The loss of Clelia left Fabrice inconsolable.  He shunned society; he lived a life of religious retirement, and gained a reputation for piety that even inspired the jealousy of his good friend the Archbishop.

At length Fabrice emerged from his solitude; he came forth as a preacher, and his success was unequalled.  All Parma, gentle and simple, flocked to hear the famous devotee—­slender, ill-clad, so handsome and yet so profoundly melancholy.  And ere he began each sermon, Fabrice looked earnestly round his congregation to see if Clelia was there.

But Clelia, adhering to her vow, stayed away.  It was not until she was told that a certain Anetta Marini was in love with the preacher, and that gossip asserted that the preacher was smitten with Anetta Marini, that she changed her mind.

One evening, as Fabrice stood in the pulpit, he saw Clelia before him.  Her eyes were filled with tears; he looked so pale, so thin, so worn.  But never had he preached as he preached that night.

After the sermon he received a note asking him to be at a small garden door of the Crescenzi Palace at midnight on the next night.  Eagerly he obeyed; when he reached the door, a voice called him enter.  The darkness was intense; he could see nothing.

“I have asked you to come here,” said the voice, “to say that I still love you.  But I have vowed to the Virgin never to see your face; that is why I receive you in this darkness.  And let me beg you—­never preach again before Anetta Marini.

“My angel,” replied the enraptured Fabrice, “I shall never preach again before anyone; it was only in the hope of seeing you that I preached at all.”

During the following three years the two often met in darkness.  But twice, by accident, Clelia again broke her vow by looking on Fabrice’s face.  Her conscience preyed upon her; she wore away and died.

A few days afterwards Fabrice resigned his reversion to the Archbishopric, and retired to the Chartreuse of Parma.  He ended his days in the monastery only a year afterwards.

* * * * *

LAURENCE STERNE

Tristram Shandy

A more uncanonical book than the Rev. Laurence Sterne’s “Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman,” has never been printed since the monk Rabelais gave to the world his celebrated masterpiece.  “Shandy” made its first appearance in 1757 at York, whose inhabitants were greatly shocked, generally, at its audacious wit; and particularly at the caricature of a local physician.  But the success of “Shandy” was pronounced:  it spread to the southern counties and to London, where a second edition was published in 1760.  “Parson Yorick,” as he styles himself in the book, was continually invited to add to it, with the result that between 1761 and 1767 eight more numbers were added to the original slim volume.  There are many