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98 the miracles of antichrist.
said. " I shall ask Don Ferrante, to allow me to
accompany him there."
She descended a few steps, as if she intended to
say no more. Then she stopped. " If you meet me
in Catania then, I will follow you wherever you wish."
She hurried down the stairs. Gaetano did not try
to detain her. A time would come when she would
not flee from him. He knew she could not help
loving him.
Donna Micaela had passed all Friday afternoon in
the cathedral. She had come to the Madonna and
prostrated herself before her in despair. " O,
Madonna mia, Madonna mia ! Shall I to-morrow be a
runaway wife ? Will the people have a right to
speak all manner of ill of me ? " And then
everything seemed to her equally terrible. She was
terrified at the thought of fleeing with Gaetano, and she
did not know how she could remain with Don
Ferrante. She hated them both. Neither of them, it
seemed, could offer her anything but misery.
She saw well enough that the Madonna could not
help her. And now she finally asked herself if it
would not be greater misery to flee with Gaetano
than to remain with Don Ferrante. Was it worth the
trouble, that she ruined herself for the sake of
wreaking vengeance on her husband ?
And could there be anything more detestable than
to run away with a man whom she did not love ?
She writhed in pain. The whole week she was
harassed by a consuming anxiety. The worst thing
was, that she never could sleep. Her thoughts were
no longer clear and sane.
Again and again she began her prayers anew. But
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