had expected, but Father Rocco, as well.
At the same moment, the carpenters left
off hammering and began to saw. The new
sound from the firework stage was regular
and not loud. The voices of the
occupants of the summer-house reached her
through it, and she heard Brigida pronounce
the name of Count Fabio.

Instantly stooping down once more by the
dog's side, she caught his muzzle firmly in
both her hands. It was the only way to keep
Scarammuccia from growling again, at a time
when there was no din of hammering to
prevent him from being heard. Those two
words, "Count Fabio," in the mouth of
another woman, excited a jealous anxiety in
her. What could Brigida have to say in
connection with that name ? She never came
near the Ascoli Palace — what right, or
reason, could she have to talk of Fabio?

"Did you hear what I said? " she heard
Brigida ask, in her coolest, hardest tone.

"No," the priest answered. " At least, not
all of it."

"I will repeat it then. I asked what had
so suddenly determined you to give up all
idea of making any future experiments on
the superstitious fears of Count Fabio?"

"In the first place, the result of the
experiment already tried, has been so much more
serious than I had anticipated, that I believe
the end I had in view in making it, has been
answered already."

"Well; that is not your only reason?"

"Another shock to his mind might be fatal
to him. I can use what I believe to be a
justifiable fraud to prevent his marrying again;
but I cannot burthen myself with a crime."

"That is your second reason; but I believe
you have another yet. The suddenness with
which you sent to me last night, to appoint
a meeting in this lonely place; the emphatic
manner in which you requested — I may
almost say ordered — me to bring the wax
mask here, suggest to my mind that
something must have happened. What is it ? I
am a woman, and my curiosity must be satisfied.
After the secrets you have trusted to
me already, you need not hesitate, I think, to
trust me with one more."

"Perhaps not. The secret this time is,
moreover, of no great importance. You know
that the wax mask you wore at the ball, was
made in a plaster mould taken off the face
of my brother's statue."

"Yes, I know that."

"My brother has just returned to his
studio; has found a morsel of the plaster I
used for the mould sticking in the hair of the
statue; and has asked me, as the person left
in charge of his work-rooms, for an explanation.
Such an explanation as I could offer,
has not satisfied him, and he talks of making
further inquiries. Considering that it
will be used no more, I think it safest to
destroy the wax mask; and I asked you to
bring it here that I might see it burnt or
broken up, with my own eyes. Now you
know all you wanted to know; and now,
therefore, it is my turn to remind you that I
have not yet had a direct answer to the first
question I addressed to you when we met
here. Have you brought the wax mask with
you, or have you not?"

"I have not."

"And why?"

Just as that question was put, Nanina
felt the dog dragging himself free of her
grasp on his mouth. She had been listening
hitherto with such painful intensity, with
such all-absorbing emotions of suspense, terror,
and astonishment, that she had not
noticed his efforts to get away, and had
continued mechanically to hold his mouth shut.
But now she was aroused by the violence
of his struggles, to the knowledge that
unless she hit upon some new means of quieting
him, he would have his mouth free, and
would betray her by a growl. In an
agony of apprehension lest she should
lose a word of the momentous conversation
she made a desperate attempt to
appeal to the dog's fondness for her, by
suddenly flinging both her arms round his neck,
and kissing his rough hairy cheek. The
stratagem succeeded. Scarammuccia had,
for many years past, never received any
greater marks of his mistress's kindness for
him than such as a pat on the head, or a
present of a lump of sugar might convey.
His dog's nature was utterly confounded by
the unexpected warmth of Nanina's caress,
and he struggled up vigorously in her arms
to try and return it by licking her face. She
could easily prevent him from doing this, and
could so gain a few minutes more to listen
behind the summer-house without danger of
discovery.

She had lost Brigida's answer to Father
Rocco's question; but she was in time to
hear her next speech.

"We are alone here," said Brigida. " I am
a woman, and I don't know that you may not
have come armed. It is only the commonest
precaution on my part, not to give you a
chance of getting at the wax mask till I have
made my conditions."

"You never said a word about conditions
before."

"True. I remember telling you that I
wanted nothing but the novelty of going to
the masquerade in the character of my dead
enemy, and the luxury of being able to terrify
the man who had brutally ridiculed me in
old days in the studio. That was the truth.
But it is not the less the truth, that our
experiment on Count Fabio has detained me
in this city much longer than I ever intended,
that I am all but penniless, and that I deserve
to be paid. In plain words, will you buy the
mask of me for two hundred scudi?"

"I have not twenty scudi in the world, at
my own free disposal."

"You must find two hundred if you want