Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 2).djvu/270

 'I asked you to hear me once, for Joconda's sake,'

'I could not come,' she repeated, impatiently; 'and I do not want to hear. I told you so.'

'I know you do not,' he said, with regret; 'and I can fancy that you are reluctant to leave your woodland life. It is free and has a beauty of its own; but it needs perpetual youth and a certainty of health that are not given to our poor humanity.'

'I shall be young a long time,' said Musa, with her grave smile; and she drew a deep breath with the conscious strength of perfect powers of life rejoicing in themselves.

'Yes; no doubt to you it seems that you have a kingdom there that you can never lose. But it will go away from you as it goes from all; and water and wind and weather bring its loss early. Do you never think of a future?'

'No,' she answered curtly. A shudder went over her for a moment. What might the future bring? Could Este always be saved from his pursuers? Would the time come when all her care and thought and