?"
Arthur seemed embarrassed by the question. "It--it was n-not a r-regular meeting," he said with a nervous little stammer. "A student had come from Genoa, and he made a speech to us-- a-a sort of--lecture."
"What did he lecture about?"
Arthur hesitated. "You won't ask me his name, Padre, will you? Because I promised----"
"I will ask you no questions at all, and if you have promised secrecy of course you must not tell me; but I think you can almost trust me by this time."
"Padre, of course I can. He spoke about--us and our duty to the people--and to--our own selves; and about--what we might do to help----"
"To help whom?"
"The contadini--and----"
"And?"
"Italy."
There was a long silence.
"Tell me, Arthur," said Montanelli, turning to him and speaking very gravely, "how long have you been thinking about this?"
"Since--last winter."
"Before your mother's death? And did she know of it?"
"N-no. I--I didn't care about it then."
"And now you--care about it?"
Arthur pulled another handful of bells off the foxglove.
"It was this way, Padre," he began, with his eyes on the ground. "When I was preparing for the entrance examination last autumn, I got to know a good many of the students; you remember? Well, some of them began to talk to me about--all these things, and lent me books. But I didn't care much about it; I always wanted to get home quick to mother. You see, she was quite alone among them all in that dungeon of a house; and Julia's tongue was enough to kill her. Then, in the winter, when she got so ill, I forgot all about the students and their books; and then, you know, I left off coming to Pisa altogether. I should have talked to mother if I had thought of it; but it went right out of my head. Then I found out that she was going to die----You know, I was almost constantly with her towards the end; often I would sit up the night, and Gemma Warren would come in the day to let me get to sleep. Well, it was in those long nights; I got thinking about the books and about what the students had said--and wondering-- whether they were right and--what-- Our Lord would have said about it all."
"Did you ask Him?" Montanelli's voice was not quite steady.
"Often, Padre. Sometimes I have prayed to Him to tell me what I must do, or to let me die with mother. But I couldn't find any answer."
"And you never said a word to me. Arthur, I hoped you could have trusted me."
"Padre, you know I trust you! But there are some things you can't talk about to anyone. I--it seemed to me that no one could help me--not even you or mother; I must have my own answer straight from God. You see, it is for all my life and all my soul."
Montanelli turned away and stared into the dusky gloom of the magnolia branches. The twilight was so dim that his figure had a shadowy look, like a dark ghost among the darker boughs.
"And then?" he asked slowly.
"And then--she died. You know, I had been up the last three nights with her----"
He broke off and paused a moment, but Montanelli did not move.
"All those two days before they buried her," Arthur went on in a lower voice, "I couldn't think about anything. Then, after the funeral, I was ill; you remember, I couldn't come to confession."
"Yes; I remember."
"Well, in the night I got up and went into mother's room. It was all empty; there was only the great crucifix in the alcove. And I thought perhaps God would help me. I knelt down and waited--all night. And in the morning when I came to my senses--Padre, it isn't any use; I can't explain. I can't tell you what I saw--I hardly know myself. But I know that God has answered me, and that I dare not disobey Him."
For a moment they sat quite silent in the darkness. Then Montanelli turned and laid his hand on Arthur's shoulder.
"My son," he said, "God forbid that I should say He has not spoken to your soul. But remember your condition when this thing happened, and do not take the fancies of grief or illness for His solemn call. And if, indeed, it has been His will to answer you out of the shadow of death, be sure that you put no false construction on His word. What is this thing you have it in your heart to do?"
Arthur stood up and answered slowly, as though repeating a catechism:
"To give up my life to Italy, to help in freeing her from all this slavery and wretchedness, and in driving out the Austrians, that she may be a free republic, with no king but Christ."
"Arthur, think a moment what you are saying! You are not even an Italian."
"That makes no difference; I am myself. I have seen this thing, and I belong to it."
There was silence again.
"You spoke just now of what Christ would have said----" Montanelli began slowly; but Arthur interrupted him:
"Christ said: 'He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.'"
Montanelli leaned his arm against a branch, and shaded his eyes with one hand.
"Sit down a moment, my son," he said at last.
Arthur sat down, and the Padre took both his hands in a strong and steady clasp.
"I cannot argue with you to-night," he said; "this has come upon me so suddenly--I had not thought--I must have time to think it over. Later on we will talk more definitely. But, for just now, I want you to remember one thing. If you get into trouble over this, if you--die, you will break my heart."
"Padre----"
"No; let me finish what I have to say. I told you once that I have no one in the world but you. I think you do not fully understand what that means. It is difficult when one is so young; at your age I should not have understood. Arthur, you are as my--as my--own son to me. Do you see? You are the light of my eyes and the desire of my heart. I would die to keep you from making a false step and ruining your life. But there is nothing I can do. I don't ask you to make any promises to me; I only ask you to remember this, and to be careful. Think well before you take an irrevocable step, for my sake, if not for the sake of your mother in heaven."
"I will think--and--Padre, pray for me, and for Italy."
He knelt down in silence, and in silence Montanelli laid his hand on the bent head. A moment later Arthur rose, kissed the hand, and went softly away across the dewy grass. Montanelli sat alone under the magnolia tree, looking straight before him into the blackness.
"It is the vengeance of God that has fallen upon me," he thought, "as it fell upon David. I, that have defiled His sanctuary, and taken the Body of the Lord into polluted hands,--He has been very patient with me, and now it is come. 'For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun; THE CHILD THAT IS BORN UNTO THEE SHALL SURELY DIE.'"
zhè shì liù yuè de yī gè yán rè de wǎn shàng， chuāng hù quándōu sàn kāi， bǎi yè chuāng què shì bàn yǎn zhe， wéi de shì yòu xiē liáng yì。 shén xué yuàn yuàn cháng méng tài ní lǐ shén fù tíng xià bǐ lái， cí xiáng dì wàng zhe mái zài shǒu gǎo lǐ de nà yī tóu hēi fā。
“ Carino ［ yì dà lì yǔ： qīn 'ài de ］， zhǎo bù dào má？ méi guān xì de， nà yī jié wǒ jiù zhòng xiě yī biàn。 kě néng shì bèi sī diào liǎo， ràng nǐ bái máng liǎo zhè me cháng de shí jiān。 ”
méng tài ní lǐ de shēng yīn dī chén 'ér hún hòu， yuè 'ěr de yīn sè gěi tā de huà yǔ zēng tiān liǎo yī zhǒng tè shū de mèi lì。 yī wèi tiān shēng de yǎn shuō jiā cái huì jù bèi zhè zhǒng yì yáng dùn cuò de shēng yīn。 tā zài gēn yà sè shuō huà shí， yǔ diào zhōng zǒng shì hán zhe yī zhǒng 'ài yì。
“ bù， Padre［ yì dà lì yǔ： shén fù， tiān zhù jiào tú duì jiào shì de chēng hū。 zhè gè cí yě kě zhǐ fù qīn。 yà sè yī zhí chēng méng tài ní lǐ wéi“ Padre”， kě jiàn tā duì méng tài ní lǐ huái yòu hěn shēn de gǎn qíng。］， wǒ yī dìng yào zhǎo dào tā。 wǒ gǎn kěn dìng nín shì fàng zài zhè lǐ de。 zài xiě yī biàn， bù kě néng hé yǐ qián de yī mó yī yàng。”
méng tài ní lǐ jì xù fú 'àn gōng zuò。 yī zhǐ hūn hūn yù shuì de jīn guī zǐ tíng zài chuāng wài， zhèng zài nà lǐ wú jīng dǎ cǎi dì míng jiào。“ cǎo méi！ cǎo méi！” shuǐ guǒ xiǎo fàn de jiào mài shēng cóng jiē dào nà tóu chuán lái， yōu cháng 'ér yòu qī liáng。
“《 má fēng bìng rén de zhì liáo》， jiù zài zhè lǐ。” yà sè cóng fáng jiān nà biān zǒu guò lái， tā nà qīng yíng de bù fá zǒng ràng tā de jiā rén gǎn dào nǎo huǒ。 tā cháng dé yòu shòu yòu xiǎo， bù xiàng shì sān shí nián dài de yī wèi yīng guó zhōng chǎn jiē jí qīng nián， gèng xiàng shì yī fú shí liù shì jì xiào xiàng huà zhōng de yī wèi yì dà lì rén。 cóng cháng cháng de méi máo、 mǐn gǎn de zuǐ chún dào xiǎo qiǎo de shǒu jiǎo， tā shēn shàng de měi yī gè bù wèi dū xiǎn dé guò yú jīng zhì， tài ruò bù jìn fēng liǎo。 yào shì 'ān jìng dì zuò zài nà lǐ， bié rén huì wù yǐ wéi tā shì yī gè shēn zhe nán zhuāng de nǚ hái， cháng dé chǔ chǔ dòng rén。 dàn shì zài tā zǒu dòng de shí hòu， tā nà qīng yíng 'ér yòu mǐn jié de tǐ tài shǐ rén xiǎng dào yī zhǐ xùn fú de bào zǐ， yǐ jīng méi yòu liǎo lì zhǎo。
“ zhēn de zhǎo dào liǎo má？ yà sè， méi yòu liǎo nǐ， wǒ gāi zěn me bàn ní？ wǒ kěn dìng huì lǎo shì diūsānlàsì de。 suàn liǎo， wǒ xiàn zài jiù bù xiě liǎo。 dào huā yuán qù bā， wǒ lái bāng nǐ wēn xí gōng kè。 nǎ gè xiǎo dì fāng nǐ yòu shénme bù dǒng de？”
tā men zǒu jìn xiū dào yuàn de huā yuán， zhè lǐ hěn yōu jìng， lǜ shù chéng yìn。 shén xué yuàn suǒ zhàn de jiàn zhù céng shì duō míng wǒ huì de yī zuò xiū dào yuàn。 liǎng bǎi duō nián yǐ qián， zhè gè sì sì fāng fāng de yuàn luò céng bèi shōu shí dé zhěng zhěng qí qí。 bǐ zhí de huáng yáng shù zhī jiān cháng zhe cóng cóng de mí dié xiāng hé xūn yī cǎo， bèi jiǎn dé duǎn duǎn de。 xiàn zài， nà xiē céng jīng zāi zhǒng guò tā men de bái páo xiū shì quándōu rù tǔ wéi 'ān， méi yòu rén zài qù xiǎng qǐ tā men。 dàn shì yōu xiāng de yào cǎo réng zài jìng mì de zhòng xià yè wǎn kāi huā tù yàn， jìn guǎn zài yě méi yòu rén qù cǎi jí huā ruǐ páozhì cǎo yào liǎo。 cóng shēng de yě hé lán qín hé lóu dǒu cài tián mǎn liǎo shí bǎn lù de lièfèng， yuàn zhōng yāng de shuǐ jǐng yǐ jīng ràng wèi gěi liǎo yáng chǐ yè hé zòng héng jiāo cuò de jǐng tiān cǎo。 méi guī huā péng péng， fēn pī de gēn shēn chū tiáo màn yuè guò liǎo xiǎo jìng； huáng yáng shù lí shǎn yào zhe shuò dà de hóng méi sù huā； gāo gāo de máo dì huáng zài zá cǎo de shàng miàn dī chuí xià liǎo tóu； wú rén zhào kàn de lǎo pú táo téng yě bù jiēguǒ， téng tiáo cóng yī kē yǐ wéi rén men yí wàng de gǒu qǐ shù zhī shàng chuí guà xià lái， yáo huàng zhe yè mào de zhī tóu， màn yōu yōu de， què bù tíng xià lái， dài zhe yī zhǒng 'āi yuàn。
yī kē xià jì kāi huā de mù lán shù tǐng lì zài yuàn luò de yī jiǎo， gāo dà de shùgàn xiàng shì yī zuò yóu mào mì de shù yè duī chéng de jù tǎ， sì xià tàn chū rǔ bái sè de huā duǒ。
yī zhǐ zuò gōng cū cāo de mù dèng 'āi zhe shùgàn， méng tài ní lǐ jiù zuò zài shàng miàn。 yà sè zài dà xué lǐ zhù xiū zhé xué， yīn wéi tā zài shū shàng yù dào liǎo yī dào nán tí， suǒ yǐ jiù lái zhǎo tā de“ Padre” jiě huò dá yí。 tā bìng bù shì shén xué yuàn de xué shēng， dàn shì méng tài ní lǐ duì tā lái shuō què shì yī běn bǎi kē quán shū。
“ zhè huì 'ér wǒ gāi zǒu liǎo。” děng nà yī gè zhāng jié jiǎng jiě wán liǎo yǐ hòu， yà sè shuō dào，“ yào shì méi yòu bié de shì qíng， wǒ jiù zǒu liǎo。”
“ wǒ bù xiǎng jiē zhe qù gōng zuò， dàn shì rú guǒ nǐ yòu shí jiān de huà， wǒ xī wàng nǐ néng dài shàng yī huì 'ér。”
“ nà hǎo！” tā kào zài shùgàn shàng， tái tóu tòu guò yǐng yǐng chuò chuò de shù yè， yáo wàng jì jìng de tiān kōng。 dì yī pī 'àn dàn de xīng xīng yǐ jīng zài nà lǐ shǎn shuò。 hēi sè de jié máo xià miàn cháng zhe yī shuāng shēn lán sè de yǎn jīng， mèng huàn yī bān shén mì。 zhè shuāng yǎn jīng yí chuán zì tā nà wèi chū shēng yú kāng wò 'ěr jùn de mǔ qīn。 méng tài ní lǐ zhuǎn guò tóu qù， bì miǎn kàn jiàn nà shuāng yǎn jīng。
“ nǐ kàn shàng qù tǐng lěi， Carino。” méng tài ní lǐ shuō dào。
“ méi bàn fǎ。” yà sè de shēng yīn dài zhe juàn yì， Padre lì jí jiù zhù yì dào liǎo。
“ nǐ bù yīnggāi zhè me zǎo jiù shàng dà xué， nà huì 'ér zhào liào bìng rén zhěng yè dū shuì bù liǎo jué， shēn tǐ dū gěi tuō kuǎ liǎo。 nǐ zài lí kāi lǐ wō nà zhī qián， wǒ yīnggāi jiān chí ràng nǐ hǎohǎo xiū xī yī duàn shí jiān。”
“ bù， Padre， nà yòu shénme yòng ní？ mǔ qīn qù shì yǐ hòu， nà gè guǐ jiā wǒ jiù dài bù xià qù liǎo。 zhū lì yà huì bǎ wǒ bī fēng de！”
zhū lì yà shì tā tóng fù yì mǔ xiōng cháng de qī zǐ， duì tā lái shuō tā shì yī gēn dú cì。
“ wǒ bù yīnggāi ràng nǐ hé jiā rén zhù zài yī qǐ，” méng tài ní lǐ qīng shēng dì shuō dào，“ wǒ qīng chǔ nà yàng duì nǐ yī diǎn hǎo chù dōuméi yòu。 dàn shì wǒ xī wàng nǐ néng jiē shòu nǐ nà wèi zuò yī shēng de yīng guó péng yǒu de yāo qǐng， rú guǒ nǐ zài tā jiā zhù shàng yī gè yuè， huí tóu zài qù shàng xué， nǐ de shēn tǐ huì hǎo dé duō。”
“ bù， Padre， wǒ bù gāi nà yàng zuò 'ā！ huá lún yī jiā réndōu fēi cháng hǎo， hé qì dé hěn， dàn shì tā men jiù shì bù míng bái。 ér qiě tā men hái jué dé wǒ kě lián， wǒ cóng tā men de liǎn shàng néng gòu kàn chū lái。 tā men huì shè fǎ 'ān wèi wǒ， tán qǐ mǔ qīn。 qióng mǎ dāng rán bù huì nà yàng， tā zǒng shì zhī dào bù gāi shuō xiē shénme， shèn zhì zài wǒ men hěn xiǎo de shí hòu tā jiù zhè yàng。 dàn shì qí tā de rén huì shuō de。 hái yòu héng héng”
“ hái yòu shénme， wǒ de hái zǐ？”
yà sè cóng yī gēn dī chuí de máo dì huáng zhī tiáo shàng luō xià liǎo jǐ duǒ huā lái， shén jīng zhì dì yòng shǒu róu suì tā men。
“ nà gè xiǎo zhèn wǒ dài bù xià qù liǎo。” tā zài piàn kè zhī hòu shuō dào。
“ nà lǐ de jǐ jiā diàn pū， zài wǒ xiǎo shí tā cháng qù gěi wǒ mǎi wán jù； yán hé de dào lù， tā zài bìng zhòng yǐ qián wǒ cháng fú tā qù sàn bù。 bù guǎn wǒ zǒu dào nǎ lǐ， zǒng shì ràng wǒ chù jǐng shēng qíng。 měi yī wèi mài huā de gū niàn dū huì xiàng wǒ zǒu lái， shǒu lǐ pěng zhe xiān huā héng héng hǎo xiàng wǒ xiàn zài hái xū yào tā men shìde！ hái yòu jiào táng héng héng wǒ bì xū lí kāi nà lǐ， kàn jiàn nà gè dì fāng jiù ràng wǒ shāng xīn bù yǐ héng héng”
tā dǎ zhù liǎo huà tóu， zuò xià lái bǎ máo dì huáng sī chéng liǎo suì piàn。 yōu cháng 'ér yòu shēn chén de jì jìng， yǐ zhì yú tā tái qǐ tóu lái， nà mèn shén fù wèishénme bù shuō huà。 mù lán shù xià， tiān sè jiàn jiàn dì 'àn liǎo xià lái， yī qiēdōu xiǎn dé ruò yǐn ruò xiàn。 dàn shì hái yòu yī sī yú guāng， kě yǐ kàn jiàn méng tài ní lǐ liǎn sè shàbái， guài xià rén de。 tā zhèng dī zhe tóu， yòu shǒu jǐn jǐn dì zhuā zhù mù dèng de biān jiǎo。 yà sè zhuǎn guò tóu qù， xīn zhōng yóu rán chǎn shēng yī zhǒng jìng wèi zhī qíng， jīng 'ě bù yǐ。 tā fǎng fó shì zài wú yì zhī jiān tà shàng liǎo shèng dì。
“ wǒ de shàng dì！” tā xiǎng，“ zài tā shēn biān， wǒ xiǎn dé duō me miǎo xiǎo， duō me zì sī！ jí shǐ shì tā yù dào liǎo wǒ zhè yàng de bù xìng， tā yě bù kě néng jué dé gèng jiā shāng gǎn。”
méng tài ní lǐ suí jí tái qǐ tóu lái， sì xià kàn liǎo kàn。
“ wǒ bù huì qiǎngpò nǐ huí dào nà lǐ qù， xiàn zài wú lùn rú hé wǒdōu bù huì nà me zuò，” tā mǎn hán shēn qíng dì shuō dào，“ dàn shì nǐ bì xū dāyìng wǒ yī tiáo， jīn nián fàng shǔ jiǎ shí hǎohǎo dì xiū xī yī xià。 wǒ kàn nǐ zuì hǎo hái shì yuǎn lí lǐ wō nà dì qū， wǒ kě bù néng yǎn kàn zhe nǐ de shēn tǐ kuǎ xià qù。”
“ Padre， nín zài shén xué yuàn fàng jiǎ shí dào nǎ 'ér qù？”
“ wǒ huì dài zhe xué shēng jìn shān， jiù xiàng yǐ wǎng nà yàng， zhào kàn tā men zài nà lǐ 'ān dùn xià lái。 kě shì dào liǎo bā yuè zhōng xún， fù yuàn cháng xiū wán jiǎ hòu jiù huì huí lái。 nà shí wǒ jiù huì qù 'ā 'ěr bēi sī shān sǎnsǎn xīn。 nǐ huì gēn wǒ qù má？ wǒ kě yǐ dài nǐ dào shān lǐ zuò cháng tú lǚ xíng， ér qiě nǐ huì yuàn yì yán jiū yī xià 'ā 'ěr bēi sī shān de tái xiǎn hé dì yī。 kě shì， zhǐ yòu wǒ yī gè rén zài shēn biān， nǐ huì jué dé shí fēn fá wèi má？”
“ Padre！” yà sè pāi qǐ shǒu lái， zhū lì yà shuō zhè zhǒng dòng zuò bào lù chū“ diǎn xíng de wài guó pài tóu”。“ néng hé nín qù， jiào wǒ gànshénme wǒdōu yuàn yì。 zhǐ shì héng héng wǒ bù zhī dào héng héng” tā dǎ zhù liǎo huà tóu。
“ nǐ rèn wéi bó dùn xiān shēng huì bù tóng yì má？”
“ tā dāng rán bù huì lè yì de， dàn shì tā yě bù hǎo duì wǒ héng jiā gān shè liǎo。 wǒ xiàn zài dōuyǐ shí bā suì liǎo， xiǎng gànshénme jiù néng gànshénme。 huà yòu shuō huí lái， tā zhǐ shì wǒ de tóng fù yì mǔ xiōng cháng， wǒ kàn bù chū wǒ jiù gāi duì tā fǔ shǒu tiē 'ěr。 tā duì mǔ qīn zǒng shì bù hǎo。”
“ dàn shì tā rú guǒ dàngzhēn fǎn duì， wǒ kàn nǐ zuì hǎo jiù bù yào wéi bèi tā de yì yuàn。 bù rán de huà， nǐ huì fā xiàn zài jiā lǐ de chǔjìng huì gèng nán héng héng”
“ yī diǎn yě bù huì gèng nán！” yà sè nù xíng yú sè， dǎ duàn liǎo tā de huà。“ tā men zǒng shì hèn wǒ， guò qù hèn wǒ， jiāng lái hái huì hèn wǒ héng héng zhè yǔ wǒ zuò shénme méi yòu guān xì。 cǐ wài， wǒ shì tóng nín、 tóng wǒ de chàn huǐ shén fù yī dào wài chū， jié mǔ sī hái zěn me néng dàngzhēn fǎn duì ní？”
“ kě shì nǐ yào jì zhù， tā shì yī wèi xīn jiào tú。 nǐ hái shì gěi tā xiě fēng xìn bā， wǒ men bù fáng děng yī děng， kàn tā zěn me shuō。 dàn shì nǐ yě bù yào cāo zhī guò jí， wǒ de hái zǐ。 bù guǎn rén jiā shì hèn nǐ hái shì 'ài nǐ， dōuyào jiǎn diǎn nǐ zì jǐ de suǒ zuò suǒ wéi。”
tā wěi wǎn dì dào chū zé bèi de huà lái， yī diǎn yě bù huì ràng yà sè tīng liǎo liǎn hóng。
“ shì de， wǒ zhī dào。” tā dá dào， bìng qiě tàn xī liǎo yī shēng。“ kě zhè yě tài nán liǎo héng héng”
“ xīng qī 'èr wǎn shàng nǐ méi néng guò lái， dāng shí wǒ jué dé hěn yí hàn。” méng tài ní lǐ shuō dào， tū rán zhī jiān huàn liǎo yī gè huà tí，“ ā léi zuǒ zhù jiào dào zhè 'ér lái liǎo， wǒ shì xiǎng ràng nǐ jiàn jiàn tā。”
“ wǒ dāyìng liǎo yī gè xué shēng， yào qù tā de zhù chù kāi huì。 dāng shí tā men zài nà 'ér děng wǒ。”
“ shénme huì？”
tīng dào liǎo zhè gè wèn tí， yà sè hǎo xiàng yòu xiē jiǒng pò。“ tā、 tā bù、 bù shì yī cì zhèng、 zhèng cháng de huì yì，” tā shuō dào， yīn wéi jǐn zhāng 'ér yòu diǎn kǒu chī。“ yòu gè xué shēng cóng rè nà yà lái liǎo， tā gěi wǒ men zuò liǎo yī cì fā yán， suàn shì、 shì héng héng jiǎng yǎn bā。”
“ tā jiǎng liǎo yī xiē shénme？”
yà sè yòu xiē yóu yù。“ Padre， nín bù yào wèn tā de míng zì， hǎo má？ yīn wéi wǒ dāyìng guò héng héng”
“ wǒ bù huì wèn nǐ shénme， ér qiě rú guǒ nǐ yǐ jīng dāyìng guò bǎo mì， nǐ dāng rán jiù bù gāi gào sù wǒ。 dàn shì dào liǎo xiàn zài， wǒ xiǎng nǐ gāi xìn rèn wǒ liǎo bā。”
“ Padre， wǒ dāng rán xìn rèn nǐ。 tā jiǎng dào liǎo héng héng wǒ men， yǐ jí wǒ men duì rén mín de zé rèn héng héng hái yòu， duì wǒ men zì jǐ de zé rèn， hái jiǎng dào liǎo héng héng wǒ men kě yǐ zuò xiē shénme， yǐ biàn bāng zhù héng héng”
“ bāng zhù shuí？”
“ bāng zhù nóng mín héng héng hé héng héng”
“ hé shénme？”
“ yì dà lì。”
yī zhèn cháng jiǔ de chén mò。
“ gào sù wǒ， yà sè，” méng tài ní lǐ shuō bà zhuǎn shēn kàn zhe tā， yǔ diào fēi cháng zhuāng zhòng。“ zhè shì nǐ kǎo lǜ liǎo duō cháng shí jiān？”
“ zì cóng héng héng qù nián dōng tiān。”
“ shì zài nǐ mǔ qīn qù shì zhī qián？ tā zhī dào zhè shì má？”
“ bù、 bù zhī dào。 wǒ、 wǒ nà shí duì cǐ bìng bù guān xīn。”
“ nà me xiàn zài nǐ héng héng guān xīn zhè shì má？”
yà sè yòu jiū xià liǎo yī bǎ máo dì huáng huā guān。
“ shì zhè yàng de， shén fù，” tā kāi kǒu shuō dào， yǎn jīng kàn zhe dì shàng。“ zài wǒ qù nián zhǔn bèi rù xué kǎo shì shí， wǒ jié shí liǎo xǔ duō xué shēng。 nǐ hái jì dé má？ e， yòu xiē xué shēng kāi shǐ duì wǒ tán lùn héng héng suǒ yòu zhè xiē shì qíng， bìng qiě jiè shū gěi wǒ kàn。
dàn shì wǒ duì zhè shì mò bù guān xīn。 dāng shí wǒ zhǐ xiǎng zǎo diǎn huí jiā qù kàn mǔ qīn。 nǐ zhī dào de， zài nà suǒ dì láo yī bān de fáng zǐ lǐ， hé tā men dī tóu bù jiàn tái tóu jiàn， tā shí fēn gū dān。 zhū lì yà nà zhāng zuǐ néng bǎ tā gěi qì sǐ。 hòu lái dào liǎo dōng tiān， tā bìng dé fēi cháng lì hài， wǒ jiù bǎ nà xiē xué shēng hé tā men nà xiē shū quán gěi wàng liǎo。 hòu lái， nǐ zhī dào de， wǒ jiù gēn běn bù dào bǐ sà lái liǎo。 rú guǒ wǒ xiǎng dào liǎo zhè shì， wǒ dāng shí kěn dìng huì gēn mǔ qīn shuō de。 dàn shì wǒ jiù shì méi yòu xiǎng qǐ lái。 hòu lái wǒ fā xiàn tā yào sǐ liǎo héng héng nǐ zhī dào de， wǒ jīhū shì yī zhí péi zhe tā， zhí dào tā sǐ qù。 wǒ jīng cháng zhěng yè bù shuì， qióng mǎ · huá lún bái tiān huì lái huàn wǒ shuì jué。 e， jiù shì zài nà xiē màn màn cháng yè lǐ， wǒ zhè cái xiǎng qǐ liǎo nà xiē shū lái， yǐ jí nà xiē xué shēng suǒ shuō de huà héng héng bìng qiě sī kǎo tā men shuō de duì bù duì， yǐ jí wǒ men de zhù duì zhè shì huì zěn me shuō。”
“ nǐ wèn guò tā má？” méng tài ní lǐ de shēng yīn bìng bù shí fēn píng jìng。
“ wèn guò， Padre。 yòu shí wǒ xiàng tā qí dǎo， qiú tā gào sù wǒ gāi zuò xiē shénme， huò zhě qiú tā ràng wǒ tóng mǔ qīn yī qǐ sǐ qù。 dàn shì wǒ dé bù dào rèn hé de dá fù。”
“ nǐ yī gè zì yě méi yòu gēn wǒ tí guò。 yà sè， wǒ xī wàng dāng shí nǐ néng xìn rèn wǒ。”
“ Padre， nín zhī dào wǒ xìn rèn nín！ dàn shì yòu xiē shì qíng nín bù néng suí biàn shuō。 wǒ héng héng zài wǒ kàn lái， nà shí méi rén néng gòu bāng wǒ héng héng shèn zhì lián nín hé mǔ qīn dū bāng bù shàng wǒ。 wǒ bì xū cóng shàng dì nà lǐ zhí jiē dé dào wǒ zì jǐ de dá fù。 nín zhī dào de， zhè guān xì dào wǒ de yī shēng hé wǒ zhěng gè de líng hún。”
méng tài ní lǐ zhuǎn guò shēn qù， níng shì zhe zhī fán yè mào de mù lán shù。 zài 'àn dàn de mù sè zhī zhōng， tā de shēn xíng biàn dé mó hú qǐ lái， jiù xiàng shì yī gè hēi 'àn de guǐ hún， qián fú zài yán sè gèng 'àn de shù zhī zhī jiān。
“ hòu lái ní？” tā màn shēng xì yǔ dì tóng dào。
“ hòu lái héng héng tā jiù sǐ liǎo。 nín zhī dào de， zuì hòu de sān tiān wǎn shàng wǒ yī zhí péi zhe tā héng héng”
tā shuō bù xià qù liǎo， tíng dùn liǎo piàn kè， dàn shì méng tài ní lǐ yī dòng yě bù dòng。
“ zài tā men bǎ tā 'ān zàng zhī qián de liǎng tiān lǐ，” yà sè jì xù shuō dào， shēng yīn fàng dé gèng dī，“ wǒ shénme shì qíng dōubù néng xiǎng。 hòu lái， wǒ zài zàng lǐ yǐ hòu jiù bìng dǎo liǎo。 nín zǒng jì dé， wǒdōu bù néng lái zuò chàn huǐ。”
“ shì de， wǒ jì dé。”
“ e， nà tiān shēn yè wǒ qǐ shēn zǒu jìn mǔ qīn de fáng jiān。 lǐ miàn kōng dàng dàng de， zhǐ yòu shén shí lǐ nà gè jù dà de shí zì jià hái zài nà lǐ。 wǒ xīn xiǎng yě xǔ shàng dì huì gěi yú wǒ bāng zhù。 wǒ guì liǎo xià lái， děng zhe héng héng děng liǎo yī zhěng yè。 dào liǎo zǎo chén， wǒ xǐng wù liǎo guò lái héng héng Padre， méi yòu yòng de。 wǒ jiě shì bù qīng。 wǒ wú fǎ gào sù nín wǒ kàn jiàn liǎo shénme héng héng wǒ zì jǐ yī diǎn 'ér dōubù zhī dào。 dàn shì wǒ zhī dào shàng dì yǐ jīng huí dá liǎo wǒ， ér qiě wǒ bù gǎn wéi kàng tā de yì yuàn。”
tā men mò bù zuò shēng， zài hēi 'àn zhī zhōng zuò liǎo yī huì 'ér。 méng tài ní lǐ suí hòu zhuǎn guò shēn lái， bǎ shǒu fàng zài yà sè de jiān shàng。
“ wǒ de hái zǐ，” tā shuō，“ shàng dì bù xǔ wǒ shuō tā méi yòu gēn nǐ jiǎng guò huà。
dàn shì jì zhù zài fā shēng zhè jiàn shì de shí hòu nǐ de chǔjìng， bù yào bǎ bēi tòng huò zhě huàn bìng suǒ chǎn shēng de huàn xiǎng dāng zuò shì tā xiàng nǐ fā chū liǎo zhuāng yán de gǎn zhào。 rú guǒ tā de què shì tōng guò sǐ wáng de yīn yǐng duì nǐ zuò chū liǎo dá fù， nà me qiān wàn bù yào qū jiě tā de yì sī。 nǐ de xīn lǐ dào dǐ zài xiǎng xiē shénme ní？”
yà sè zhàn qǐ shēn lái。 yī zì yī dùn dì zuò liǎo huí dá， hǎo xiàng shì zài bèi sòng yī duàn jiào yì wèn dá。
“ xiàn shēn yú yì dà lì， bāng zhe bǎ tā cóng nú yì hé kǔ nán zhōng jiě jiù chū lái， bìng qiě qū zhú 'ào dì lì rén， shǐ tā chéng wéi yī gè gòng hé guó， méi yòu guó wáng， zhǐ yòu。”
“ yà sè， xiǎng xiǎng nǐ zài shuō xiē shénme！ nǐ shèn zhì dōubù shì yì dà lì rén 'ā。”
“ zhè méi yòu shénme qū bié， wǒ shì wǒ zì jǐ。 jì rán wǒ yǐ jīng dé dào liǎo shàng dì de qǐ shì， nà wǒ jiù yào wéi tā 'ér xiàn shēn。”
yòu shì yī zhèn chén jì。
“ gāng cái nǐ jiǎng de jiù shì yào shuō de huà héng héng” méng tài ní lǐ màn tiáo sī lǐ dì shuō dào， dàn shì yà sè dǎ duàn liǎo tā de huà。
“ shuō： ‘ fán wèiwǒ 'ér xiàn shēn de réndōu jiāng huò dé xīn shēng。 ’”
méng tài ní lǐ bǎ yī zhǐ gēbo chēng zhe yī gēn shù zhī， lìng yī zhǐ shǒu zhē zhù shuāng yǎn。
“ zuò yī huì 'ér， wǒ de hái zǐ，” tā zuì zhōng shuō dào。
yà sè zuò liǎo xià lái， Padre， jǐn jǐn dì wò zhù shuāng shǒu。
“ jīn wǎn shàng wǒ bù néng gēn nǐ zhǎn kāi biàn lùn，” tā shuō，“ zhè jiàn shì duì wǒ lái shuō tài tū rán liǎo héng héng wǒ méi yòu xiǎng guò héng héng wǒ bì xū 'ān pái shí jiān zǎi xì kǎo lǜ yī xià。 rán hòu wǒ men zài què qiē dì tán tán。 dàn shì xiàn zài， wǒ yào nǐ jì zhù yī jiàn shì。
rú guǒ nǐ zài zhè jiàn shì shàng yù dào liǎo má fán， rú guǒ nǐ héng héng sǐ liǎo， nǐ huì ràng wǒ xīn suì de。”
“ Padre héng héng”
“ bù， ràng wǒ bǎ huà shuō wán。 yòu yī cì wǒ gào sù guò nǐ， zài zhè gè shì shàng chú liǎo nǐ zhī wài wǒ méi yòu yī gè rén。 wǒ bìng bù rèn wéi nǐ wán quán lǐ jiě zhè huà de yì sī。
rén zài nián qīng de shí hòu hěn nán lǐ jiě zhè huà de yì sī。 rú guǒ wǒ xiàng nǐ zhè me dà， wǒ yě lǐ jiě bù liǎo。 yà sè， nǐ jiù xiàng wǒ de héng héng jiù xiàng wǒ de héng héng wǒ zì jǐ de 'ér zǐ。 nǐ dǒng má？ nǐ shì wǒ yǎn lǐ de guāng míng， nǐ shì wǒ xīn zhōng de xī wàng。 wèile bù ràng nǐ zǒu cuò yī bù lù， huǐ liǎo nǐ de yī shēng， wǒ qíng yuàn qù sǐ。 dàn shì wǒ wú néng wéi lì。 wǒ bù yào qiú nǐ duì wǒ zuò chū shénme chéng nuò。 wǒ zhǐ yào qiú nǐ jì zhù zhè yī diǎn， bìng qiě shì shì xiǎo xīn。 zài nǐ yì rán jué rán dì zǒu chū zhè yī bù shí hǎohǎo xiǎng yī xiǎng， rú guǒ bùwèi liǎo nǐ nà zài tiān de mǔ qīn， nà yě wèile wǒ xiǎng yī xiǎng。”
“ wǒ huì de héng héng 'ér qiě héng héng shén fù， wèiwǒ qí dǎo bā， wéi yì dà lì qí dǎo bā。”
tā mò mò dì guì liǎo xià lái， méng tài ní lǐ mò mò dì bǎ shǒu fàng zài tā nà chuí xià de tóu shàng。 guò liǎo yī huì 'ér， yà sè tái qǐ tóu lái， qīn wěn liǎo yī xià nà zhǐ shǒu， rán hòu tà zhe zhān mǎn lù shuǐ de cǎo dì， qīng qīng dì lí qù。 méng tài ní lǐ dú zì zuò zài mù lán shù xià， zhí lèng lèng dì wàng zhuóyǎn qián de hēi 'àn。
“ shàng dì yǐ jīng jiàng zuì yú wǒ liǎo，” tā xiǎng，“ jiù xiàng jiàng zuì yú dà wèi yī yàng。 wǒ yǐ jīng diàn wū liǎo tā de shèng suǒ， bìng yòng 'āng zàng de shǒu xiè dòu liǎo shèng tǐ héng héng tā duì wǒ yī zhí dōuhěn yòu nài xīn， xiàn zài zhōng yú jiàng zuì yú wǒ。‘ nǐ zài 'àn zhōng xíng zhè shì， wǒ què yào zài yǐ sè liè zhòng rén miàn qián、 rì guāng zhī xià bào yìng nǐ。 gù cǐ nǐ suǒ dé de hái zǐ bì dìng yào sǐ。’［ yǐn zì《 shèng jīng》 zhī《 sǎ mǔ 'ěr jì xià》］”
（ dì yī bù · dì yī zhāng wán）
"Can't you find it, carino? Never mind; I must rewrite the passage. Possibly it has got torn up, and I have kept you all this time for nothing."
Montanelli's voice was rather low, but full and resonant, with a silvery purity of tone that gave to his speech a peculiar charm. It was the voice of a born orator, rich in possible modulations. When he spoke to Arthur its note was always that of a caress.
"No, Padre, I must find it; I'm sure you put it here. You will never make it the same by rewriting."
Montanelli went on with his work. A sleepy cockchafer hummed drowsily outside the window, and the long, melancholy call of a fruitseller echoed down the street: "Fragola! fragola!"
"'On the Healing of the Leper'; here it is." Arthur came across the room with the velvet tread that always exasperated the good folk at home. He was a slender little creature, more like an Italian in a sixteenth-century portrait than a middle-class English lad of the thirties. From the long eyebrows and sensitive mouth to the small hands and feet, everything about him was too much chiseled, overdelicate. Sitting still, he might have been taken for a very pretty girl masquerading in male attire; but when he moved, his lithe agility suggested a tame panther without the claws.
"Is that really it? What should I do without you, Arthur? I should always be losing my things. No, I am not going to write any more now. Come out into the garden, and I will help you with your work. What is the bit you couldn't understand?"
They went out into the still, shadowy cloister garden. The seminary occupied the buildings of an old Dominican monastery, and two hundred years ago the square courtyard had been stiff and trim, and the rosemary and lavender had grown in close-cut bushes between the straight box edgings. Now the white-robed monks who had tended them were laid away and forgotten; but the scented herbs flowered still in the gracious mid-summer evening, though no man gathered their blossoms for simples any more. Tufts of wild parsley and columbine filled the cracks between the flagged footways, and the well in the middle of the courtyard was given up to ferns and matted stone-crop. The roses had run wild, and their straggling suckers trailed across the paths; in the box borders flared great red poppies; tall foxgloves drooped above the tangled grasses; and the old vine, untrained and barren of fruit, swayed from the branches of the neglected medlar-tree, shaking a leafy head with slow and sad persistence.
In one corner stood a huge summer-flowering magnolia, a tower of dark foliage, splashed here and there with milk-white blossoms. A rough wooden bench had been placed against the trunk; and on this Montanelli sat down. Arthur was studying philosophy at the university; and, coming to a difficulty with a book, had applied to "the Padre" for an explanation of the point. Montanelli was a universal encyclopaedia to him, though he had never been a pupil of the seminary.
"I had better go now," he said when the passage had been cleared up; "unless you want me for anything."
"I don't want to work any more, but I should like you to stay a bit if you have time."
"Oh, yes!" He leaned back against the tree-trunk and looked up through the dusky branches at the first faint stars glimmering in a quiet sky. The dreamy, mystical eyes, deep blue under black lashes, were an inheritance from his Cornish mother, and Montanelli turned his head away, that he might not see them.
"You are looking tired, carino," he said.
"I can't help it." There was a weary sound in Arthur's voice, and the Padre noticed it at once.
"You should not have gone up to college so soon; you were tired out with sick-nursing and being up at night. I ought to have insisted on your taking a thorough rest before you left Leghorn."
"Oh, Padre, what's the use of that? I couldn't stop in that miserable house after mother died. Julia would have driven me mad!"
Julia was his eldest step-brother's wife, and a thorn in his side.
"I should not have wished you to stay with your relatives," Montanelli answered gently. "I am sure it would have been the worst possible thing for you. But I wish you could have accepted the invitation of your English doctor friend; if you had spent a month in his house you would have been more fit to study."
"No, Padre, I shouldn't indeed! The Warrens are very good and kind, but they don't understand; and then they are sorry for me,--I can see it in all their faces,--and they would try to console me, and talk about mother. Gemma wouldn't, of course; she always knew what not to say, even when we were babies; but the others would. And it isn't only that----"
"What is it then, my son?"
Arthur pulled off some blossoms from a drooping foxglove stem and crushed them nervously in his hand.
"I can't bear the town," he began after a moment's pause. "There are the shops where she used to buy me toys when I was a little thing, and the walk along the shore where I used to take her until she got too ill. Wherever I go it's the same thing; every market-girl comes up to me with bunches of flowers--as if I wanted them now! And there's the church-yard--I had to get away; it made me sick to see the place----"
He broke off and sat tearing the foxglove bells to pieces. The silence was so long and deep that he looked up, wondering why the Padre did not speak. It was growing dark under the branches of the magnolia, and everything seemed dim and indistinct; but there was light enough to show the ghastly paleness of Montanelli's face. He was bending his head down, his right hand tightly clenched upon the edge of the bench. Arthur looked away with a sense of awe-struck wonder. It was as though he had stepped unwittingly on to holy ground.
"My God!" he thought; "how small and selfish I am beside him! If my trouble were his own he couldn't feel it more."
Presently Montanelli raised his head and looked round. "I won't press you to go back there; at all events, just now," he said in his most caressing tone; "but you must promise me to take a thorough rest when your vacation begins this summer. I think you had better get a holiday right away from the neighborhood of Leghorn. I can't have you breaking down in health."
"Where shall you go when the seminary closes, Padre?"
"I shall have to take the pupils into the hills, as usual, and see them settled there. But by the middle of August the subdirector will be back from his holiday. I shall try to get up into the Alps for a little change. Will you come with me? I could take you for some long mountain rambles, and you would like to study the Alpine mosses and lichens. But perhaps it would be rather dull for you alone with me?"
"Padre!" Arthur clasped his hands in what Julia called his "demonstrative foreign way." "I would give anything on earth to go away with you. Only--I am not sure----" He stopped.
"You don't think Mr. Burton would allow it?"
"He wouldn't like it, of course, but he could hardly interfere. I am eighteen now and can do what I choose. After all, he's only my step-brother; I don't see that I owe him obedience. He was always unkind to mother."
"But if he seriously objects, I think you had better not defy his wishes; you may find your position at home made much harder if----"
"Not a bit harder!" Arthur broke in passionately. "They always did hate me and always will--it doesn't matter what I do. Besides, how can James seriously object to my going away with you--with my father confessor?"
"He is a Protestant, remember. However, you had better write to him, and we will wait to hear what he thinks. But you must not be impatient, my son; it matters just as much what you do, whether people hate you or love you."
The rebuke was so gently given that Arthur hardly coloured under it. "Yes, I know," he answered, sighing; "but it is so difficult----"
"I was sorry you could not come to me on Tuesday evening," Montanelli said, abruptly introducing a new subject. "The Bishop of Arezzo was here, and I should have liked you to meet him."
"I had promised one of the students to go to a meeting at his lodgings, and they would have been expecting me."
"What sort of meeting?"
Arthur seemed embarrassed by the question. "It--it was n-not a r-regular meeting," he said with a nervous little stammer. "A student had come from Genoa, and he made a speech to us-- a-a sort of--lecture."
"What did he lecture about?"
Arthur hesitated. "You won't ask me his name, Padre, will you? Because I promised----"
"I will ask you no questions at all, and if you have promised secrecy of course you must not tell me; but I think you can almost trust me by this time."
"Padre, of course I can. He spoke about--us and our duty to the people--and to--our own selves; and about--what we might do to help----"
"To help whom?"
"The contadini--and----"
"And?"
"Italy."
There was a long silence.
"Tell me, Arthur," said Montanelli, turning to him and speaking very gravely, "how long have you been thinking about this?"
"Since--last winter."
"Before your mother's death? And did she know of it?"
"N-no. I--I didn't care about it then."
"And now you--care about it?"
Arthur pulled another handful of bells off the foxglove.
"It was this way, Padre," he began, with his eyes on the ground. "When I was preparing for the entrance examination last autumn, I got to know a good many of the students; you remember? Well, some of them began to talk to me about--all these things, and lent me books. But I didn't care much about it; I always wanted to get home quick to mother. You see, she was quite alone among them all in that dungeon of a house; and Julia's tongue was enough to kill her. Then, in the winter, when she got so ill, I forgot all about the students and their books; and then, you know, I left off coming to Pisa altogether. I should have talked to mother if I had thought of it; but it went right out of my head. Then I found out that she was going to die----You know, I was almost constantly with her towards the end; often I would sit up the night, and Gemma Warren would come in the day to let me get to sleep. Well, it was in those long nights; I got thinking about the books and about what the students had said--and wondering-- whether they were right and--what-- Our Lord would have said about it all."
"Did you ask Him?" Montanelli's voice was not quite steady.
"Often, Padre. Sometimes I have prayed to Him to tell me what I must do, or to let me die with mother. But I couldn't find any answer."
"And you never said a word to me. Arthur, I hoped you could have trusted me."
"Padre, you know I trust you! But there are some things you can't talk about to anyone. I--it seemed to me that no one could help me--not even you or mother; I must have my own answer straight from God. You see, it is for all my life and all my soul."
Montanelli turned away and stared into the dusky gloom of the magnolia branches. The twilight was so dim that his figure had a shadowy look, like a dark ghost among the darker boughs.
"And then?" he asked slowly.
"And then--she died. You know, I had been up the last three nights with her----"
He broke off and paused a moment, but Montanelli did not move.
"All those two days before they buried her," Arthur went on in a lower voice, "I couldn't think about anything. Then, after the funeral, I was ill; you remember, I couldn't come to confession."
"Yes; I remember."
"Well, in the night I got up and went into mother's room. It was all empty; there was only the great crucifix in the alcove. And I thought perhaps God would help me. I knelt down and waited--all night. And in the morning when I came to my senses--Padre, it isn't any use; I can't explain. I can't tell you what I saw--I hardly know myself. But I know that God has answered me, and that I dare not disobey Him."
For a moment they sat quite silent in the darkness. Then Montanelli turned and laid his hand on Arthur's shoulder.
"My son," he said, "God forbid that I should say He has not spoken to your soul. But remember your condition when this thing happened, and do not take the fancies of grief or illness for His solemn call. And if, indeed, it has been His will to answer you out of the shadow of death, be sure that you put no false construction on His word. What is this thing you have it in your heart to do?"
Arthur stood up and answered slowly, as though repeating a catechism:
"To give up my life to Italy, to help in freeing her from all this slavery and wretchedness, and in driving out the Austrians, that she may be a free republic, with no king but Christ."
"Arthur, think a moment what you are saying! You are not even an Italian."
"That makes no difference; I am myself. I have seen this thing, and I belong to it."
There was silence again.
"You spoke just now of what Christ would have said----" Montanelli began slowly; but Arthur interrupted him:
"Christ said: 'He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.'"
Montanelli leaned his arm against a branch, and shaded his eyes with one hand.
"Sit down a moment, my son," he said at last.
Arthur sat down, and the Padre took both his hands in a strong and steady clasp.
"I cannot argue with you to-night," he said; "this has come upon me so suddenly--I had not thought--I must have time to think it over. Later on we will talk more definitely. But, for just now, I want you to remember one thing. If you get into trouble over this, if you--die, you will break my heart."
"Padre----"
"No; let me finish what I have to say. I told you once that I have no one in the world but you. I think you do not fully understand what that means. It is difficult when one is so young; at your age I should not have understood. Arthur, you are as my--as my--own son to me. Do you see? You are the light of my eyes and the desire of my heart. I would die to keep you from making a false step and ruining your life. But there is nothing I can do. I don't ask you to make any promises to me; I only ask you to remember this, and to be careful. Think well before you take an irrevocable step, for my sake, if not for the sake of your mother in heaven."
"I will think--and--Padre, pray for me, and for Italy."
He knelt down in silence, and in silence Montanelli laid his hand on the bent head. A moment later Arthur rose, kissed the hand, and went softly away across the dewy grass. Montanelli sat alone under the magnolia tree, looking straight before him into the blackness.
"It is the vengeance of God that has fallen upon me," he thought, "as it fell upon David. I, that have defiled His sanctuary, and taken the Body of the Lord into polluted hands,--He has been very patient with me, and now it is come. 'For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun; THE CHILD THAT IS BORN UNTO THEE SHALL SURELY DIE.'"