course, for decency's sake, in
consequence of the child's death, she denied herself to everybody else.
She looked lovelier than ever; the air of delicate languor she assumed
suited her as perfectly as its fragile whiteness suits a hot-house
lily. She knew the power of her own beauty most thoroughly, and
employed it in arduous efforts to fascinate me. But I had changed my
tactics; I paid very little heed to her, and never went to see her
unless she asked me very pressingly to do so. All compliments and
attentions from me to her had ceased. SHE courted me, and I accepted
her courtship in unresponsive silence. I played the part of a taciturn
and reserved man, who preferred reading some ancient and abstruse
treatise on metaphysics to even the charms of her society--and often,
when she urgently desired my company, I would sit in her drawing-room,
turning over the leaves of a book and feigning to be absorbed in it,
while she, from her velvet fauteuil, would look at me with a pretty
pensiveness made up half of respect, half of gentle admiration--a
capitally acted facial expression, by the bye, and one that would do
credit to Sarah Bernhardt. We had both heard from Guido Ferrari; his
letter to my wife I of course did not see; she had, however, told me he
was "much shocked and distressed to hear of Stella's death." The
epistle he addressed to me had a different tale to tell. In it he
wrote--"YOU can understand, my dear conte, that I am not much grieved
to hear of the death of Fabio's child. Had she lived, I confess her
presence would have been a perpetual reminder to me of things I prefer
to forget. She never liked me--she might have been a great source of
trouble and inconvenience; so, on the whole, I am glad she is out of
the way."

Further on in the letter he informed me:

"My uncle is at death's door, but though that door stands wide open for
him, he cannot make up his mind to go in. His hesitation will not be
allowed to last, so the doctors tell me--at any rate I fervently hope I
shall not be kept waiting too long, otherwise I shall return to Naples
and sacrifice my heritage, for I am restless and unhappy away from
Nina, though I know she is safely guarded by your protecting care."

I read this particular paragraph to my wife, watching her closely as I
slowly enunciated the words contained in it. She listened, and a vivid
blush crimsoned her cheeks--a blush of indignation--and her brows
contracted in the vexed frown I kn