ieve me--she might suspect some treachery or snare in a
city so notoriously profligate as Florence. But the subsequent
explanations which took place between us cleared up all doubts on that
subject."

"I am well pleased to hear that the poor girl has found so near a
relative and so dear a friend, signor," said Francisco. "And now
acquaint me, I pray thee, with the means whereby I may, to some extent,
repair the injury your sister has sustained at the hands of him whose
memory I implore you to spare!"

"Wealth I possess in abundance--oh! far greater abundance than is
necessary to satisfy all my wants!" exclaimed Wagner, with something of
bitterness and regret in his tone; "but, even were I poor, gold would
not restore my sister's honor. No--let that subject, however, pass. I
would only ask you, count, whether there be any scion of your
family--any lady connected with you--who answers this description?"

And Wagner proceeded to delineate, in minute terms, the portraiture of
the mysterious lady who had inspired Agnes on three occasions with so
much terror, and whom Agnes herself had depicted in such glowing
language.

"Signor! you are describing the Lady Nisida, my sister!" exclaimed
Francisco, struck with astonishment at the fidelity of the portrait thus
verbally drawn.

"Your sister, my lord!" cried Wagner. "Then has Dame Margaretha deceived
Agnes in representing the Lady Nisida to be rather a beauty of the cold
north than of the sunny south."

"Dame Margaretha!" said Francisco; "do you allude, signor, to the mother
of my late father's confidential dependent, Antonio?"

"The same," was the answer. "It was at Dame Margaretha's house that your
father placed my sister Agnes, who has resided there nearly four years."

"But wherefore have you made those inquiries relative to the Lady
Nisida?" inquired Francisco.

"I will explain the motive with frankness," responded Wagner.

He then related to the young count all those particulars relative to the
mysterious lady and Agnes, with which the reader is already acquainted.

"There must be some extraordinary mistake--some strange error, signor,
in all this," observed Francisco. "My poor sister is, as you seem to be
aware, so deeply afflicted that she possesses not faculties calculated
to make her aware of that _amour_ which even I, who possess those
faculties in which she is deficient, never suspected, and concerning
which no hint ever reached me, until the whole truth