the wax mask. I don't wish to threaten—
but money I must have. I mention the sum
of two hundred scudi, because that is the
exact amount offered in the public handbills
by Count Fabio's friends, for the discovery of
the woman who wore the yellow mask
at the Marquis Melani's ball. What have I to
do but to earn that money if I please, by going
to the palace, taking the wax mask with me,
and telling them that I am the woman.
Suppose I confess in that way! they can do
nothing to hurt me, and I should be two
hundred scudi the richer. You might be
injured, to be sure, if they insisted on
knowing who made the wax model, and who
suggested the ghastly disguise —"

"Wretch! do you believe that my character
could be injured on the unsupported evidence
of any words from your lips ? "

"Father Rocco! for the first time since I
have enjoyed the pleasure of your acquaintance,
I find you committing a breach of
good manners. I shall leave you until you
become more like yourself. If you wish to
apologise for calling me a wretch, and if you
want to secure the wax mask, honour me
with a visit before four o'clock this afternoon,
and bring two hundred scudi with you.
Delay till after four, and it will be too late."

An instant of silence followed; and then
Nanina judged that Brigida must be departing,
for she heard the rustling of a dress on the
lawn in front of the summer-house.
Unfortunately Scarammuccia heard it too. He
twisted himself round in her arms and growled.

The noise disturbed Father Rocco. She
heard him rise and leave the summer-house.
There would have been time enough, perhaps,
for her to conceal herself among some trees,
if she could have recovered her self-possession
at once; but she was incapable of making an
effort to regain it. She could neither think
nor move — her breath seemed to die away on
her lips — as she saw the shadow of the priest
stealing over the grass slowly, from the front
to the back of the summer-house. In another
moment they were face to face.

He stopped a few paces from her, and
eyed her steadily in dead silence. She still
crouched against the summer-house, and
still with one hand mechanically kept her
hold of the dog. It was well for the priest
that she did so. Ssarammuccia's formidable
teeth were in full view, his shaggy coat was
bristling, his eyes were starting, his growl
had changed from the surly to the savage
note; he was ready to tear down, not Father
Rocco only, but all the clergy in Pisa, at a
moment's notice.

"You have been listening," said the priest,
calmly. " I see it in your face. You have
heard all."

She could not answer a word: she could
not take her eyes from him. There was an
unnatural stillness in his face, a steady,
unrepentant, unfathomable despair in his eyes, that
struck her with horror. She would have
given worlds to be able to rise to her feet and
fly from his presence.

"I once distrusted you and watched you in
secret," he said, speaking after a short silence,
thoughtfully, and with a strange tranquil
sadness in his voice. " And now, what I did
by you, you do by me. You put the hope of
your life once in my hands. Is it because
they were not worthy of the trust, that
discovery and ruin overtake me, and that you
are the instrument of the retribution? Can
this be the decree of heaven? or is it nothing
but the blind justice of chance?"

He looked upward, doubtingly, to the
lustrous sky above him, and sighed. Nanina's
eyes still followed his mechanically. He
seemed to feel their influence, for he suddenly
looked down at her again.

"What keeps you silent? Why are you
afraid? " he said. " I can do you no harm,
with your dog at your side, and the workmen
yonder within call. I can do you no harm,
and I wish to do you none. Go back to Pisa,
tell what you have heard, restore the man
you love to himself, and ruin me. That is
your work. Do it! I was never your enemy
even when I distrusted you. I am not your
enemy now. It is no fault of yours that a
fatality has been accomplished through you—
no fault of yours that I am rejected as the
instrument of securing a righteous restitution
to the church. Rise, child, and go your way,
while I go mine and prepare for what is to
come. If we never meet again, remember
that I parted from, you without one hard
saying or one harsh look — parted from you so,
knowing that the first words you speak in
Pisa will be death to my character, and
destruction to the great purpose of my life."

Speaking these words, always with the
same calmness which had marked his manner
from the first, he looked fixedly at her for a
little while — sighed again — and turned away.
Just before he disappeared among the trees,
he said " Farewell;" but so softly that she
could barely hear it. Some strange confusion
clouded her mind as she lost sight of him.
Had she injured him ? or had he injured her?
His words bewildered and oppressed her
simple heart. Vague doubts and fears, and a
sudden antipathy to remaining any longer near
the summer-house, overcame her. She started
to her feet, and, keeping the dog still at her
side, hurried from the garden to the high
road. There, the wide glow of sunshine, the
sight of the city lying before her, changed
the current of her thoughts, and directed
them all to Fabio and to the future.

A burning impatience to be back in Pisa
now possessed her. She hastened towards the
city at her utmost speed. The doctor was
reported to be in the palace when she passed
the servants, lounging in the courtyard. He
saw, the moment she came into his
presence, that something had happened; and led
her away from the sick-room into Fabio's
empty study. There she told him all.