"
"Shall you never return to Jenne?"
"Never."
The woman was silent. They could hear steps approaching in the distance;
it was the muleteer and his mule. She said in a lower tone:
"For pity's sake, one word more! How do you picture to yourself the
future life? Do you believe we shall meet those we have known in this
life?"
If the moonlight had not been so pale, Benedetto would have seen two
great tears rolling down the young girl's face.
"I believe," he replied, "that until the death of our planet, our future
life will be one of labour upon it, and that all those minds which
aspire to truth, to unity, will meet there, and labour together." The
muleteer's hobnailed shoes, which grated among the pebbles, could be
heard very near them. The woman said:
"_Addio_! Farewell!"
The tears sounded in her voice now. Benedetto answered:
"_A Dio_! God be with you!"
Mounted on the mule, he goes down into the shadows of the valley. He is
burning with fever. He is going to Casa Selva, after all. He knows, for
the muleteer has told him, that he will not see Noemi there; but that
is indifferent to him, he does not fear her, does not even remember the
moment of gentle emotion.
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