At last it came, the opening of a door, the slight noise made by a light
tread upon the pavement. She rose quietly and went out, following in the
same direction. She could see nothing but a dark shadow moving before
her towards the opposite end of the passage, farther and farther
from the hanging lamp. Unorna could hear her own heart beating as she
followed, first to the right, then to the left. There was another light
at this point. The lady had noticed that some one was coming behind her
and turned her head to look back. The delicate, dark profile stood
out clearly. Unorna held her breath, walking swiftly forward. But in a
moment the lady went on, and entered the chapel-like room from which a
great balconied window looked down into the church above the choir. As
Unorna went in, she saw her kneeling upon one of the stools, her hands
folded, her head inclined, her eyes closed, a black veil loosely thrown
over her still blacker hair and falling down upon her shoulder without
hiding her face.
Unorna sank upon her knees, compressing her lips to restrain the
incoherent exclamation that almost broke from them in spite of her,
clasping her hands desperately, so that the faint blue veins stood out
upon the marble surface.
Below, hundreds of candles blazed upon the altar in the choir and sent
their full yellow radiance up to the faces of the two women, as they
knelt there almost side by side, both young, both beautiful, but utterly
unlike. In a single glance Unorna had understood that it was true. An
arm’s length separated her from the rival whose very existence made her
own happiness an utter impossibility. With unchanging, unwilling gaze
she examined every detail of that beauty which the Wanderer had so
loved, that even when forgotten there was no sight in his eyes for other
women.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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