st's foot. He quickly turned, and,
tracing the noise, saw a very diminutive ass, who, tethered to an
olive-tree, was busily munching a meal of thistles, and as busily
stamping off the stray forest flies that settled on him. Two panniers,
covered over with some tarnished scarlet cloth, and a drum of
considerable size and very gaudy colouring, lay on the grass, with three
or four painted poles, a roll of carpet, and a bright brass basin, such
as conjurers use for their trade. There was also a curiously-shaped box,
painted in checkers, doubtless some mysteriously gifted 'property.'

Curious to discover the owners of these interesting relics, Gerald
advanced into the copse, when his quick hearing was arrested by the
long-drawn breathings of several people fast asleep--so, at least, they
seemed, by the full-toned chorus of their snorings; though the next
moment showed him that they consisted of but three persons, an old,
stunted, and very emaciated man; an equally old woman, immensely fat
and misshapen, to which her tawdry finery gave something indescribably
ludicrous in effect; and a young girl, whose face was buried in the bend
of her arms, but whose form, as she lay in the graceful abandonment of
sleep, was finely and beautifully proportioned. A coarse dress of brown
stuff was her only covering, leaving her arms bare, while her legs, but
for the sandals of some tawdry tinsel, were naked to the knees and as
brown as the skin of an Indian, yet in shape and symmetry they might
have vied with the most faultless statue of the antique--indeed, to
a sleeping nymph in the gallery of the Altieri Palace was Gerald now
comparing her, as he stood gazing on her. The richly floating hair,
which, as a protection against the zanzari, she had let fall over her
neck and shoulders, only partially defended her, and so she stirred at
times, each motion displaying some new charm, some fresh grace of form.
At last, perhaps startled by a thought of her dreams, she gave a sudden
cry, and sprang up to a sitting posture, her eyes widely staring and her
half-opened lips turned to where Gerald stood. As for him, the amazement
that seized him overcame him--for she was no other than the tarantella
dancer of the Piazza di Spagna, the Marietta who had so fascinated him
on the night he left the convent.

'Babbo! Babbo!' screamed she, in terror, as she caught sight of the
naked rapier at the youth's side; and in a moment both the old man and
the woman wer