ecognized her
mother's foresight, and, on examining the gifts, she found a purse, in
which the baroness had put the money belonging to her daughter, adding
to it the amount of her own savings. The purse was accompanied by a
letter, in which the mother implored the daughter to forego the fatal
marriage if it were still possible to do so. It had cost her, she
said, untold difficulty to send these few things to her daughter; she
entreated her not to think her hard if, henceforth, she were forced to
abandon her to want; she feared she could never again assist her; but
she blessed her and prayed for her happiness in this fatal marriage, if,
indeed, she persisted in making it, assuring her that she should never
cease to think of her darling child. Here the falling tears had effaced
some words of the letter.

"Oh, mother!" cried Ginevra, deeply moved.

She felt the impulse to rush home, to breathe the blessed air of her
father's house, to fling herself at his feet, to see her mother. She was
springing forward to accomplish this wish, when Luigi entered. At the
mere sight of him her filial emotion vanished; her tears were
stopped, and she no longer had the strength to abandon that loving and
unfortunate youth. To be the sole hope of a noble being, to love him and
then abandon him!--that sacrifice is the treachery of which young hearts
are incapable. Ginevra had the generosity to bury her own grief and
suffering silently in her soul.

The marriage day arrived. Ginevra had no friend with her. While she was
dressing, Luigi fetched the witnesses necessary to sign the certificate
of marriage. These witnesses were worthy persons; one, a cavalry
sergeant, was under obligations to Luigi, contracted on the battlefield,
obligations which are never obliterated from the heart of an honest man;
the other, a master-mason, was the proprietor of the house in which the
young couple had hired an apartment for their future home. Each witness
brought a friend, and all four, with Luigi, came to escort the bride.
Little accustomed to social functions, and seeing nothing in the service
they were rendering to Luigi but a simple matter of business, they were
dressed in their ordinary clothes, without any luxury, and nothing about
them denoted the usual joy of a marriage procession.

Ginevra herself was dressed simply, as befitted her present fortunes;
and yet her beauty was so noble and so imposing that the words of
greeting died away on the lips o