at first, touched a bell and
immediately her brother Leon and her maid appeared.

"Franchette," she said, addressing the latter, "assist me with my street
toilet. I have sufficiently recovered to return to the Hotel de France."

Unmindful of the presence of the Captain and Leon, the designing prima
donna at once began to remove the costume she had worn during the opera.
The maid aided her in this operation with the outward impassibility of
theatrical servants, though she imperceptibly smiled as she realized
that this display of her mistress' personal charms was made solely for
the purpose of rendering the young soldier still more the slave of that
artful siren.

As Mlle. d' Armilly stood in her corset and clinging skirts of spotless
white that delicately outlined her faultless shape, her fine throat,
shoulders and arms displaying their glowing brilliancy, Captain Joliette
gazed at her like one entranced. Never in all his life, he thought, had
he looked upon a woman so thoroughly beautiful, so goddess-like. She was
as perfect as a painting of Venus, and a thousand times more lovely for
being alive. He held his breath as he saw her bosom palpitate and felt
that he would give all he possessed in the world to call her his own, to
be with her forever.

Leon seemed somewhat abashed by his sister's proceeding and blushed like
a girl, the crimson tide giving his countenance a beauty altogether
feminine.

The toilet operation completed, Mlle. d' Armilly surveyed herself
triumphantly in the mirror. She was well aware that she had riveted her
chains very tightly upon her lover, but, for all that, she could tell
only by actual experiment if he were sufficiently under her dominion to
accede to her wishes concerning the Count of Monte-Cristo. Hence she
determined to make that experiment without delay, ere cool reflection
had come to the dazzled warrior's aid and enabled him to realize that a
trap had been laid for him.

Quitting the mirror, she went to Captain Joliette's side and, placing
her hand on his arm, as she threw into his eyes all the magnetism of her
glance, said, in a dulcet tone:

"Will you accompany me to the hotel, Captain?"

The young man joyously assented, and soon an elegant equipage was
bearing him swiftly towards the prima donna's apartments.

CHAPTER V.

ANNUNZIATA SOLARA.

It was a bright, warm afternoon in spring, and the Piazza del Popolo,
Rome's great promenade, was crowded with gay plea