Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III better Thou Wert Dead Before Me On the brow of the Hill Fiolesse, at a sharp angle in the white dusty road, a man and woman stood talking. On one side of them was a grove of flowering magnolias, and on the other a high, closely-trimmed hedge skirted the grounds of the Villa Fiolesse. There was not another soul in sight, but, as though the place were not secure enough from interruption, the girl, every now and then, glanced half fearfully around her, and more than once paused in the middle of a sentence to listen. At last her fears escaped from her lips. Leonardo, I wish that you had not come she cried. What is the good of it ? I shall have no rest till I know that you are beyond the sea again. His face darkened, and his tone was gloomy and sad. Beyond the seas, while my heart is chained forever here, Margharita he answered. Ah I have tried, and I know the bitterness of it. You cannot tell what exile has been like to me. I could bear it no longer. Tell me, child I watched you climb this hill together. You looked back and saw me, and waited. Did she see me, too? Quick answer me I will know She saw me on the Marina. Did she know that I was following her? I think she saw you. She said nothing when I lingered behind. It was as though she knew. The Sicilian clasped his hands, and looked away over the sea. The moonlight fell upon his weary pallid face, and glistened in his dark sad eyes. He spoke more to himself than her. She knew And yet she would not wait to speak a single word to me Ah it is cruel If only she could know how night by night, in those far-distant countries, I have lain on the mountain tops, and wandered through the valleys, thinking and dreaming of her?always of her It has been an evil time with me, my ...