By the Same Author.

THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH.

THE MAIDENS OF THE ROCKS.

THE INTRUDER.[*]

[*] In the original Italian, this novel is entitled "L'Innocente."

Should I go before the judge and say: "I have committeda crime. He would not be dead if I had not killedhim. It is I, Tullio Hermil, who am his assassin. Ipremeditated that assassination in my house. I committedit with perfect lucidity of conscience, methodically, in allsecurity. And I have gone on living in my house with mysecret for a whole year, until to-day. To-day is theanniversary I deliver myself into your hands. Listen to me,judge me."

Can I go before the judge? Can I speak to him likethat?

I cannot, and I will not. The justice of men does notreach as far as me. There is no tribunal on earthcompetent to judge me.

And yet I feel a desire to accuse myself, to confess. Ifeel a desire to reveal my secret to someone.

TO WHOM?

My first recollection is as follows:

It was in April. For several days, during the festivitiesof the Pentecost, Juliana and I and our two littledaughters, Maria and Natalia, had been in the country, at mymother's house, a roomy old place known as the Badiola.It was the seventh year of our marriage.

Three years had already slipped by since another Pentecostwhich, passed in that villa, white and isolated as amonastery, and embalmed with tufts of violets, had seemedto me a veritable festival of pardon, peace, and love. Atthat time Natalia, the second of my little girls, barelyemerged from swaddling clothes like a flower from itsenvelope, was learning to walk; and Juliana was very good andindulgent with me, although there was a shade of melancholyin her smile. I had come back to her, repentant andsubmissive, after the first serious infidelity. My mother,who knew nothing of what had happened, had tied with herdear hands a sprig of olive at the head of our bed, andfilled the little silver holy-water dish hanging on the wall.

But what had not happened in three years! BetweenJuliana and myself the breach was henceforth definitiveand irreparable. I had gone on wronging her repeatedly;I had insulted her in

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