re, and why with all
this haste, yet these were matters, I confess, on which my curiosity was
aroused.

"Are you journeying beyond Cagli?" I asked him presently, in an idle
tone.

He cocked his head, and eyed me aslant, the suspicion in his eyes
confirming the existence of the mystery I scented.

"Yes," he answered, after a pause. "We hope to reach Urbino before
night. And you? Are you journeying far?"

"That far, at least," I answered him, emulating the caution he had
shown.

And then, ere more might pass between us, the leather curtains of the
litter were sharply drawn aside. At the sound I turned my head, and so
far was the vision different from that which--for no reason that I can
give--I had expected, that I was stricken with surprise and wonder. A
lady--a very child, indeed--had leapt nimbly to the ground ere any of
those grooms could offer her assistance.

She was, I thought, the most beautiful woman that I had ever seen, and
to one who had read the famous work of Messer Firenzuola on feminine
beauty it might seem, at first, that here stood the incarnation of that
writer's catalogue of womanly perfections. She was of a good shape
and stature, despite her tender years; her face was oval, delicately
featured and of an ivory pallor. Her eyes--blue as the heavens
overhead--were not of the colour most approved by Firenzuola, nor was
her hair of the golden brown which that arbiter commends. Had Firenzuola
seen her, it may well be that he had altered or modified his views. She
was sumptuously arrayed in a loose-sleeved camorra of grey velvet that
was heavy with costly furs; above the lenza of fine linen on her head
gleamed the gold thread of a jewelled net, and at her waist a girdle of
surpassing richness, all set with gems, glowed like a thing of fire in
the bright sunshine.

She took a deep breath of the sharp, invigorating air, then looked
about her, and espying me in conversation with Giacopo she approached us
across the gleaming snow.

"Is this," she inquired, and her sweet, melodious voice was a perfect
match to the graceful charm of her whole presence, "the traveller who so
kindly consented to fill for us the office of a guide?"

Giacopo answered briefly that I was that man.

"I am in your debt, sir," she protested, with an odd earnestness. "You
do not know how great a service you have rendered me. But if at any time
Paola Sforza di Santafior may be able to discharge this obligation, you
shall find