“‘And he never asks for news of her?’
“‘Her name has never passed his lips but once since she left him. That was six months ago, when I told myself that he was beginning to forget. He said it quite suddenly when we were talking of his sister at Vienna. “She will send to me when she has need of me,” he said. I thought at first that he spoke of my lady; but he was thinking of the little one. And he will think always. The majority of men have never loved a woman. Affection for them is a little spark of sympathy and admiration and desire, which burns itself out in the first summer of its gratification. We, in our own little way, tried to stand against the love which was born of nature in the hearts of these two. We might as well have tried to drain the Plevna with our buckets. Time has taught me to look back upon those days with lasting regret. It is a reproach to me that I sought to break in upon that sacred confidence—a confidence which none should share. I would give half my years if the shadow might pass from this house.’
“‘Father,’ said I, ‘there is one way, and one only, by which such a thing might come to pass. It would be the death of Christine’s husband.’
“‘Exactly—but how if he be dead already?’
“‘Holy Virgin!’ said I, ‘you think that?’
“‘I know not what to think. Three months ago I heard that the girl was singing in Vienna at the Café des Trois Mousquetaires. They told me other stories as well—of men that danced attendance at her heels and fools who made much of her.’
“‘It is a lie!’ cried I, so loudly that he started back from me, ‘a lie, I call my God to witness! There is no purer woman in Austria. Show me the man that told the tale and I will strike him on the mouth!’
“‘Come,’ said he, ‘this is no time for the display of such boasts as these. Had you been so very anxious, my friend, necessity would have found some way of bringing you to Vienna before this.’
“‘Nay,’ said I; ‘the Lord be my judge if I have had the money. Was it to hear this that you sent for me to Sebenico? Oh, surely, I did well to leave my business!’
“‘Not so fast, Signor Andrea. I am not the man to summon you here upon a fool’s errand. And I make sure that you will be very content when you have heard me out.’