h-like bloom and delicacy of her flesh had altogether
disappeared--her skin appeared drawn and dry as though parched in
tropical heat. Her hair was disordered, and fell about her in
clustering showers of gold--that, and her eyes, were the only signs of
youth about her. A sudden wave of compassion swept over my soul.

"Oh wife!" I exclaimed--"wife that I so ardently loved--wife that I
would have died for indeed, had you bade me!--why did you betray me? I
thought you truth itself--ay! and if you had but waited for one day
after you thought me dead, and THEN chosen Guido for your lover, I tell
you, so large was my tenderness, I would have pardoned you! Though
risen from the grave, I would have gone away and made no sign--yes if
you had waited--if you had wept for me ever so little! But when your
own lips confessed your crime--when I knew that within three months of
our marriage-day you had fooled me--when I learned that my love, my
name, my position, my honor, were used as mere screens to shelter your
intrigue with the man I called friend!--God! what creature of mortal
flesh and blood could forgive such treachery? I am no more than
others--but I loved you--and in proportion to my love, so is the
greatness of my wrongs!"

She listened--she advanced a little toward me--a faint smile dawned on
her pallid lips--she whispered:

"Fabio! Fabio!"

I looked at her--unconsciously my voice dropped into a cadence of
intense melancholy softened by tenderness.

"Ay--Fabio! What wouldst thou with a ghost of him? Does it not seem
strange to thee--that hated name?--thou, Nina, whom I loved as few men
love women--thou who gavest me no love at all--thou, who hast broken my
heart and made me what I am!"

A hard, heavy sob rose in my throat and choked my utterance. I was
young; and the cruel waste and destruction of my life seemed at that
moment more than I could bear. She heard me, and the smile brightened
more warmly on her countenance. She came close to me--half timidly yet
coaxingly she threw one arm about my neck--her bosom heaved quickly.

"Fabio," she murmured--"Fabio, forgive me! I spoke in haste--I do not
hate thee! Come! I will make amends for all thy suffering--I will love
thee--I will be true to thee, I will be all thine! See! thou knowest I
have not lost my beauty!"

And she clung to me with passion, raising her lips to mine, while with
her large inquiring eyes she searched my face for the reply to her
words. I gazed dow