The grim humor of the
situation tickled his fancy, and in the very flood of death he faintly
smiled at the irony of fate which thus balanced accounts. And this
flash of cynical amusement was the last gleam of his earthly
consciousness.
XXXVII
A SYMPATHY OF WOE.
Titus Andronicus; iii.--1.
Fortunately Ninitta had made no secret of her departure except to
conceal it from her husband. She had been to see some Italian friends
of former days to ask about people she had known in Italy, and from
them her husband learned pretty nearly what her plans had been. Fenton
might have spared himself his fears lest she be suspected of going with
him. Such a thought did not for an instant enter into Herman's mind.
The sculptor found himself appreciating better than ever before the
strength of his wife's character. The knowledge of Ninitta's faults
died with her, and her memory was transmitted to her son enriched with
the halo of a martyr who has died in the path of supreme self-
sacrifice. Nine's father understood fairly well the train of reasoning
which had led his wife to the tragic resolve to leave their boy.
Ignorant of her fault, he blamed himself for the reproach by which he
feared he had forced her to believe that it were better for her son to
be freed from her presence.
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