-and
so gloriously handsome?" she added, her voice suddenly sinking to a
whisper.

Manuel gazed for a few moments, without speaking, on the countenance of
his mistress as she leant over him: then, in a deep, hollow tone--a tone
the despair of which was too real and natural to be in the slightest
degree affected, he said, "Giulia, I am a wretch,--unworthy of all this
sweet love of thine!--I have broken the solemn vow which I pledged
thee--I have violated my oath----"

"Oh, Manuel!" ejaculated the countess, still forgetting the presence of
the bandit: "thou hast----"

"Gambled once more--and lost!" cried the marquis wildly. "And the sum
that I am bound in honor to pay on Monday--by noon, is nearly equal in
amount to that which thy generosity lent me the other day."

"Holy Virgin aid you, my unhappy Manuel!" said Giulia.

"For thou canst not?" exclaimed the young noble, with a profound sigh.
"Oh! I am well aware that I have no claim upon thee----"

"Ah! wherefore that reproach?--for a reproach it is!" interrupted the
countess. "No claim on me! Hast thou not my heart? and in giving thee
that, Manuel, I laid at thy feet a poor offering, which, though so poor,
yet absorbs all others of which I may dispose! Do not reproach me,
Manuel--for I would lay down my life to save thy soul from pain, or thy
name from dishonor!"

"Now art thou my own Giulia!" cried the marquis, pressing her hand to
his lips. "An accursed fatality seems to hang over me! This habit of
gaming entraps me as the wine cup fascinates the bibber who would fain
avoid it, but cannot. Listen to me for one moment, Giulia. In the public
casino--which, as thou well knowest, is a place of resort where fortunes
are lost and won in an hour--ay, sometimes in a minute--I have met a man
whose attire is good, and whose purse is well filled, but whose
countenance I like as little as I should that of the captain of the
sbirri, or his lieutenant, if I had committed a crime. This individual
of whom I speak--for I know not his name--was the favored votary of Dame
Fortune who won of me that sum which thy kindness, Giulia, alone enabled
me to pay but a few days past. And now am I a second time this man's
debtor. An hour ago he entered the casino; he stayed but for ten
minutes--and in that time----"

"Oh! Manuel, is not this conduct of thine something bordering on
madness?" interrupted the countess. "And if thou art thus wedded to that
fatal habit, how canst thou find room