Page:The Coming Race, etc - 1888.djvu/332

318 front, and in thine eyes, I detect some of that diviner glory which belonged to thy race. Thou hast in thee some germs of their hereditary genius, but they are choked up by worse than thy hereditary vices. Recollect, by genius thy house rose—by vice it ever failed to perpetuate its power. In the laws which regulate the Universe it is decreed, that nothing wicked can long endure. Be wise, and let history warn thee. Thou standest on the verge of two worlds—the Past and the Future; and voices from either shriek omen in thy ear. I have done. I bid thee farewell."

"Not so;—thou shalt not quit these walls. I will make experiment of thy boasted power. What, ho there ! ho ! "

The Prince shouted; the room was filled with his minions.

"Seize that man!" he cried, pointing to the spot which had been filled by the form of Mejnour. To his inconceivable amaze and horror, the spot was vacant. The mysterious stranger had vanished like a dream. CHAPTER XV.

T was the first faint and gradual break of the summer dawn; and two men stood in a balcony overhanging a garden fragrant with the scents of the awakening flowers. The stars had not left the sky—the birds were yet silent on the boughs; all was still, hushed, and tranquil; but how different the tranquillity of reviving day from the solemn repose of night! In the music of silence there are a thousand variations. These men, who alone seemed awake in Naples, were Zicci and the mysterious stranger, who had but an hour or two ago startled the Prince di in his voluptuous palace.

"No," said the latter, "hadst thou delayed the acceptance of the Arch Gift, until thou hadst attained to the years, and passed through all the desolate bereavements, that chilled and scared myself, ere my researches had made it mine, thou wouldest have escaped the curse of which thou complainest now. Thou wouldest not have mourned over the brevity of human affection as compared to the duration of thine own existence; for thou wouldest have survived the very desire and dream of the Jove of woman. Brightest, and but for that error, perhaps the loftiest, of the secret and solemn race that fills up the interval in creation between mankind and the