"I see it! I see it!" shrieked Beatrice. "It is my father's fatalscience? No, no, Giovanni; it was not I! Never, never! I dreamedonly to love thee, and be with thee a little time, and so to letthee pass away, leaving but thine image in mine heart. For,Giovanni- believe it- though my body be nourished with poison, myspirit is God's creature, and craves love as its daily food. But myfather! he has united us in this fearful sympathy. Yes; spurn me!
tread upon me! kill me! Oh, what is death, after such words asthine? But it was not I! Not for a world of bliss would I have doneit!"Giovanni's passion had exhausted itself in its outburst from hislips. There now came across him a sense, mournful, and not withouttenderness, of the intimate and peculiar relationship between Beatriceand himself. They stood, as it were, in an utter solitude, which wouldbe made none the less solitary by the densest throng of human life.
Ought not, then, the desert of humanity around them to press thisinsulated pair closer together? If they should be cruel to oneanother, who was there to be kind to them? Besides, thoughtGiovanni, might there not still be a hope of his returning withinthe limits of ordinary nature, and leading Beatrice- the redeemedBeatrice- by the hand? Oh, weak, and selfish, and unworthy spirit,that could dream of an earthly union and earthly happiness aspossible, after such deep love had been so bitterly wronged as wasBeatrice's love by Giovanni's blighting words! No, no; there couldbe no such hope. She must pass heavily, with that broken heart, acrossthe borders- she must bathe her hurts in some fount of Paradise, andforget her grief in the light of immortality- and there be well!
But Giovanni did not know it.
"Dear Beatrice, said he, approaching her, while she shrank away, asalways at his approach, but now with a different impulse- "dearestBeatrice, our fate is not yet so desperate. Behold! There is amedicine, potent, as a wise physician has assured me, and almostdivine in its efficacy. It is composed of ingredients the mostopposite to those by which thy awful father has brought thiscalamity upon thee and me. It is distilled of blessed herbs. Shallwe not quaff it together, and thus be purified from evil?""Give it me!" said Beatrice, extending her hand to receive thelittle silver phial which Giovanni took from his bosom. She added,with a peculiar emphasis: "I will drink- but do thou await theresult."She put Baglioni's antidote to her lips; and, at the same moment,the figure of Rappaccini emerged from the portal, and came slowlytowards the marble fountain. As he drew near, the pale man ofscience seemed to gaze with a triumphant expression at the beautifulyouth and maiden, as might an artist who should spend his life inachieving a picture or a group of statuary, and finally be satisfiedwith his success. He paused- his bent form grew erect with consciouspower, he spread out his hand over them, in the attitude of a fatherimploring a blessing upon his children. But those were the samehands that had thrown poison into the stream of their lives!
Giovanni trembled. Beatrice shuddered very nervously, and pressedher hand upon her heart.
"My daughter," said Rappaccini, "thou art no longer lonely in theworld! Pluck one of those precious gems from thy sister shrub, and bidthy bridegroom wear it in his bosom. It will not harm him now! Myscience, and the sympathy between thee and him, have so wrought withinhis system, that he now stands apart from common men, as thou dost,daughter of my pride and triumph, from ordinary women. Pass on,then, through the world, most dear to one another, and dreadful to allbesides!""My father," said Beatrice, feebly- and still, as she spoke, shekept her hand upon her heart- "wherefore didst thou inflict thismiserable doom upon thy child?""Miserable!" exclaimed Rappaccini. "What mean you, foolish girl?
Dost thou deem it misery to be endowed with marvellous gifts,against which no power nor strength could avail an enemy? Misery, tobe able to quell the mightiest with a breath? Misery, to be asterrible as thou art beautiful? Wouldst thou, then, have preferred thecondition of a weak woman, exposed to all evil, and capable of none?""I would fain have been loved, not feared, murmured Beatrice,sinking down upon the ground. "But now it matters not; I am going,father, where the evil, which thou hast striven to mingle with mybeing, will pass away like a dream- like the fragrance of thesepoisonous flowers, which will no longer taint my breath among theflowers of Eden. Farewell, Giovanni! Thy words of hatred are like leadwithin my heart- but they, too, will fall away as I ascend. Oh, wasthere not, from the first, more poison in thy nature than in mine?"To Beatrice- so radically had her earthly part been wrought upon byRappaccini's skill- as poison had been life, so the powerfulantidote was death. And thus the poor victim of man's ingenuity and ofthwarted nature, and of the fatality that attends all such effortsof perverted wisdom, perished there, at the feet of her father andGiovanni. Just at that moment, Professor Pietro Baglioni lookedforth from the window, and called loudly, in a tone of triumph mixedwith horror, to the thunder-stricken man of science: "Rappaccini!
Rappaccini! And is this the upshot of your experiment?"THE END.
1835
TWICE-TOLD TALES
THE AMBITIOUS GUEST
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
