"It would rejoice me, Miriam, to yield the entire responsibility of this office to yourself," answered the sculptor. "I do not pretend to be the guide and counsellor whom Donatello needs; for, to mention no other obstacle, I am a man, and between man and man there is always an insuperable gulf. They can never quite grasp each other's hands; and therefore man never derives any intimate help, any heart sustenance, from his brother man, but from woman--his mother, his sister, or his wife. Be Donatello's friend at need, therefore, and most gladly will I resign him!""It is not kind to taunt me thus," said Miriam. "I have told you that I cannot do what you suggest, because I dare not.""Well, then," rejoined the sculptor, "see if there is any possibility of adapting yourself to my scheme. The incidents of a journey often fling people together in the oddest and therefore the most natural way.
Supposing you were to find yourself on the same route, a reunion with Donatello might ensue, and Providence have a larger hand in it than either of us.""It is not a hopeful plan," said Miriam, shaking her head, after a moment's thought; "yet I will not reject it without a trial. Only in case it fail, here is a resolution to which I bind myself, come what come may! You know the bronze statue of Pope Julius in the great square of Perugia? I remember standing in the shadow of that statue one sunny noontime, and being impressed by its paternal aspect, and fancying that a blessing fell upon me from its outstretched hand.
Ever since, I have had a superstition, you will call it foolish, but sad and ill-fated persons always dream such things,--that, if I waited long enough in that same spot, some good event would come to pass.
Well, my friend, precisely a fortnight after you begin your tour, --unless we sooner meet,--bring Donatello, at noon, to the base of the statue. You will find me there!"Kenyon assented to the proposed arrangement, and, after some conversation respecting his contemplated line of travel, prepared to take his leave. As he met Miriam's eyes, in bidding farewell, he was surprised at the new, tender gladness that beamed out of them, and at the appearance of health and bloom, which, in this little while, had overspread her face.'
"May I tell you, Miriam," said he, smiling, "that you are still as beautiful as ever?""You have a right to notice it," she replied, "for, if it be so, my faded bloom has been revived by the hopes you give me. Do you, then, think me beautiful? I rejoice, most truly. Beauty--if I possess it--shall be one of the instruments by which I will try to educate and elevate him, to whose good I solely dedicate myself."The sculptor had nearly reached the door, when, hearing her call him, he turned back, and beheld Miriam still standing where he had left her, in the magnificent hall which seemed only a fit setting for her beauty. She beckoned him to return.
"You are a man of refined taste," said she; "more than that,--a man of delicate sensibility. Now tell me frankly, and on your honor! Have Inot shocked you many times during this interview by my betrayal of woman's cause, my lack of feminine modesty, my reckless, passionate, most indecorous avowal, that I live only in the life of one who, perhaps, scorns and shudders at me?"Thus adjured, however difficult the point to which she brought him, the sculptor was not a man to swerve aside from the simple truth.
"Miriam," replied he, "you exaggerate the impression made upon my mind;but it has been painful, and somewhat of the character which you suppose.""I knew it," said Miriam, mournfully, and with no resentment. "What remains of my finer nature would have told me so, even if it had not been perceptible in all your manner. Well, my dear friend, when you go back to Rome, tell Hilda what her severity has done! She was all womanhood to me; and when she cast me off, I had no longer any terms to keep with the reserves and decorums of my sex. Hilda has set me free! Pray tell her so, from Miriam, and thank her!""I shall tell Hilda nothing that will give her pain," answered Kenyon.
"But, Miriam, though I know not what passed between her and yourself, I feel,--and let the noble frankness of your disposition forgive me if I say so,--I feel that she was right. You have a thousand admirable qualities. Whatever mass of evil may have fallen into your life, --pardon me, but your own words suggest it,--you are still as capable as ever of many high and heroic virtues. But the white shining purity of Hilda's nature is a thing apart; and she is bound, by the undefiled material of which God moulded her, to keep that severity which I, as well as you, have recognized.""O, you are right!" said Miriam; "I never questioned it; though, as Itold you, when she cast me off, it severed some few remaining bonds between me and decorous womanhood. But were there anything to forgive, I do forgive her. May you win her virgin heart; for methinks there can be few men in this evil world who are not more unworthy of her than yourself."
