ane; her doubt
was of its lawfulness, her dread of the supernatural region she was
invading. She hesitated before she ventured on her first question, and
started as the Italian first spoke,--'What would the Eccelentissima?
Ladies often hesitate to speak the question nearest their hearts. Yet
is it ever the same. But the lady must be pleased to form it herself in
words, or the lad will not see her vision.'

'Where, then, is my brother?' said Diane, still reluctant to come direct
to the point.

The boy gazed intently into the black pool, his great eyes dilating till
they seemed like black wells, and after a long time, that Diane could
have counted by the throbs of her heart, he began to close his fingers,
perform the action over the other arm of one playing on the lute, throw
his head back, close his eyes, and appear to be singing a lullaby. Then
he spoke a few words to his master quickly.

'He see,' said Ercole, 'a gentleman touching the lute, seated in a
bedroom, where lies, on a rich pillow, another gentleman,'--and as the
boy stroked his face, and pointed to his hands--'wearing a mask and
gloves. It is, he says, in my own land, in Italy,' and as the boy made
the action of rowing, 'in the territory of Venice.'

'It is well,' said Madame de Selinville, who knew that nothing was more
probable than that her brother should be playing the King to his sleep
in the medicated mask and gloves that cherished the royal complexion,
and, moreover, that Henry was lingering to take his pastime in Italy to
the great inconvenience of his kingdom.

Her next question came nearer her heat--'You saw the gentleman with a
scar. Will he leave this castle?'

The boy gazed, then made gestures of throwing his arms wide, and of
passing out; and as he added his few words, the master explained: 'He
sees the gentleman leaving the castle, through open gate, in full day,
on horseback; and--and it is Madame who is with them,' he added, as the
lad pointed decidedly to her, 'it is Madame who opens their prison.'

Diane's face lighted with gladness for a moment; then she said,
faltering (most women of her day would not have been even thus
reserved), 'Then I shall marry again?'

The boy gazed and knitted his brow; then, without any pantomime, looked
up and spoke. 'The Eccellentissima shall be a bride once more, he
says,' explained the man, 'but after a sort he cannot understand. It
is exhausting, lady, thus to gaze into the invisible future; the b