y
dressed, but was not asleep.--On hearing his footsteps she started, then
rejoiced again to see him, as she had done in the garden. Fabio sat down
by the bed, took Valeria's hand, and after a brief pause, he asked her,
"What was that remarkable dream which had frightened her during the past
night? And had it been in the nature of that dream which Muzio had
related?"

Valeria blushed and said hastily--"Oh, no! no! I saw ... some sort of a
monster, which tried to rend me."

"A monster? In the form of a man?" inquired Fabio.

"No, a wild beast ... a wild beast!"--And Valeria turned away and hid
her flaming face in the pillows. Fabio held his wife's hand for a while
longer; silently he raised it to his lips, and withdrew.

The husband and wife passed a dreary day. It seemed as though something
dark were hanging over their heads ... but what it was, they could not
tell. They wanted to be together, as though some danger were menacing
them;--but what to say to each other, they did not know. Fabio made an
effort to work at the portrait, to read Ariosto, whose poem, which had
recently made its appearance in Ferrara, was already famous throughout
Italy; but he could do nothing.... Late in the evening, just in time for
supper, Muzio returned.

VII

He appeared calm and contented--but related few stories; he chiefly
interrogated Fabio concerning their mutual acquaintances of former days,
the German campaign, the Emperor Charles; he spoke of his desire to go
to Rome, to have a look at the new Pope. Again he offered Valeria wine
of Shiraz--and in reply to her refusal he said, as though to himself,
"It is not necessary now."

On returning with his wife to their bedroom Fabio speedily fell
asleep ... and waking an hour later was able to convince himself that no
one shared his couch: Valeria was not with him. He hastily rose, and at
the selfsame moment he beheld his wife, in her night-dress, enter the
room from the garden. The moon was shining brightly, although not long
before a light shower had passed over.--With widely-opened eyes, and an
expression of secret terror on her impassive face, Valeria approached
the bed, and fumbling for it with her hands, which were outstretched in
front of her, she lay down hurriedly and in silence. Fabio asked her a
question, but she made no reply; she seemed to be asleep. He touched
her, and felt rain-drops on her clothing, on her hair, and grains of
sand on the soles of her bare fee