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"Help me to carry him," she said, quietly; and the peasant and the noble lady stooped and lifted the dead duke, and bore him to his chamber without a word, and laid him tenderly upon his bed. "Send for the doctor," said Corona; "I will watch beside him." "But, Excellency, are you not afraid?" asked the woman. Corona's lip curled a little. "I am not afraid," she answered. "Send at once."
He was wondering at the hidden depths of Corona's nature which had so suddenly become visible. He comprehended the magnitude of a passion which in being extinguished could leave such emotions behind, and he saw with awful distinctness the beauty of what he had lost and the depth of the abyss by which he was separated from it.
But Corona's pretty fancies received a shock from which they never recovered again, and though she did her best to call them back they lost all their reality from that hour.
The great carriage rolled out, and the guard of mounted gendarmes, which the Cardinal had insisted upon sending with the young couple, half out of compliment, half for safety, fell in behind, and trotted down the narrow street, with a deafening clatter of hoofs and clang of scabbards. But Giovanni held Corona's hand in his, and both were silent for a time.
Faustina sat leaning her head upon Corona's shoulder, while Giovanni looked out of the window into the dark streets, his rage boiling within him, and all the hotter because he was powerless to change the course of events.
If any harm comes to her I shall hold you responsible. If you love her, think what it would be should she love you and be married to another man." A shade of sadness darkened Corona's brow, as she remembered those terrible months of her own life. Gouache knew what she meant and was silent for a few moments. "I trust you," said she, at last. "And since you are going to- morrow, God bless you.
On hearing Corona's voice, he rose suddenly, as from a dream. "Forgive me," he said hurriedly, "I have just remembered a most important engagement " "Do not mention it," said Astrardente, sourly. Giovanni bowed to the Duchessa and left the box. She did not look at him as he went away. "We had better go home, my angel," said the old man. "You have got a bad chill." "Oh no, I would rather stay.
There was no friendship between the two, no bond of union or fellowship: it was simply a formal visit of condolence, entailed as a necessity by Corona's high position. The Pope had sent her a gift at her wedding; he sent her a message of sympathy at her husband's death.
It was thought that he had acted with great delicacy in absenting himself; he would thus allow the first months of Corona's mourning to pass before formally presenting himself to society as her suitor. Considering the peculiar circumstances of the case, there would be nothing improper, from a social point of view, in his marrying Corona at the expiration of a year after her husband's death.
It was that of the woman whom, however madly, he loved with all the strength of a passion born out of utter hopelessness. He turned to the outrider nearest him: "You are of the Princesse Corona's suite? What does she do here?" "Madame travels to see the country and the war." "The war? This is no place for her. The land is alive with danger rife with death."
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