Cavaliere Palmeri opened his arms unconditionally to her. She rose hesitatingly; she did not know if she saw right. “I know how it is going to be,” he said, grumblingly; “not one minute will I have to myself.” “To find the villa?” “Come here and kiss me, Micaela! To-night is the first time since we left Catania that you have been irresistible.” When she threw her arms about him it was with a hoarse, wild cry which almost frightened him. THIRD BOOK “_And he shall win many followers_” I THE OASIS AND THE DESERT In the spring of 1894 the Etna railway was begun; in the autumn of 1895 it was finished. It went up from the shore, made a circuit round the mountain in a wide half-circle, and came down again to the shore. Trains come and go every day, and Mongibello lies subdued and makes no sign. Foreigners pass with amazement through the black, distorted lava streams, through the groves of white almond-trees, through the dark old Saracen towns. “Look, look! is there such a land on earth!” they say. In the railway carriages there is always some one telling of the time when the Christ-image was in Diamante. What a time! What a time! Each day new miracles were performed. They cannot tell of them all, but he brought as much happiness to Diamante as if the hours of the day had been dancing maidens. People thought that Time had filled his hour-glass with shining sands of gold. If any one had asked who reigned in Diamante at that time, the answer would have been that it was the Christ-image. Everything was done according to his will. No one took a wife, or played in a lottery, or built himself a house without consulting him. Many knife-thrusts were spared for the image’s sake, many old feuds settled, and many bitter words were never uttered. The people had to be good, for they observed that the image helped those who were peaceable and helpful. To them he granted the pleasant gifts of happiness and riches. If the world had been as it ought to be, Diamante would soon have become a rich and powerful town. But instead, that part of the world which did not believe in the image destroyed all his work. All the happiness he scattered about him was of no avail. The taxes were constantly increased, and took all their money. There was the war in Africa. How could the people be happy when their sons, their money, and their mules had to go to Africa? The war did not go well; one defeat followed another. How could they be happy when their country’s honor was at stake? Especially after the railway had been finished was it manifest that Diamante was like an oasis in a great desert. An oasis is exposed to the drifting sands of the desert and to robbers and wild beasts. So was also Diamante. The oasis would have to spread over the whole desert to feel secure. Diamante began to believe that it could never be happy until the whole world worshipped its Christ-image. It now happened that everything that Diamante hoped and strove for was denied it.