ard wavering:

"No, I thank you, signore; I would rather not."

"Oh, stuff, my child! I won't harm you, and your mother need never
know."

He seized her gently by the arm and pointed toward the canvas door
which was drawn aside to admit another spectator. A gorgeously attired
monkey, riding on a poodle, became visible for an instant through the
aperture. That was too much for Annunciata's conscience.

"But really, signore, I ought not!" she murmured, feebly.

"But we all do so many things that we ought not to do," answered he,
with a brusque laugh. "However, I won't bite you; you needn't be
afraid of me."

And before she knew it he had pushed her in through the door, and she
found herself standing in a large tent, with long circular rows of
benches which rose ampitheatrically from the arena toward the canvas
walls. It was not quite to her taste that he conducted her to a seat
near the roof, but she did not feel at liberty to remonstrate. She sat
staring rigidly at the performances of the poodles and the monkeys,
which were, no doubt, very wonderful, but which, somehow, failed to
impress her as such, for she felt all the while that the gentleman at
her side was regarding her with unaverted gaze. The thought of Signore
Giovanni shot through her mind, and she feared she should never dare
to look into his honest eyes again. Her heart kept hammering against
her side, her blood burned in her cheeks, and she felt guilty and
miserable. And yet she saw, in a sort of blind and unconscious way,
that her escort was a very dazzling phenomenon, and in external finish
much superior to her plain and unassuming lover. Gradually, as she
accustomed herself to her novel situation, she began to bestow her
furtive admiration upon the various ornaments which he carried about
his person in the shape of scarf-pin and sleeve-buttons, and she also
found time to observe that his linen and his handkerchief were
immaculate and of exceeding fineness. The _tout ensemble_ of his
personality made the impression of costliness which, to her
unsophisticated soul, was synonymous with high birth and an exalted
social position.

"If only Signore Giovanni would dress like that," she thought, "how
much more I should love him!"

That was a very disloyal thought, and her conscience immediately smote
her. She arose, thanked her companion tremulously for his kindness,
and hastened toward the door. When she was once more under the open
sky, she drew a ful