Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 2).djvu/327

 The colours were dim on the vast vault of the ceiling; the gilding of the friezes was covered with webs of dust; the marbles of the columns and the statues were stained and broken; but there was a grandeur in the place that gained rather than lost from that invasion of time, that dimness of age.

He had purchased, but he was about to leave it, and he knew that most likely he would never return. His heart was sick within him. He had been beaten and baffled. It seemed to him that the good and evil genius in which the Etruscan, like the Asiatic, had believed, had striven together for the soul of her, and the holier spirit had lost.

He could do nothing more. She had chosen this man, and must abide with him since that was her choice. Now more than ever it was impossible to invoke the aid of the law, since to let in one ray of light upon that myrtle-hidden necropolis would be to deliver her companion to his gaolers. There she must stay, and drift to whatever misery she might; the burden she had bound upon her shoulders none could lift off from them against her will.

He stood in the hall of this ancient place