He saw Annunciata stooping down over a form that
lay outstretched on the ground, but the sight of her was repulsive to
him and he turned away.
"Help me, Signore Giovanni," she begged in a hoarse whisper. "He may
be dead and there is no one to help him."
Half mechanically he stooped down--gracious heavens! It was Vincent!
In an instant all his anger and misery were forgotten.
"Hurry, Annunciata," he cried; "run for a doctor. Great God! what have
you done?"
VI.
Six weeks later two young Americans were sitting on the deck of the
Cunarder _Siberia_, which had that morning left the Queenstown harbor.
"Jack," said the one, laying his hand on the other's shoulder in a way
that expressed an untold amount of friendliness, "I don't think it is
good policy to keep silence any longer. I know I have committed my
monumental piece of folly, as you prophesied, but I need hardly tell
you, Jack, that I didn't know at the time what--what I know now," he
finished, hurriedly.
"I never doubted that, Harry," answered the other with a certain
solemn impressiveness. "But don't let us talk. I have not reached the
stage yet when I can mention her name without a pang; and I fear--I
fear I never shall."
They sat for a long while smoking in silence and gazing pensively
toward the dim coast-line of Europe, which was gradually fading away
upon the eastern horizon.
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