voice behind her, and the face
of a young man became visible.

"Carlo!" she cried, hastening to meet him with outspread arms.

He almost ungently checked her. "You forget," said he, "that this
little, insignificant, and unknown singer loves you no longer, Corilla!
Grant, then, henceforth to the thousands who languish at your feet a few
of your enticing smiles and glowing glances--I have nothing against it,
and am not at all jealous!"

"But you should be!" cried she, stamping her feet with rage. "I tell you
I will not suffer you to leave me; I will be loved by you, and no one
shall you dare to look at, and no one shall you dare to love, but me
alone."

Carlo broke out into a scornful laugh, and then seriously and proudly
said: "I am a Neapolitan, and with us men do not allow themselves to be
constrained to love, and no woman there dares utter the command, 'Thou
shalt love me!'--I will not, Signora Corilla!"

"You will not!" screamed she, gnashing her teeth. "Then woe to you and
to her!"

"I fear no serpents!" said Carlo, laughing, "and if an adder attempts to
sting me, I tread it under foot!"

"But fear at least for her you love!" she threateningly said. "Oh, you
think I shall not be able to discover this secret love of yours, and
not spy out this new divinity to whom you have consecrated your heart?
Tremble therefore now, for I know her! I know the garden in which she
lives, and there is a place in the wall just opposite her favorite seat;
whoever knows that place and possesses a steady hand and a sharp dagger
will know how to hurl it so as to pierce her bosom."

Carlo felt a deadly terror, he felt his heart stand still, but he
collected himself and said, with a contemptuous smile: "Cardinal
Francesco Albani indeed possesses among his _bravi_ many such skilful
hands, and surely it will not require many of your highly-prized glances
to induce him to favor you with the loan of one of them."

The signora slightly bit her lips. "You mock me," she almost sadly
said, "and yet you should remember that it is only love that makes me
so savage and fills my heart with a thirst for vengeance! Carlo, I so
warmly love you!"

And the beautiful, glowing woman humbly and imploringly bent before her
beloved.

The latter laughingly said: "How well you know how to say that--with
what variations and modulations! I yesterday heard you say the same to
Cardinal Albani; to be sure, it sounded a little different, but not less
warm