pse of
the lovely child, surrounded by the hired mourners singing their dismal
_De profundis_ in hoarse voices, and then the comical masks of
Pasquarello and Dr. Gratiano, who were expressing their grief in the
most ridiculous gestures, and lastly the two Capuzzis, wailing and
screeching in despair. Indeed, all who were witnesses of the
extraordinary spectacle could not help feeling, even in the midst of
the unrestrained laughter they had burst out into at sight of the
wonderful old gentleman, that their hearts were chilled by a most
uncomfortable feeling of awe.

Now the stage grew dark, and it thundered and lightened, and there rose
up from below a pale ghostly figure, which bore most unmistakably the
features of Capuzzi's dead brother, Pietro of Senigaglia, Marianna's
father.

"O you infamous brother, Pasquale! what have you done with my daughter?
what have you done with my daughter?" wailed the figure, in a dreadful
and hollow voice. "Despair, you atrocious murderer of my child. You
shall find your reward in hell."

Capuzzi on the stage dropped on the floor as if struck by lightning,
and at the same moment the real Capuzzi reeled from his seat
unconscious. The bushes rustled together again, and the stage was gone,
and also Marianna and Capuzzi and the ghastly spectre Pietro. Signor
Pasquale Capuzzi lay in such a dead faint that it cost a good deal of
trouble to revive him.

At length he came to himself with a deep sigh, and, stretching out both
hands before him as if to ward off the horror that had seized him, he
cried in a husky voice, "Leave me alone, Pietro." Then a torrent of
tears ran down his cheeks, and he sobbed and cried, "Oh! Marianna, my
darling child--my--my Marianna." "But recollect yourself," said now
Cavalcanti, "recollect yourself, Signor Pasquale, it was only on the
stage that you saw your niece dead. She is alive; she is here to crave
pardon for the thoughtless step which love and also your own
inconsiderate conduct drove her to take."

And Marianna, and behind her Antonio Scacciati, now ran forward from
the back part of the hall and threw themselves at the old gentleman's
feet,--for he had meanwhile been placed in an easy chair. Marianna,
looking most charming and beautiful, kissed his hands and bathed them
with scalding tears, beseeching him to pardon both her and Antonio, to
whom she had been united by the blessing of the Church.

Suddenly the hot blood surged into the old man's pallid f