'To a cellar, and let masons brick up the door.' He
was weeping as they carried me down to the dark beneath the house."
"What a strange being you are!" said the young man. "You speak as
though these were real memories. What happened to the picture then?"
"I lay in the dark for so long--hundreds of years, I think--and there
was nowhere I might look. Afterward I was found and packed in a box and
presently put upon the wall in the sad room, where everything is so old
that I shall not find him there. This is the furthest I have dared to
look. Help me find him, please! Won't you help me find him?"
"Why, little lady," he answered soothingly, "how shall I help? That's a
woman's burden that heaven isn't merciful enough to let a man share."
He stopped abruptly and threw up his head. "Did you hear that--there?"
Through the still, early morning air came a faint, reedy cry.
The young man was upon his feet, fiercely fitting a key into the lock.
The little Madonna had risen, too, and her eyes were luminous, like
glowworms in the dark.
"He's calling me," she cried.
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