e,
what then?"

"Nothing," said Nanina, constrainedly. She turned pale, and walked away
as she spoke. Her great dread, in returning to Pisa, was the dread
of meeting with Father Rocco again. She had never forgotten her first
discovery at Florence of his distrust of her. The bare thought of seeing
him any more, after her faith in him had been shaken forever, made her
feel faint and sick at heart.

"To-morrow, in the housekeeper's room," said the steward, putting on his
hat, "you will find your new dress all ready for you."

Nanina courtesied, and ventured on no more objections. The prospect of
securing a home for a whole year to come among people whom she knew,
reconciled her--influenced as she was also by Marta Angrisani's advice,
and by her sister's anxiety for the promised present--to brave the trial
of appearing at the ball.

"What a comfort to have it all settled at last," said the steward, as
soon as he was out again in the street. "We shall see what the marquis
says now. If he doesn't apologize for calling me a scoundrel the moment
he sets eyes on Number Thirty, he is the most ungrateful nobleman that
ever existed."

Arriving in front of the palace, the steward found workmen engaged in
planning the external decorations and illuminations for the night of the
ball. A little crowd had already assembled to see the ladders raised
and the scaffoldings put up. He observed among them, standing near the
outskirts of the throng, a lady who attracted his attention (he was
an ardent admirer of the fair sex) by the beauty and symmetry of
her figure. While he lingered for a moment to look at her, a shaggy
poodle-dog (licking his chops, as if he had just had something to eat)
trotted by, stopped suddenly close to the lady, sniffed suspiciously
for an instant, and then began to growl at her without the slightest
apparent provocation. The steward advancing politely with his stick to
drive the dog away, saw the lady start, and heard her exclaim to herself
amazedly:

"You here, you beast! Can Nanina have come back to Pisa?"

This last exclamation gave the steward, as a gallant man, an excuse for
speaking to the elegant stranger.

"Excuse me, madam," he said, "but I heard you mention the name of
Nanina. May I ask whether you mean a pretty little work-girl who lives
near the Campo Santo?"

"The same," said the lady, looking very much surprised and interested
immediately.

"It may be a gratification to you, madam, to know