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