lmost
enough to drive me mad."

"Good heavens! you can't mean it? This is dreadful; do I hear you
aright?"

"Yes. You are moved, I see, but such are the circumstances of the case.
Pardon my tears, which flow from anger and the shame with which I am
covered."

"Yes, and from outraged religion, too."

"Certainly, certainly. That is the chief source of my grief, and I should
have mentioned it if I had not feared you were not so strongly attached
to religion as myself."

"Nobody, God be praised! could be more strongly attached to religion than
I, and nothing can ever unloose the ties which bind me to it:"

"You will be grieved, then, to hear that I am destined to suffer eternal
punishment, for I must and will be avenged."

"Not so, madam, perish the thought, as I could not become your accomplice
in such a design, and if you will not abandon it at least say nothing to
me on the subject. I will promise you to tell him nothing, although as he
lives with me the sacred laws of hospitality oblige me to give him due
warning."

"I thought he lived with the Lambertini"

"He left her yesterday. The connection between them was a criminal one,
and I have drawn him back from the brink of the precipice."

"You don't mean to say so!"

"Yes, upon my word of honour:"

"You astonish one. This is very edifying. I don't wish the young man's
death, but you must confess he owes me some reparation."

"He does indeed. A charming Frenchwoman is not to be handled in the
Italian manner without signal amends, but I can think of nothing at all
commensurate with the offence. There is only one plan, which I will
endeavour to carry out if you will agree to it."

"What is that?"

"I will put the guilty party in your power without his knowing what is to
happen, and I will leave you alone, so that you can wreak all your wrath
upon him, provided you will allow me to be, unknown to him, in the next
room, as I shall regard myself as responsible for his safety."

"I consent. You will stay in this room, and he must be left in the other
where I shall receive you, but take care he has no suspicion of your
presence."

"He shan't dream of it. He will not even know where I am taking him, for
he must not think that I have been informed of his misdoings. As soon as
we be there, and the conversation becomes general, I shall leave the
room, pretending to be going away."

"When will you bring him? I long to cover him with confusion. I will
make h