rched nor
straight, but laid on as it were like the shadows in a clever charcoal
drawing, with the finger, broad, effective, well turned, carelessly set
in the right place by a hand that never makes mistakes.

It is the intention of the Marchesa di Mola to marry her daughter to the
very noble and out-at-elbows Count of San Miniato before the summer is
out. It is also the intention of the Count to marry Beatrice. It is
Beatrice's intention to do nothing rashly, but to take as much time as
she can get for making up her mind, and then to do exactly as she
pleases. She perfectly appreciates her own position and knows that she
can either marry a rich man of second-rate family, or a poor man of good
blood, a younger son or a half ruined gentleman at large like San
Miniato, and she hesitates. She is not quite sure of the value of money
yet. It might be delightful to be even much richer than she is, because
there are so many delightful things to be done in the world with money
alone. But it might turn out to be equally agreeable to have a great
name, to be somebody, to be a necessary part of society in short,
because society does a number of agreeable things not wholly dependent
upon cash for being pleasant, and indeed often largely dependent on
credit.

San Miniato attracts her, and she does not deny the fact to herself. He
is handsome, tall, fair, graceful and exceedingly well dressed. He was
several years in a cavalry regiment and is reputed to have left the
service in order to fight with a superior officer whom he disliked. In
reality his straitened means may have had something to do with the step.
At all events he scratched his major rather severely in the duel which
took place, and has the reputation of a dangerous man with the sabre. It
is said that the major's wife had something to do with the story. At
present San Miniato is about thirty years of age. His only known vice is
gambling, which is perhaps a chief source of income to him. Every one
agrees in saying that he is the type of the honourable player, and that,
if he wins on the whole, he owes his winnings to his superior coolness
and skill. The fact that he gambles rather lends him an additional
interest in the eyes of Beatrice, whose mother often plays and who would
like to play herself.

Ruggiero, who is to be San Miniato's boatman this summer, is waiting
outside the Count's door, until that idle gentleman wakes from his late
sleep and calls him. The final agr