'You promise? And how long must I wait?'
'Eight or nine years; till thou art at the least fifteen.'
'Eight years,' sighed the child, reckoning on his fingers 'and I shall be always with you?'
'Unless we die.'
'Eight years! Well, if you say it, it is certain.'
Francesco smiled, and rubbed his cheek against Leonardo's with a pretty gesture peculiar to himself.
'Messer Leonardo, once I dreamed I was in the dark, going down a long, long stair like this one, only it had no beginning and no end. But I was not frightened, for some one was carrying me. I thought it was my mother, who died ere ever I saw her; but now I know it was you. I am as happy with you as if I was with her.'
Leonardo looked at the child with inexpressible tenderness. The innocent eyes shone; he put out his bright lips as confidingly as to a mother, and when Leonardo kissed them he felt the child was giving him his soul. Thus, with the little heart beating against his own, he descended with firm steps into the subterranean night.