absence will give me the opportunity. Can
you trust her out by herself?"

"Yes, Father Rocco, she often goes out
alone." Nanina gave this answer in low,
trembling tones, and looked down confusedly
on the ground.

"Go then, my dear," said Father Rocco,
patting the child on the shoulder. "And
come back here to your sister, as soon as you
have left the mats."

La Biondella went out directly in great
triumph, with Scarammuccia walking by her
side, and keeping his muzzle suspiciously
close to the pocket in which she had put her
bread. Father Rocco closed the door after
them; and then, taking the one chair which
the room possessed, motioned to Nanina to
sit by him on the stool.

"Do you believe that I am your friend, my
child; and that I have always meant well
towards you ? " he began.

"The best and kindest of friends," answered
Nanina.

"Then you will hear what I have to say
patiently; and you will believe that I am
speaking for your good, even if my words
should distress you ? " (Nanina turned away
her head.) "Now, tell me; should I be wrong,
to begin with, if I said that my brother's
pupil, the young nobleman whom we call
' Signor Fabio,' had been here to see you
today ? " (Nanina started up affrightedly from
the stool.) " Sit down again, my child;
I am not going to blame you. I am only
going to tell you what you must do for the
future."

He took her hand; it was cold, and it
trembled violently in his.

"I will not ask what he has been saying to
you," continued the priest; "for it might distress
you to answer; and I have, moreover,
had means of knowing that your youth and
beauty have made a strong impression on
him. I will pass over, then, all reference to
the words he may have been speaking to you;
and I will come at once to what I have now
to say, in my turn. Nanina, my child, arm
yourself with all your courage, and promise
me, before we part to-night, that you will see
Signor Fabio no more."

Nanina turned round suddenly, and fixed
her eyes on him, with an expression of
terrified incredulity. " No more ?"

' You are very young and very innocent,"
said Father Rocco; " but surely you must
have thought, before now, of the difference
between Signor Fabio and you. Surely you
must have often remembered that you are
low down among the ranks of the poor, and
that he is high up among the rich and the
nobly-born ?"

Nanina's hands dropped on the priest's
knees. She bent her head down on. them, and
began to weep bitterly.

"Surely you must have thought of that?"
reiterated Father Rocco."

"O, I have often, often thought of that!"
murmured the girl. "I have mourned over
it, and cried about it in secret for many
nights past. He said  I looked pale, and ill,
and out of spirits to-day; and I told him it
was with thinking of that!"

"And what did he say in return?"

There was no answer. Father Rocco looked
down. Nanina raised her head directly from
his knees, and tried to turn it away again.
He took her hand, and stopped her.

"Come! " he said; " speak frankly to me.
Say what you ought to say to your father and
your friend. What was his answer, my child,
when you reminded him of the difference
between you?"

"He said I was bom to be a lady," faltered
the girl, still struggling to turn her face away,
"and that I might make myself one if I would
learn and be patient. He said that if he had
all the noble ladies in Pisa to choose from on
one side, and only little Nanina on the other,
he would hold out his hand to me, and tell
them, ' This shall be my wife.' He said Love
knew no difference of rank; and that if he
was a nobleman and rich, it was all the more
reason why he should please himself. He
was so kind, that I thought my heart would
burst while he was speaking; and my little
sister liked him so, that she got upon his knee
and kissed him. Even our dog, who growls
at other strangers, stole to his side and
licked his hand. O, Father Rocco! Father
Rocco! " The tears burst out afresh, and the
lovely head dropped once more, wearily, on
the priest's knee.

Father Rocco smiled to himself, and waited
to speak again till she was calmer.

"Supposing," he resumed, after some
minutes of silence, " supposing Signor Fabio
really meant all he said to you——"

Nanina started up, and confronted the
priest boldly for the first time since he had
entered the room.

"Supposing! " she exclaimed, her cheeks
beginning to redden, and her dark-blue eyes
flashing suddenly through her tears. '' Supposing!
Father Rocco, Fabio would never deceive me.
I would die here at your feet, rather
than doubt the least word he said to me!"

The priest took her by the hand, and drew
her back to the stool. "I never suspected
the child had so much spirit in her, " he
thought to himself.

"I would die," repeated Nanina, in a voice
that began to falter now. " I would die,
rather than doubt him."

"I will not ask you to doubt him," said
Father Rocco, gently; " and I will believe in
him myself as firmly as you do. Let us suppose,
my child, that you have learnt patiently
all the many things of which you are now
ignorant, and which it is necessary for a lady
to know. Let us suppose that Signor Fabio
has really violated all the laws that govern
people in his high station, and has taken you
to him publicly as his wife. You would be
happy, then, Nanina; but would he? He