Saint Author:Antonio Fogazzaro Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II DON CLEMENTE THE light was fading in Giovanni Selva's study, and on the little table covered wi th books and papers. Giovanni rose and opened the ... more »west window. The horizon was on fire behind Subiaco, along the oblique line 6f the Sabine hills, which stretch from Rocca di Cante- rano and Rocca di Mezzo to Rocca San Stefano. Subiaco, that pointed pile of houses large and small which culminates in the Rocca del Car- dinale, was veiled in shadow; not a branch stirred on the olives clustered behind the small, red villa with green blinds, rising on the summit of the circular cliff, round whose base winds the public road; not a branch stirred on the great oak beside it, overhanging the little ancient oratory of Santa Maria della Febbre. The air, laden with the odours of wild herbs and recent rain, came fresh from Monte Calvo. It was a quarter past seven. In the shell-shaped tract watered by the Anio the bells were ringing; first the big bell of Sant' Andrea, then the querulous bells of Santa Maria della Valle; high up on theright, from the little white church near the great wood, the bells of the Capuchins, and others in the far-away distance. A woman's voice, submissive and sweet, the voice of five and twenty, came from the half-open door behind Giovanni, saying almost timidly in French: "May I come in?" Giovanni, smiling, turned half round, and stretching out his arm, encircled the young woman pressing her to his side without answering. She felt she must not speak; that her husband's soul was following the dying night, and the mystic song of the bells. She rested her head on his shoulder, and only after a moment of religious silence did she ask softly: " Shall we say our prayer ? " A pressure of the arm encircling her was the answer. Neither her lips nor hi...« less