me when God's children shall be all of one
mind!" she uttered; "when the same mode of worship, and that a pure one,
shall animate us all. In the later ages, this peace may be upon the
earth."

"Would to the saints that it were now, Gina; or that you and I had never
met."

"What! do _you_ wish it?" she contemptuously exclaimed; "you, who
voluntarily sever yourself from me?"

"I have acted an honorable part, Gina," he cried, striding to and fro in
his agitation.

"_Honorable_, did you say?"

"Ay, honorable. You were growing too dear to me, and I could not speak
of marriage to you." There was a long pause. She was standing against
one of the cypress-trees, the moon, through an opening above, casting
its light upon her pure face, down which were coursing tears of anguish.
"So henceforth we must be brother and sister," he whispered.

"Brother and sister," she repeated, in a moaning voice, pressing the
cold tree against her aching temples.

"After awhile, Gina, when time shall have tamed our feelings down. Until
then, we may not meet."

"Not meet!" she exclaimed, startled by the words into sudden pain. "Will
you never come to see us? Shall we never be together again--like brother
and sister, as you have just said?"

"Nay, Gina, I must not do so great wrong to the Lady Adelaide."

"So great wrong!" she exclaimed in amazement.

"Not real wrong, I am aware. But I shall undertake at the altar to love
and cherish her; and though I cannot do the one, I will the other.
Knowing this, it is incumbent on me to be doubly careful of her
feelings."

"I see, I see," interrupted the young lady, indignantly; "_her_ feelings
must be respected whilst mine--Farewell, Giovanni."

"One word yet, Gina," he said, detaining her. "You will probably hear of
me much--foremost in the chase, gayest in the ballroom, last at the
banquet--the gay, fortunate Lord of Visinara; and when you do so,
remember that that gay lord wears about him a secret chain, suspected by
and known to none--a chain, some links of which will remain entwined
around his heart to his dying day, though the gilding that made it
precious must from this time moulder away. Know you what the chain is,
Gina?"

The suffocating sobs were rising in her throat, and she made no answer.

"_His love for you_. Fare thee well, my dearest and best. Nay, another
instant; it is our last embrace in this world."

III.

It was a princely cavalcade that bore the heiress of Della Ri