Mary wept in silence, and heeded not the words of the duenna.
"Perhaps, my child," the old woman resumed, "this very day the doubt which
has caused you so much suffering for five days may be cleared up. Do not
close your heart against all hope. I remember that once an individual was
sought for weeks, and found alive when there seemed almost a certainty of
his death. The bailiff was speaking of it this morning to your father, and
I recollect having heard my parents relate it. It happened to a banker,
Liefmans, who was considered very wealthy."
The young girl regarded the duenna with an air of doubt.
"They found him after several weeks of absence? Had he gone on a journey
without giving notice to any one?"
"No; he was discovered in the cellar of a house in the little by-street of
Sureau. Robbers had laid in wait for him in the darkness of night, and
cast him bound into a subterranean cave, in order to obtain a heavy
ransom. The agents of the bailiff discovered him and liberated him
unharmed. If God has so decreed, why may not the same have happened to the
Signor Geronimo? You are silent, Mary. You cannot deny that a similar
train of circumstances may have been the cause of his disappearance. Is it
not so? but you yield to despair, and even in the act of begging
consolation from Almighty God, you reject obstinately every motive of
consolation."
"Pity me, dear Petronilla," answered the young girl; "your kind words are
a solace to me, but I dare not open my heart to the whisperings of hope.
If I accepted your explanations, and afterwards heard of Geronimo's death,
it would be double suffering to me. No, no, rather let me encourage the
feeling that there is no room for hope."
"It is impossible to make any impression upon her," said the duenna, in a
disappointed manner, and as if she were resolved to cease her efforts and
to abandon the young girl to her grief.
The silence was broken by the sound of voices in the hall.
"I hear the voice of the Signor Deodati," said the duenna; "perhaps he
brings tidings."
Mary rose quickly to descend; but Petronilla wished to detain her, saying: "My child, in pity to a sorrowing old man, restrain your grief. Control
yourself, Mary, for yesterday each word you uttered pierced the heart of
the poor Deodati like a dagger. It would be cruel and guilty in you to
cause his tears to flow anew; at his age such affliction wears down the
strength and shortens life."