“Always, so far as I can see,” said the old German.  “There are quarrels enough in the world without my intervention, there are dogmas enough in the world without my enunciations.  I do not think I should do any good by speaking to men.  Could I make them any wiser, purer, gentler, truer than they are?  Could I teach them to be honest in their dealings with each other, compassionate, considerate, liberal?  If they have not heard the prophets, nor even the divine teacher of Nazareth, shall I be able to do them any good?  Are not their very creeds pretexts for slaughter and persecution and fraud?  Do they not support even their holiest truths, their sincerest beliefs, by organised systems of deceit and chicanery?  Chut!  I tell you that the very vesture which men compel Truth to wear, is lined and stiffened with lies!  The mysteries of life are so terrible, and its sadness so profound, that blatant tongues do not become philosophers.  Words only serve to rend and vex and divide us.  Therefore I think it best to hide my thoughts in my heart, believing that in matters which we cannot fathom, silence is noblest; and knowing that when I say, `I am nothing, but God is all,—­I am ignorant, but God is wise,’—­all I am able to say is said.  By-and-by, in the brighter light of a more perfect day beyond the sun, I shall see the King in His beauty, face to face; I shall know, even as I am known!”

“This, then,” asked ’Lora, gently, “is why you gave up the world, that you might be alone?”

“I gave up the world, dear Frau, because I found in it all manner of oppression done in the names of justice and of Virtue.  My heart turned against the Wrong, and I had no power to set it Right.  The mystery of life overcame me; I refused the gold and the honours which might have been mine, if I could have been content in being dishonest.  But God gave me grace to be strong, and the world cast me out of its gilded nursery.  I became a man, and put away childish things.”

Then he rose slowly from his seat, and as he laid his hand on the door-latch, and lifted it to go out, a welcome little puff of outside air darted into the chamber, and stirred the nightshade blossoms in the breast of the old rusty coat.  And I raised my dark purple head, and perceived that the mournful shadow rested again upon the face of Herr Ritter, like a cloud at sunset time, when the day that has passed away has been a day of storm.

We went to the Casa d’Oro.

Carlotta Nero was in her sitting-room, and would see the Herr there, said the dark-haired smiling contadina, who admitted the old German into the house.  She was a native of the place, and evidently remembered him with gratitude and pleasure.  So we presently found ourselves in a small well-appointed chamber, on the first floor of the Casa.

On a tapestry-covered dormeuse, by the open window, and carefully protected with gauze curtains from the glare of the coming noon, reclined a handsome woman of middle age, so like, and yet so strangely unlike ’Lora Delcor, that my dusky blooms quivered and fretted with emotion, as the contadina closed the door behind us.