Bear with me if I weary you, for I was a good friend of him we both mourn." "Thank you--you have given me good thoughts," said Corona, simply.
So the courtly Cardinal rose and took his leave, and once more Corona was left alone.

It was a strange thing that, while he disclaimed all power to comfort her, and denied that consolation was possible in her case, she had nevertheless listened to him with interest, and now found herself thinking seriously of what he had said.

He seemed to have put her thoughts into shape, and to have given direction to that sense of power she had already begun to feel.

For the first time in her life she felt something like sympathy for the Cardinal, and she lingered for some minutes alone in the great reception-room, wondering whether she could accomplish any of the things he had proposed to her.

At all events, there was nothing now to hinder her departure; and she thought with something like pleasure of the rocky Sabines, the solitude of the mountains, the simple faces of the people about her place, and of the quiet life she intended to lead there during the next six months.
But the Cardinal went on his way, rolling along through, the narrow streets in his great coach.