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ount has not said that he wants me to exhibit before him--why am I to masquerade in this fashion?' 'There is no choice for you between this "tinsel bravery" and the tattered rags, all blood-stained and torn, you wore last night.' There they were, scattered about, the crushed and crumpled hat, the doublet torn to ribbons, the rapier smashed--all a wreck. 'No, no, you could not appear in such a presence in rags like these.' Still was Gerald irritated and angry: a sudden sense of shame shot through him as he saw himself thus alone, which, had the others been joined with him, he had doubtless never felt; and for the first time his station suggested the idea of humiliation. 'I will not go, Marietta,' said he at last, as he flung himself upon a chair, and threw his cap to the end of the room. 'So long as thou wert with me, sustaining the interest of the scene, replying to my words, answering every emotion of my heart, I loved Art--I cherished it as the fairest expression of what I felt, but could not speak. Now, alone and without thee, it is a mere mockery--it is more, it is a degradation!' She knelt down beside him and took his hands in hers. She turned her full, moist eyes toward him, and in broken words besought him not to speak slightingly of that which bound them to each other, for, 'If the day comes, _Gherardi mio_, that thou thinkest meanly of our art, so surely will come another when thou wilt be ashamed of _me_,' and she hid her face on his knees and sobbed bitterly. With what an honest-hearted sincerity did he swear that such a day could never come, or if it did, that he prayed it might be his last! And then he ran over, in eager tones, all that he owed to her teachings. How, but for her, he had not known the true tenderness of Metastasio, the fervour of Petrarch, or the chivalry of Ariosto. 'How much have we found out together we had never discovered if alone!' And then they dried their tears; and he kissed her, and set out on his way. It was with a look of haughty meaning, almost defiant, that Gerald ascended the marble stairs and passed between two lines of liveried servants, who smiled pitifully on the strolling player, nor put the slightest restraint upon this show of their contempt Fortunately for him and them he had no time to mark it, for the folding doors suddenly opening, he found himself in a large chamber, brilliantly lighted, and with a numerous company assembled. Before the youth had well cro
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