rt Eglamore very bitterly," said Guido, "but we merchants have no
quarrel with him. He buys too lavishly."

"I trust I shall not see Count Eglamore when I go to court," said
Graciosa, meditatively; "and, indeed, by that time, my father assures
me, some honest gentleman will have contrived to cut the throat of this
abominable Eglamore." Her father's people, it should be premised, had
been at bitter feud with the favorite ever since he detected and
punished the conspiracy of the Marquis of Cibo, their kinsman. Then
Graciosa continued: "Nevertheless, I shall see many beautiful sights
when I am taken to court. . . . And the Duke, too, you tell me, is an
amateur of gems."

"Eh, madonna, I wish that you could see his jewels," cried Guido,
growing fervent; and he lovingly catalogued a host of lapidary marvels.

"I hope that I shall see these wonderful jewels when I go to court,"
said Graciosa wistfully.

"Duke Alessandro," he returned, his dark eyes strangely mirthful, "is,
as I take it, a catholic lover of beauty in all its forms. So he will
show you his gems, very assuredly, and, worse still, he will make
verses in your honor. For it is a preposterous feature of Duke
Alessandro's character that he is always making songs."

"Oh, and such strange songs as they are, too, Guido. Who does not know
them?"

"I am not the best possible judge of his verses' merit," Guido
estimated, drily. "But I shall never understand how any singer at all
came to be locked in such a prison. I fancy that at times the paradox
puzzles even Duke Alessandro."

"And is he as handsome as people report?"

Then Guido laughed a little. "Tastes differ, of course. But I think
your father will assure you, madonna, that no duke possessing such a
zealous tax-collector as Count Eglamore was ever in his lifetime
considered of repulsive person."

"And is he young?"

"Why, as to that, he is about of an age with me, and in consequence old
enough to be far more sensible than either of us is ever likely to be,"
said Guido; and began to talk of other matters.

But presently Graciosa was questioning him again as to the court,
whither she was to go next year and enslave a marquis, or, at worst, an
opulent baron. Her thoughts turned toward the court's predominating
figure. "Tell me of Eglamore, Guido."

"Madonna, some say that Eglamore was a brewer's son. Others--and your
father's kinsmen in particular--insist that he was begot by a devil in
pe