ief made her look curiously into the faces
of the other men; but the pronouncing of her name engaged her attention.

"Your first night is the night of the fifteenth of next month?"

"It is, signore," she replied, abashed to find herself speaking with him
who had so moved her.

"There is no likelihood of a postponement?"

"I am certain, signore, that I shall be ready."

"There are no squabbles of any serious kind among the singers?"

A soft dimple played for a moment on her lips. "I have heard something."

"Among the women?"

"Yes, and the men."

"But the men do not concern you?"

"No, signore. Except that the women twist them."

Agostino chuckled audibly. The Chief resumed:

"You believe, notwithstanding, that all will go well? The opera will be
acted; and you will appear in it?"

"Yes, signore. I know one who has determined on it, and can do it."

"Good. The opera is Camilla?"

She was answering with an affirmative, when Agostino broke in,--"Camilla!
And honour to whom honour is due! Let Caesar claim the writing of the
libretto, if it be Caesar's! It has passed the censorship, signed
Agostino Balderini--a disaffected person out of Piedmont, rendered tame
and fangless by a rigorous imprisonment. The sources of the tale, O ye
grave Signori Tedeschi? The sources are partly to be traced to a neat
little French vaudeville, very sparkling--Camille, or the Husband
Asserted; and again to a certain Chronicle that may be mediaeval, may be
modern, and is just, as the great Shakespeare would say, 'as you like
it.'"

Agostino recited some mock verses, burlesquing the ordinary libretti, and
provoked loud laughter from Carlo Ammiani, who was familiar enough with
the run of their nonsense.

"Camilla is the bride of Camillo. I give to her all the brains, which is
a modern idea, quite! He does all the mischief, which is possibly
mediaeval. They have both an enemy, which is mediaeval and modern. None
of them know exactly what they are about; so there you have the modern,
the mediaeval, and the antique, all in one. Finally, my friends, Camilla
is something for you to digest at leisure. The censorship swallowed it at
a gulp. Never was bait so handsomely taken! At present I have the joy of
playing my fish. On the night of the fifteenth I land him. Camilla has a
mother. Do you see? That mother is reported, is generally conceived, as
dead. Do you see further? Camilla's first song treats of a dream she has
had of that moth