‘My motive is perfectly pure.’
They had some further talk and parted. After a few more interviews, Clara and another English lady started for Italy. Madge had letters from her sister at intervals for eighteen months, the last being from Venice. Then they ceased, and shortly afterwards Mazzini told Baruch that his sister-in-law was dead.
All efforts to obtain more information from Mazzini were in vain, but one day when her name was mentioned, he said to Madge,—
‘The theologians represent the Crucifixion as the most sublime fact in the world’s history. It was sublime, but let us reverence also the Eternal Christ who is for ever being crucified for our salvation.’
‘Father,’ said a younger Clara to Baruch some ten years later as she sat on his knee, ‘I had an Aunt Clara once, hadn’t I?’
‘Yes, my child.’
‘Didn’t she go to Italy and die there?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why did she go?’
‘Because she wanted to free the poor people of Italy who were slaves.’
THE END
Colston & Company,Ltd.,Printers,Edinburgh.