thout the door
of the house, under an awning which sheltered from the sun without
obstructing the view; and there now, with the prompt-book on her knee,
on which her eye roves listlessly from time to time, you may behold
her, the vine-leaves clustering from their arching trellis over the
door behind, and the lazy white-sailed boats skimming along the sea that
stretched before.

As she thus sat, rather in reverie than thought, a man coming from the
direction of Posilipo, with a slow step and downcast eyes, passed close
by the house, and Viola, looking up abruptly, started in a kind of
terror as she recognised the stranger. She uttered an involuntary
exclamation, and the cavalier turning, saw, and paused.

He stood a moment or two between her and the sunlit ocean, contemplating
in a silence too serious and gentle for the boldness of gallantry, the
blushing face and the young slight form before him; at length he spoke.

"Are you happy, my child," he said, in almost a paternal tone, "at the
career that lies before you? From sixteen to thirty, the music in the
breath of applause is sweeter than all the music your voice can utter!"

"I know not," replied Viola, falteringly, but encouraged by the liquid
softness of the accents that addressed her,--"I know not whether I am
happy now, but I was last night. And I feel, too, Excellency, that I
have you to thank, though, perhaps, you scarce know why!"

"You deceive yourself," said the cavalier, with a smile. "I am aware
that I assisted to your merited success, and it is you who scarce know
how. The WHY I will tell you: because I saw in your heart a nobler
ambition than that of the woman's vanity; it was the daughter that
interested me. Perhaps you would rather I should have admired the
singer?"

"No; oh, no!"

"Well, I believe you. And now, since we have thus met, I will pause to
counsel you. When next you go to the theatre, you will have at your feet
all the young gallants of Naples. Poor infant! the flame that dazzles
the eye can scorch the wing. Remember that the only homage that does not
sully must be that which these gallants will not give thee. And whatever
thy dreams of the future,--and I see, while I speak to thee, how
wandering they are, and wild,--may only those be fulfilled which centre
round the hearth of home."

He paused, as Viola's breast heaved beneath its robe. And with a burst
of natural and innocent emotions, scarcely comprehending, though an
Italian, t