stair. Two or three dogs, which as usual had
taken possession of the small space allotted for the passage to the
primo piano, rushed, with frantic yells, down stairs. It could scarcely
be properly called a house; it was rather a collection of planks nailed
together, supporting the most rickety description of roof. It was quite
wonderful how the whole fabric held together at all; for between the
chinks of the rotten and creaking floor we could look into the shop
below, where, amid immense piles of bales and casks, children were
riotously playing.

There was a curious expression of doubt and uneasiness in Rachel's
countenance, when, with some slight degree of impatience, I begged her
to be quick and show me the lace. She looked carefully round the room,
as though fearful of being observed. At last, after some hesitation, she
ransacked an old drawer, and drew forth the lace from beneath a heap of
rags and rubbish.

It was certainly the most magnificent specimen of old lace which I had
seen in Italy. A large and deep flounce of the _pointe du roi_; that
lace which was made solely for the Grand Monarque, and subsequently sold
at immense prices, a great portion of it coming into the possession of
the cardinals. It was in a most perfect state, and the only thing that
surprised me in the transaction was the excessively low price which she
asked for it: but, of course, it was not my business to tell her the
real value of her own property; so I eagerly wrote a check on Torlonia,
and requested her to pack it up.

My attention had latterly been so absorbed by the beauty of the fabric,
that it was not until I placed the check in her hand I observed how she
trembled. She endeavored, when she saw me observing her, to conceal her
agitation, but it soon defied even her dissimulation. She leant against
a small chest of drawers, and had barely strength enough to point to a
cup, which was half full of spirits, which I handed to her. She drank it
off with the energy of apparent despair, and then it was that she
commenced to revive slowly; but her forehead was still damp from
agitation, and her lips were as pale and colorless as her cheeks.

"What is the matter?" I asked. "Are you ill, Rachel?"

She clutched hold of my arm mechanically.

"Do not show the lace," she exclaimed, "to any one in Rome; at least
promise me solemnly that you will not allow a single person to know from
whom you purchased it."

"Just as you like," I answered,