nd white as a virgin.

"Oh! come away," said Luigi, smiling.

"But I wish to see all."

And the imperious Ginevra looked at each piece of furniture with the
minute care of an antiquary examining a coin; she touched the silken
hangings, and went over every article with the artless satisfaction of a
bride in the treasures of her wedding outfit.

"We begin by ruining ourselves," she said, in a half-joyous,
half-anxious tone.

"True! for all my back pay is there," replied Luigi. "I have mortgaged
it to a worthy fellow named Gigonnet."

"Why did you do so?" she said, in a tone of reproach, through which
could be heard her inward satisfaction. "Do you believe I should be
less happy in a garret? But," she added, "it is all charming, and--it is
ours!"

Luigi looked at her with such enthusiasm that she lowered her eyes.

"Now let us see the rest," she cried.

Above these three rooms, under the roof, was a study for Luigi, a
kitchen, and a servant's-room. Ginevra was much pleased with her little
domain, although the view from the windows was limited by the high wall
of a neighboring house, and the court-yard, from which their light was
derived, was gloomy. But the two lovers were so happy in heart, hope
so adorned their future, that they chose to see nothing but what was
charming in their hidden nest. They were there in that vast house, lost
in the immensity of Paris, like two pearls in their shell in the depths
of ocean; to all others it might have seemed a prison; to them it was
paradise.

The first few days of their union were given to love. The effort to turn
at once to work was too difficult; they could not resist the charm of
their own passion. Luigi lay for hours at the feet of his wife, admiring
the color of her hair, the moulding of her forehead, the enchanting
socket of her eyes, the purity and whiteness of the two arches beneath
which the eyes themselves turned slowly, expressing the happiness of a
satisfied love. Ginevra caressed the hair of her Luigi, never weary of
gazing at what she called his "belta folgorante," and the delicacy of
his features. She was constantly charmed by the nobility of his manners,
as she herself attracted him by the grace of hers.

They played together, like children, with nothings,--nothings that
brought them ever back to their love,--ceasing their play only to fall
into a revery of the "far niente." An air sung by Ginevra reproduced
to their souls the enchanting lights and sh