ation mounted to the cheeks of Nisida; and more than
usually rapid was the reply she made through the medium of the alphabet
of the fingers.

"My sister desires me to express to you, signor," said Francisco,
turning toward Wagner, "that she is not the person whom the Lady Agnes
has to complain against. My sister," he continued, "has never to her
knowledge seen the Lady Agnes; much less has she ever penetrated into
her chamber; and indignantly does she repel the accusation relative to
the abstraction of the jewels. She also desires me to inform you that
last night after reading of our father's last testament, she retired to
her chamber, which she did not quit until this morning at the usual
hour; and that therefore it was not her countenance which the Lady Agnes
beheld at the casement of your saloon."

"I pray you, my lord, to let the subject drop now, and forever!" said
Wagner, who was struck with profound admiration--almost amounting to
love--for the Lady Nisida: "there is some strange mystery in all this,
which time alone can clear up. Will your lordship express to your sister
how grieved I am that any suspicion should have originated against her
in respect to Agnes?"

Francisco signaled these remarks to Nisida; and the latter, rising from
her seat, advanced toward Wagner, and presented him her hand in token of
her readiness to forget the injurious imputations thrown out against
her.

Fernand raised that fair hand to his lips, and respectfully kissed it;
but the hand seemed to burn as he held it, and when he raised his eyes
toward the lady's countenance, she darted on him a look so ardent and
impassioned that it penetrated into his very soul.

That rapid interchange of glances seemed immediately to establish a kind
of understanding--a species of intimacy between those extraordinary
beings; for on the one side, Nisida read in the fine eyes of the
handsome Fernand all the admiration expressed there, and he, on his
part, instinctively understood that he was far from disagreeable to the
proud sister of the young Count of Riverola. While he was ready to fall
at her feet and do homage to her beauty, she experienced the kindling of
all the fierce fires of sensuality in her breast.

But the unsophisticated and innocent-minded Francisco observed not the
expression of these emotions on either side, for their manifestation
occupied not a moment. The interchange of such feelings is ever too
vivid and electric to attract th