In your belief too, and Hilda's! Even Donatello would have shrunk from me with horror!" "Never," said Donatello, "my instinct would have known you innocent." "Hilda and Donatello and myself,--we three would have acquitted you," said Kenyon, "let the world say what it might.

Ah, Miriam, you should have told us this sad story sooner!" "I thought often of revealing it to you," answered Miriam; "on one occasion, especially,--it was after you had shown me your Cleopatra; it seemed to leap out of my heart, and got as far as my very lips.

But finding you cold to accept my confidence, I thrust it back again.

Had I obeyed my first impulse, all would have turned out differently." "And Hilda!" resumed the sculptor.

"What can have been her connection with these dark incidents ?" "She will, doubtless, tell you with her own lips," replied Miriam.
"Through sources of information which I possess in Rome, I can assure you of her safety.