Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 2.djvu/322

Rh bitter, so intense in its anguish of vain lament, that a whole broken, wasted life seemed spent in it.

Never again would they be as they had been ere this wanderer had come amidst them; through him they saw all that they had lost for ever. He had conquered them. When they parted, and he went on his way to his cell, there was not a doubt of him lingering in any heart, there was not a man who had one thought left with him save of that glory of manhood, that splendour of liberty, that beauty of unknown worlds, which they had voluntarily surrendered and buried from themselves till the death of the grave should release them from the death of the monastery.

"Come," he whispered, as he passed the Umbrian, "and if you can bring lemons, sugar, and spices with you, you shall dream yourself in paradise tonight."

"Hush, my dear son; do not be so profane!" murmured the other, while bis eyes danced in expectant ecstasy. "I will come, and bring the things, if I can, from the buttery. Your tales were beautiful, but I thought the Superior would never have let you go!"

"Great Heaven! to save my own life I would not stoop to dupe and bribe these brutes as I do for