t is this? What have I done?" asked Del Ferice in low tones.

"Can you ask? Wretch! Read that, and understand what you have done,"
answered Donna Tullia, making a step forward and thrusting Saracinesca's
letter in his face.

Del Ferice had already seen the handwriting, and knew what the contents
were likely to be. He took the letter in one hand, and without looking at
it, still faced the angry woman. His brows contracted into a heavy frown,
and his half-closed eyes gazed menacingly at her.

"It will be an evil day for any man who comes between you and me," he
said, in tragic tones.

Donna Tullia laughed harshly, and again drew herself up, watching his
face, and expecting to witness his utter confusion. But she was no match
for the actor whom she had promised to marry. Del Ferice began to read,
and as he read, his frown relaxed; gradually an ugly smile, intended to
represent fiendish cunning, stole over his features, and when he had
finished, he uttered a cry of triumph.

"Ha!" he said, "I guessed it! I hoped it--and it is true! He is found at
last! The very man--the real Saracinesca! It is only a matter of time--"

Donna Tullia now stared in unfeigned surprise. Instead of crushing him to
the ground as she had expected, the letter seemed to fill him with
boundless delight. He paced the room in wild excitement, chattering like
a madman. In spite of herself, however, her own spirits rose, and her
anger against Del Ferice softened. All was perhaps not lost--who could
fathom the intricacy of his great schemes? Surely he was not the man to
fall a victim to his own machinations.

"Will you please explain your extraordinary satisfaction at this news?"
said Madame Mayer. Between her late anger, her revived hopes, and her
newly roused curiosity, she was in a terrible state of suspense.

"Explain?" he cried. "Explain what, most adorable of women? Does it not
explain itself? Have we not found the Marchese di San Giacinto, the real
Saracinesca? Is not that enough?"

"I do not understand--"

Del Ferice was now by her side. He seemed hardly able to control himself
for joy. As a matter of fact he was acting, and acting a desperate part
too, suggested on the spur of the moment by the risk he ran of losing
this woman and her fortune on the very eve of marriage. Now he seized her
hand, and drawing her arm through his, led her quickly backwards and
forwards, talking fast and earnestly. It would not do to hesitate, for by
a momen