"Be careful, sir!" I cried. "Be careful of what you are going to tell
me! If you have intended or wrought any harm to that girl, I tell you
solemnly--"
But he held up a hand. "Ah, sir, be charitable! I tell you solemnly
our love is not of that kind. We who have loved, and lost, and sought
each other, and loved again through centuries, have outlearned that
rougher passion. When she was a princess of Rome and I a Christian Jew
led forth to the lions--"
I stood up, grasping the back of my chair and staring. At last I knew.
This young man was stark mad.
He read my conviction at once. "I think, sir," he went on, changing
his tone, "the learned antiquary to whom, as you told me, you were
sending your tracing of the plaque, has by this time replied with some
information about it."
Relieved at this change of subject, I answered quietly (while
considering how best to get him out of the house), "My friend tells me
that a similar design is found in Landulph Church, on the tomb of
Theodore Paleologus, who died in 1636."
"Precisely; of Theodore Paleologus, descendant of the Constantines."
I began to grasp his insane meaning. "The race, so far as we know, is
extinct," said I.
"The race of the Constantines," said he slowly and composedly, "is never
extinct; and while it lasts, the soul of Julia Constantine will come to
birth again and know the soul of the Jew, until--"