'You retard your own recovery,--you disturb the girl's repose by
discourse such as this.'
'The officers of the senate,' continued Vetranio, sadly resuming his
gentler tones, 'when they entered the palace, found me still standing on
the place where we had met! Days passed on again; I stood looking out
upon the street, and thought of my companions whom I had lured to their
death, and of my oath to partake their fate, which I had never
fulfilled. I would have driven my dagger to my heart; but her face was
yet before me, my hands were bound! In that hour I saw her for the
second time; saw her carried past me--wounded, assassinated! She had
saved me once; she had saved me twice! I knew that now the chance was
offered me, after having wrought her ill, to work her good; after
failing to discover her when she was lost, to succeed in saving her when
she was dying; after having survived the deaths of my friends at my own
table, to survive to see life restored under my influence, as well as
destroyed! These were my thoughts; these are my thoughts still--
thoughts felt only since I saw her! Do you know now why I believe that
her soul contains the fate of mine? Do you see me, weakened, shattered,
old before my time; my friends lost, my fresh feelings of youth gone for
ever; and can you not now comprehend that her life is my life?--that if
she dies, the one good purpose of my existence is blighted?--that I lose
all I have henceforth to live for?--all, all!'
As he pronounced the concluding words, the girl's eyes half unclosed,
and turned languidly towards her father.
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