Kneeling in front of him, I saw a bullet-hole in his coat, just over his heart!
But, even then I could hardly believe. His head, thrown back, rested naturally against the tree. His parted lips showed two rows of pearly teeth. His uplifted eyes, which seemed to have drawn their azure from that sky upon which they were so intently fixed, wide open, were lit with a seraphic smile—
As though, peering, with his last look, into that blue abyss, he saw beckoning angels there!
Such a smile illumined poor Dory’s face. The heroic spirit had fled. The tumultuous, high-beating heart was still!
And who among us all—who, at least, from whom the sweet bloom—the rosy hopes of youth are gone—who among us, knowing what life really is, would dare awaken its fierce throbbings again?
And the seraphic smile lingered, lit up by the farewell rays of that October sun.
And the sun went down behind Massanetta’s hill!
THE END.