It seemed that I
was indeed come to the end of all my hopes; that the world was become as
much a mockery to me as had been the hermitage; that the one was to end for
me upon the discovery of a fraud, as had the other ended--with the
difference that in this case the fraud was in myself.
It seemed, indeed, that our first communion must be our last. Ever since
she had seen me step into that gold-and-purple dining-room at Pagliano, the
incarnation of her vision, as she was the incarnation of mine, Bianca must
have waited confidently for this hour, knowing that it was foreordained to
come. Bitterness and disillusion were all that it had brought her.
And then, ere more could be said, a thin, flute-like voice hissed down the
vaulted gallery:
"Madonna Bianca! To hide your beauty from our hungry eyes. To quench the
light by which we guide our footsteps. To banish from us the happiness and
joy of your presence! Unkind, unkind!"
It was the Duke. In his white velvet suit he looked almost ghostly in the
deepening twilight. He hobbled towards us, his stick tapping the black-
and-white squares of the marble floor. He halted before her, and she put
aside her emotion, donned a worldly mask, and rose to meet him.
Then he looked at me, and his brooding eyes seemed to scan my face.
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