ght--or of
occupation, probably."

"You surely did not wrong her?" was the next whispered question, as she
turned her face from him.

"Wrong _her!_ Had you known her, you could not have admitted the
possibility of the idea," he answered, resentment in his tone now. "She
has been carefully reared, and is as innocent as you are."

"Who is she?--what is her name?"

"Adelaide, let us rather forget the subject. I have told you I loved her
not: and I should not have mentioned this at all, but that I can think
of nothing else to which that diabolical letter can have alluded.
Believe me, my own wife"--and he drew her to his bosom as he
spoke--"that I have not done you so great an injury as to marry where I
did not love."

"Oh," she exclaimed, wringing her hands, and extricating herself from
him, "that this cruel news had not been given me!"

"My love, be comforted--be convinced. I tell you it is a false letter."

"How can I know it is false?" she lamented--"how can you prove it to
me?"

"Adelaide, I can but tell you so now: the future and my conduct must
prove it."

"Giovanni," she continued vehemently, and half sinking on her knees
before him, "deceive me not. If there be aught of truth in this
accusation, let me depart. I am your wife but in name: a slight ceremony
only has passed between us, and we both know how readily, with such
influence as ours, the Church at Rome would dissolve that. Suffer me to
depart ere I shall be indeed your wife."

"Adelaide," he replied mournfully, as he held her, "I thought you loved
me."

"I do--I do. None, save God, know how passionately. My very life is
bound up in yours; but it is because I so love you, that I could not
brook a rival. Let me know the truth at once--even though it be the
worst; for should I trust to you now, and find afterwards that I had
been deceived, it would be most unhappy for both of us. My whole
affection would be turned to hate; and not only would my own existence
be wretched, but I should render yours so."

"You have no rival, Adelaide. You never shall have one."

"I mean not a rival in the vulgar acceptation of the term," she replied,
a shade of haughtiness mixing with her tone--"but one in your
heart--your mind--this I could not bear."

"Adelaide, hear me. Some enemy, wishing to do me a foul injury, has
thrust himself between us; but, rely on it, they are but false cowards
who stab in the dark. I have sought you these many months; I have
striven