ce proposed to call him before you, and Giovanni was angry."

"That is absurd," said Corona. "Don Giovanni was not the least annoyed.
He was with me afterwards--"

"Always Giovanni! Always Giovanni! Wherever you go, it is Giovanni!"
cried the old man, in unreasonable petulance--unreasonable from his point
of view, reasonable enough had he known the truth. But he struck
unconsciously upon the key-note of all Corona's troubles, and she turned
pale to the lips.

"You say it is not true," he began again. "How do you know? How can you
tell what may have been said? How can you guess it? Giovanni Saracinesca
is about you in society more than any one. He has quarrelled about you,
and two men have lost their lives in consequence. He is in love with you,
I tell you. Can you not see it? You must be blind!"

Corona leaned back in her chair, utterly overcome by the suddenness of
the situation, unable to answer, her hands folded tightly together, her
pale lips compressed. Angry at her silence, old Astrardente continued,
his rage gradually getting the mastery of his sense, and his passion
working itself up to the pitch of madness.

"Blind--yes--positively blind!" he cried. "Do you think that I am blind
too? Do you think I will overlook all this? Do you not see that your
reputation is injured--that people associate your name with his--that no
woman can be mentioned in the same breath with Giovanni Saracinesca and
hope to maintain a fair fame? A fellow whose adventures are in
everybody's mouth, whose doings are notorious; who has but to look at a
woman to destroy her; who is a duellist, a libertine--"

"That is not true," interrupted Corona, unable to listen calmly to the
abuse thus heaped upon the man she so dearly loved. "You are mad--"

"You defend him!" screamed Astrardente, leaning far forward in his chair
and clenching his hands. "You dare to support him--you acknowledge that
you care for him! Does he not pursue you everywhere, so that the town
rings with it? You ought to long to be rid of him, to wish he were dead,
rather than allow his name to be breathed with yours; and instead, you
defend him to me--you say he is right, that you prefer his odious
devotion to your good name, to my good name! Oh, it is not to be
believed! If you loved him yourself you could not do worse!"

"If half you say were true--" said Corona, in terrible distress.

"True?" cried Astrardente, who would not brook interruption. "It is all
true--and m