La Rondine Summary

In this final chapter, the point of view again shifts to the narrator and the setting to the present time as Alessandro and Nicolo approach Sant' Angelo on their two-day hike. In the last leg of their journey Alessandro and Nicolo turn philosophical. Alessandro tells his younger companion the existence of God cannot be approached through argument but rather through "apprehension," and tells him about the last letter he received from his beloved Ariane before she died. In it, she exhorts him : "As long as you have life and breath, believe. Believe for those who cannot. Believe even if you have stopped believing. Believe for the sake of the dead, for love, to keep your heart beating, believe." Alessandro tells Nicolo that, if he can awaken to the miracles all around him, then he has met God. Alessandro also tells him...