d! Without my sanction! Margharita, how is that? Am I not your
guardian?"

"Yes, but, Leonardo, you have been away, and no one knew when you would
return, or where you were."

"It is enough. Tell me of the man to whom you are betrothed. I would
know his name and family."

"Leonardo, his name is Martin Briscoe, and his family--he has no family
that you would know of. It is true that he is an American, but he is a
gentleman."

"An American! It is perhaps also true that he is a trader?"

His coolness alarmed her. She looked into his face and trembled.

"I do not know; it may be so. His father----"

The Sicilian interrupted her. His face was marble white, but his eyes
were afire.

"His father! Spare me the pedigree! I know it! Margharita, stand there,
where the moonlight touches your face. Let me look at you. Is it you, a
daughter of the Marionis, who can speak so calmly of bringing this
disgrace upon our name? You, my little sister Margharita, the
proud-spirited girl who used to share in my ambitions, and to whom our
name was as dear as to myself?"

"Leonardo, spare me!"

"Spare you? Yes, when you have told me that this is some nightmare, some
phantasm--a lie! Spare you! Yes, when you tell me that this presumptuous
upstart has gone back to his upstart country."

She dropped her hands from before her face, and stood before him, pale
and desperate.

"Leonardo, I cannot give him up, I love him!"

"And do you owe me no love? Do you owe no duty to the grandeur of our
race? _Noblesse oblige_, Margharita! We bear a great name, and with the
honor which it brings, it brings also responsibilities. I do not believe
that you can truly love this man; but if you do, your duty is still
plain. You must crush your love as you would a poisonous weed under your
feet. You must sacrifice yourself for the honor of our name."

"Leonardo, you do not understand. I love him, and cannot give him up. My
word is given; I cannot break it."

He drew a step further away from her, and his voice became harder.

"You must choose, then, between him and me; between your honor and your
unworthy lover. There is no other course. As my sister, you are the
dearest thing on earth to me; as that man's wife, you will be an utter
stranger. I will never willingly look upon your face, nor hear you
speak. I will write your name out of my heart, and my curse shall follow
you over the seas to your new home, and ring in your ears by day and by
night. I