Think how unhappy I would be if
even now I loved you, and how I would loathe myself. . . . But I am
getting angry over nothing. Nothing has happened except that I have
dreamed in idle moments of a brave and comely lover who held his head
so high that all other women envied me, and now I have awakened."

Meanwhile, it was with tears in his eyes that the young man in white
had listened to her quiet talk, for you could nowhere have found a
nature more readily sensitive than his to all the beauty and wonder
which life, as if it were haphazardly, produces every day. He pitied
this betrayed child quite ineffably, because in her sorrow she was so
pretty.

So he spoke consolingly. "Fie, Donna Graciosa, you must not be too
harsh with Eglamore. It is his nature to scheme, and he weaves his
plots as inevitably as the spider does her web. Believe me, it is
wiser to forget the rascal--as I do--until there is need of him; and I
think you will have no more need to consider Eglamore's trickeries, for
you are very beautiful, Graciosa."

He had drawn closer to the girl, and he brought a cloying odor of
frangipani, bergamot and vervain. His nostrils quivered, his face had
taken on an odd pinched look, for all that he smiled as over some
occult jest. Graciosa was a little frightened by his bearing, which
was both furtive and predatory.

"Oh, do not be offended, for I have some rights to say what I desire in
these parts. For, _Dei gratia_, I am the overlord of these parts,
Graciosa--a neglected prince who wondered over the frequent absences of
his chief counselor and secretly set spies upon him. Eglamore here
will attest as much. Or if you cannot believe poor Eglamore any
longer, I shall have other witnesses within the half-hour. Oh, yes,
they are to meet me here at noon--some twenty crop-haired stalwart
cut-throats. They will come riding upon beautiful broad-chested horses
covered with red velvet trappings that are hung with little silver
bells which jingle delightfully. They will come very soon, and then we
will ride back to court."

Duke Alessandro touched his big painted mouth with his forefinger as if
in fantastic mimicry of a man imparting a confidence.

"I think that I shall take you with me, Graciosa, for you are very
beautiful. You are as slim as a lily and more white, and your eyes are
two purple mirrors in each of which I see a tiny image of Duke
Alessandro. The woman I loved yesterday was a big splendid