Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/76

 passed since his accession to the title, Fate cast in his way a face "of rose-tinted, childlike loveliness," it dazzled him. And "of course I married her."

The fair canvas is not blurred over too soon, for following the marriage come several years of bliss undimmed by any cloud. The false friend's infidelity remains unexposed and all is peace at the Villa Romani, the husband doting and believing himself to be doted upon, and a girl-babe, "fair as one of the white anemones" which abounded in the woods surrounding the home, arriving to add pride to his love. Then the bolt falls. The cholera descends upon Naples, and with inexorable clutch claims victim after victim.

Count Fabio, strolling down to the harbor one hot early morn, comes upon a lad stricken by the dread malady, and tends him. Within an hour he is himself convulsed with excruciating agony, and, whilst stretched on a bench in a humble restaurant, loses consciousness—to awake in his coffin.

The horrors of such a restoration to life are depicted with extraordinary force, and with equal power is described the revulsion of feeling—the intoxicating delight—experienced by the unfortunate man as, having regained his liberty, he stands rejoicing in the morning light and listens to the