ossible, he replied:

"It, is a winter evening in Italy, Count, but in France it would be one
of summer."

"Do you not think," said Monte-Leone, "that this is the proper hour for
exercise, in this country? The complete repose of nature, the eloquent
silence of night, all invite us to confidence, and make us wish for
isolation and solitude--"

"Count," said Maulear, "do you wish for a half solitude; a desert
inhabited by two persons?"

"Certainly, that is what I mean."

"So do I, and would participate in yours."

"Come, then, I never saw a more beautiful night, and I shall be charmed
to enjoy it with you."

These two men, with rage in their hearts, each being an impregnable
barrier to the happiness of the other, loving the same woman in the same
way, resolved to contend for her, to their last breath;--these two men
left the saloon, with smiles on their lips, like friends about to listen
to the secret thoughts of each other beneath the shadow of some
beautiful landscape, in happiness and pleasure.

Aminta saw them go out. She grew pale, and suffered so that she leaned
against the window-case.

V. THREE RIVALS.

Count Monte-Leone and the Marquis de Maulear entered together a vast and
beautiful avenue, silvered over by a brilliant moon.

"Signor," said the Count to Maulear, "do you ever have waking dreams?
Can you, by the power of your imagination, transport yourself into the
future, and, as it were, read your destiny, with all its prosperous and
unfortunate incidents, its pleasures and chagrins? This often happens to
me, especially by day and when I am unhappy. For a long time, too, I
have been unhappy. For instance, not long ago, when shut up in a dark
prison, with no prospect before me but that of an unjust death, and the
headsman's axe bringing to a close my sad and eventful career, my good
angel certainly, for I believe in such beings, sent, two hundred feet
below the surface of the earth, a vision of dazzling light and beauty. I
was transported beneath the green shadows of myrtles and orange-trees; I
breathed an atmosphere impregnated with intoxicating and balsamic
perfumes, while near me, with her hand in mine, and her heart beating on
my bosom, was a young girl, destined to be my guide through this life of
misery; the angel, in fact, of whom I spoke just now. Sorrows,
suffering, injustice, the dungeon, and the executioner, all disappeared,
and I enjoyed all the luxury of this heavenly revelation; and