sure-seekers of both
sexes, while the Corso and the two other principal thoroughfares
diverging from this extensive public square were also thronged with
young and old. The trees were covered with fresh green foliage, and
multitudes of blooming flowers adorned the Piazza and the windows of the
adjacent palaces and humble dwellings. Sounds of joy and mirth were
heard on every side, while now and then strains of soft music were
audible. It was truly a most inspiring scene of light and life.
Flirtations were frequent between beautiful dark-visaged girls, with
hair and eyes like night, in their picturesque attire, and manly-looking
youthful gallants, while here and there sullen and sombre glances spoke
of jealousy as fierce as fire, hinting of marital vengeance and love
tragedies characteristic of the hot-blooded, impetuous Italians.

In the midst of the throng on the Piazza two youths were strolling, arm
in arm. They were the Viscount Giovanni Massetti and Esperance, the son
of Monte-Cristo. Fast friends they seemed, and gayly they chatted as
they passed leisurely along. Their spirits were in full harmony with
the animated scene around them, and they were evidently not insensible
to the charms of the many pretty maidens they encountered and upon whom
they cast admiring glances.

Suddenly a peasant girl of dazzling beauty appeared in the Piazza very
near them. She was apparently about seventeen, glowing with sturdy
health, her full cheeks the hue of the red rose. Her sleeves, rolled
above the elbows, displayed perfect arms that would have been the envy
of a sculptor. Her feet were bare and her short skirts afforded dazzling
glimpses of finely turned ankles and limbs of almost faultless form. Her
face had a cheery and agreeable expression, not unmixed with piquant
archness and a sort of dainty, bewitching coquetry. She was a
flower-girl, and was vending bouquets from a basket jauntily borne on
one arm. She addressed herself glibly to the young men she met, offering
her wares so demurely and modestly that she seldom failed in finding
appreciation and liberal customers. There was not even a suspicion of
boldness or sauciness about her, but she had that entire self-possession
engendered by thorough familiarity with her somewhat risky and perilous
vocation.

Giovanni and Esperance caught sight of her simultaneously. Both were
struck by her appearance and demeanor, to which her gaudy but neat and
clean peasant costume gave add