lia, unabashed,
for her blood was up. "I could tell you--but I beseech you not to ask me.
Only consider the matter again, I beg you. It is very serious. Nothing
but the great interest I feel in you, and my conviction--"

"Donna Tullia, your conduct is so extraordinary," interrupted Corona,
looking at her curiously, "that I am tempted to believe you are mad. I
must beg you to explain what you mean by your words."

"Ah, no," answered Madame Mayer. "You do me injustice. I am not mad, but
I would save you from the most horrible danger."

"Again I say, what do you mean? I will not be trifled with in this way,"
said the Duchessa, who would have been more angry if she had been less
astonished, but whose temper was rapidly rising.

"I am not trifling with you," returned Donna Tullia. "I am imploring you
to think before you act, before you marry Don Giovanni. You cannot think
that I would venture to intrude upon you without the strongest reasons.
I am in earnest."

"Then, in heaven's name, speak out!" cried Corona, losing all patience.
"I presume that if this is a warning, you have some grounds, you have
some accusation to make against Don Giovanni. Have the goodness to state
what you have to say, and be brief."

"I will," said Donna Tullia, and she paused a moment, her face growing
red with excitement, and her blue eyes sparkling disagreeably. "You
cannot marry Don Giovanni," she said at length, "because there is an
insurmountable impediment in the way."

"What is it?" asked Corona, controlling her anger.

"He is already married!" hissed Donna Tullia.

Corona turned a little pale, and started back. But in an instant her
colour returned, and she broke into a low laugh.

"You are certainly insane," she said, eyeing Madame Mayer suspiciously.
It was not an easy matter to shake her faith in the man she loved. Donna
Tullia was disappointed at the effect she had produced. She was a clever
woman in her way, but she did not understand how to make the best of the
situation. She saw that she was simply an object of curiosity, and that
Corona seriously believed her mind deranged. She was frightened, and,
in order to help herself, she plunged deeper.

"You may call me mad, if you please," she replied, angrily. "I tell you
it is true. Don Giovanni was married on the 19th of June 1863, at Aquila,
in the Abruzzi, to a woman called Felice Baldi--whoever she may have
been. The register is extant, and the duplicate of the marriage
c