lorence;--and now that
you are acquainted with his real character, you will recognize the
prudence of the step which I shall take to-morrow--that is, to inform
him that henceforth the Count and Countess of Arestino must decline to
receive him again at their villa. What think you, Giulia?"

"Your lordship is the master to command, and it is my duty to obey,"
answered the countess; but her voice was hoarse and thick, the acutest
anguish was rending her soul, and its intensity almost choked her
utterance.

"She is guilty!" thought the count within himself; and to subdue an
abrupt explosion of his rage, until he had put the last and most certain
test to his lady's faith, he walked twice up and down the room; then,
feeling that he had recovered his powers of self-control, he said,
"To-morrow, Giulia, is the reception day of his highness the duke, and I
hope thou hast made suitable preparations to accompany me in the manner
becoming the wife of the Count of Arestino."

"Can your lordship suppose for an instant that I should appear in the
ducal presence otherwise than is meet and fitting for her who has the
honor to bear your name?" said Giulia, partially recovering her presence
of mind, as the conversation appeared to have taken a turn no longer
painful to her feelings--for, oh! cannot the reader conceive the
anguish, the mortal anguish, she had ere now endured when her husband
was heaping ashes on the reputation of her lover!

"I do not suppose that your ladyship will neglect the preparations due
to your rank and to that name which you esteem it an honor to bear, and
which no living being should _dishonor_ with impunity!"

Giulia quailed--writhed beneath the searching glance which now literally
glared upon her.

"Nevertheless," continued the count, "I was fearful you might have
forgotten that to-morrow is the reception day. And while I think of it,
permit me to examine your diamonds for a few minutes--to convince myself
that the settings are in good order, as you know," he added, with a
strange, unearthly kind of laugh, "that I am skilled in the jewelers'
craft."

The old man paused; but he thought within himself, "Now what subterfuge
can she invent if my suspicions be really true, and if my ears did not
ere now deceive me?"

How profound then was his astonishment, when Giulia, with the calm and
tranquil demeanor which innocence usually wears, but with the least,
least curl of the upper lip, as if in haughty triump