Look not behind you! Get you gone without another word." He gazed sadly at her, but did not stir.

"I tell you," Miriam went on, "there is a great evil hanging over me! I know it; I see it in the sky; I feel it in the air! It will overwhelm me as utterly as if this arch should crumble down upon our heads! It will crush you, too, if you stand at my side! Depart, then; and make the sign of the cross, as your faith bids you, when an evil spirit is nigh.

Cast me off, or you are lost forever." A higher sentiment brightened upon Donatello's face than had hitherto seemed to belong to its simple expression and sensuous beauty.
"I will never quit you," he said; "you cannot drive me from you." "Poor Donatello!" said Miriam in a changed tone, and rather to herself than him.

"Is there no other that seeks me out, follows me,--is obstinate to share my affliction and my doom,--but only you! They call me beautiful; and I used to fancy that, at my need, I could bring the whole world to my feet.

And lo! here is my utmost need; and my beauty and my gifts have brought me only this poor, simple boy.