the count's faithful valet,
accompanied by three nuns, wearing their black veils over their faces,
entered the room.

Half an hour afterward the Carmelite Convent received another inmate.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE MARQUIS OF ORSINI.

Upon quitting the Arestino palace, the Marquis of Orsini suddenly lost
that bold, insolent, self-sufficient air with which he had endeavored to
deceive the venerable count, whose wife he had dishonored.

For dishonor now menaced _him_!

Where could he raise the sum necessary to liquidate the debt which he
had contracted with the stranger at the Casino, or gaming-house? And as
the person to whom he found himself thus indebted _was_ a stranger--a
total stranger to him, he had no apology to offer for a delay in the
payment of the money due.

"Perdition!" he exclaimed aloud, as he issued rapidly from the grounds
attached to the Arestino mansion; "is there no alternative save flight?
Giulia cannot assist me--her jewels are gone, they are pledged to the
Jew Isaachar--she was telling me so when the count broke in upon us.
What course can I adopt? what plan pursue? Shall the name of Orsini be
dishonored--that proud name which for three centuries has been
maintained spotless? No, no--this must not be!"

And in a state of most painful excitement--so painful, indeed, that it
amounted almost to a physical agony--the marquis hastened rapidly
through the mazes of the sleeping city, reckless whither he was going,
but experiencing no inclination to repair to his own abode.

The fact of the diamonds of his mistress having been pledged to Isaachar
ben Solomon was uppermost in his mind: for the reader must remember that
he was unaware of the circumstance of their restoration to Giulia--as it
was at the moment when she was about to give him this explanation that
the old Lord of Arestino had interrupted their discourse.

The diamonds, then, constituted the pivot on which his thoughts now
revolved. They seemed to shine like stars amidst the deep haze which
hung upon his mind. Could he not possess himself of them? The name of
Orsini would be dishonored if the gambling debt were not paid; and one
bold--one desperate step might supply him with the means to save himself
from the impending ruin--the imminent disgrace.

But as the thoughts encouraged by those simple words--"the
diamonds"--assumed a more palpable shape in his imagination, he shrank
back dismayed from the deed which they suggested: for gam