Page:Chandos, Ouida volume 1.djvu/150

140 "I wish I could aid you more, Guido; but there is nothing that I know of that has been left untried. Strive to forget both : neither is worth enough to give you pain. You believe, at least, that I have had every effort used for you, although it has been in vain?"

Lulli looked at him with a slight smile—a smile that passed over the suffering and the momentary passion on his face like an irradiation of light; it was so full of sublime and entire faith.

"Believe you monseigneur? Yes, as I believe in God."

It was the simple truth, and paid back to Chandos his own love for men, and faith in them, in his own coin. He was touched by the naïf words.

"I thank you. I am your debtor then, Lulli," he said, gently. "I must leave you now, or I shall have no sleep before the day is fairly up; but I will see you again some time during the morning. If you think of anything that has not been done, or might be done again, with any hope to find Valeria, tell me, and I will give directions for it. Adieu!"

He left the chamber, the flash of his diamonds and the imperial blue of his dress glancing bright in the beams of the young day. Lulli turned his head, and followed him with the wistful gaze that seemed to come from so far a distance—followed him as the eyes of a dog follow the shadow of its master.

"So generous, so pitiful, so gentle, so noble! If