After the Baron was gone, Roma had sat a long time in the dark among the
ruins of the broken bust. When twelve o'clock struck she was feeling hot
and feverish, and, in spite of the coldness of the night, she rose and
opened the window. The snow had ceased to fall, the thunder was gone,
and the city was quiet.
At that moment the revolving searchlight on Monte Mario passed over the
room. The white flash lit up the broken fragments at her feet, and
brought a new train of reflections. The bust she destroyed had been only
the plaster cast; the piece-mould remained, and might be a cause of
danger.
She closed the window, took a candle, and went down to the studio to put
the mould out of the way. She had done so, and was sitting to rest and
to think when Rossi's knock came at the door. In a moment all her dreams
were gone. She was clasped in his arms and had put up her mouth to be
kissed.
"Is it you?"
"Roma!"
It was not at first that she realised what was happening, but after a
moment she recovered from her bewilderment, and extinguished the candle
lest Rossi should be seen from outside.
They were in the dark, save at intervals when the revolving light in its
circuit of the city swept across the studio, and lit up their faces as
by a flash of lightning. He seemed to be dazed. His weary eyes looked as
if their light were almost extinct.
"You are safe? You are well?" she asked.
"O God! what sights!" he said. "You have heard what has happened?"
"Yes, yes! But you are not injured?"
"The people were peaceful and meant no evil, but the soldiers were
ordered to fire, and our little boy is dead."
"Don't let us speak of it.... The police were told to arrest you, but
you have escaped thus far, and now...."
"Bruno is taken, and hundreds of others are in prison."
"But you are safe? You are well? You are uninjured?"
"Yes," he answered between his teeth, and then he covered his face with
his hands. "God knows I did my best to prevent this bloodshed--I would
have laid down my life to prevent it."
"God _does_ know it."
"Take this."
He drew something from his breast-pocket and put it into her hands.
It was the revolver.
"I cannot trust myself any longer."
"You haven't used it?"
"No."
"Thank God!"
"I should have done so if I could have met the man face to face."
"The Baron?"
"I searched for him everywhere, and couldn't find him. God kept him out
of my way to save me from sin and shame."
With a frightened cry she put down the revolver and clasped her hands
about his neck. He began to recover his dazed senses and to smooth the
hair on her damp forehead.
"My poor Roma! You didn't think we were to part like this?"
Her arms slackened, and she dropped her head on to his shoulder.
"Last night you told me to fly, and I wouldn't do so. There was no man
in Rome I was afraid of then. But to-night there is some one I am afraid
of. I am afraid of myself."
"You intend to go?"
"Yes! I shall feel like a captain who deserts his sinking ship. Would to
God I could have gone down with her!... Yet no! She is not lost yet.
Everything is in God's hands. Perhaps there is work for me abroad, now
that the paths are closed to me at home. Let us wait and see."
They were both silent for a while.
"Then it's all over," she said, gulping down a sob.
"God forbid! This black night in Rome is only the beginning of the end.
It will be the dawn of the resurrection everywhere."
"But it is all over between you and me."
"Indeed, no. No, no! I cannot take you with me. That is impossible. I
couldn't see you suffer hunger and thirst and the privations of exile,
but...."
"Our marriage cannot be celebrated now, and that being so...."
"The banns are good for half a year, Roma, and before that time I shall
be back. Have no fear! The immortality stirring beneath the ruins of
this old city will give us victory all over Italy. I will return and we
shall be very happy. How happy we shall be!"
"Yes, yes," she brought out at intervals.
"Be brave, my girl, be brave!"
"Yes, yes."
The revolving searchlight flashed through the room at that moment, and
she dropped her face again.
"Dearest," she said faintly, "if I should not be here when you come
back...."
He started and seized her arm.
"Roma, you cannot intend to submit to the will of that man?"
She shook her head as it rested on his shoulder.
"The man is a monster. He may put pressure upon you."
"It is not that."
"He may even make you suffer for my sake."
"Nor that either."
"By-and-by he may require everybody to take an oath of allegiance to the
King."
"I have taken mine already--to _my_ king."
"Roma, if you wish me to stay I will do so in spite of everything."
"I wish you to go, dearest."
"Then what is it you fear?"
"Nothing--only...."
"But you are sad. Why is it?"
"A foreboding. I feel as if we were parting for ever."