ss Godolphin--"perhaps you did not seek the Corso for
the _crowd_ but for _one;_ perhaps you went there to meet--dare I guess
the fact?--an admirer, a lover."

"Now _you_ insult me!" cried Lucilla, angrily.

"I thank you for your anger; I accept it as a contradiction," said
Godolphin. "But listen yet a while, and for give frankness. If there
be any one, among the throng of Italian youths, whom you have seen,
and could be happy with; one who loves you and whom you do not
hate;--remember that I am your father's friend; that I am rich; that I
can----"

"Cruel, cruel!" interrupted Lucilla and withdrawing herself from
Godolphin, she walked to and fro with great and struggling agitation.

"Is it not so, then?" said Godolphin, doubtingly.

"No, sir: no!"

"Lucilla Volktman," said Godolphin, with a colder gravity than he had
yet called forth, "I claim some attention from you, some confidence,
nay, some esteem;--for the sake of your father--for the sake of your
early years, when I assisted to teach you my native tongue, and loved
you as a brother. Promise me that you will not commit this indiscretion
any more--at least till we meet again; nay, that you will not stir
abroad, save with one of your relations."

"Impossible! impossible!" cried Lucilla, vehemently; "it were to take
away the only solace I have: it were to make life a privation--a curse."

"Not so, Lucilla; it is to make life respectable and safe. I, on the
other hand, will engage that all within these walls shall behave to you
with indulgence and kindness."

"I care not for their kindness!--for the kindness of any one; save----"

"Whom?" asked Godolphin, perceiving she would not proceed: but as
she was still silent, he did not press the question. "Come!" said he,
persuasively: "come, promise, and be friends with me; do not let us part
angrily: I am about to take my leave of you for many months.

"Part!--you!--months!--O God, do not say so!"

With these words, she was by his side; and gazing on him with her large
and pleading eyes, wherein was stamped a wildness, a terror, the cause
of which he did not as yet decipher.

"No, no," said she, with a faint smile: "no! you mean to frighten me, to
extort my promise. You are not going to desert me!"

"But, Lucilla, I will not leave you to unkindness; they shall not--they
dare not wound you again."

"Say to me that you are not going from Rome--speak; quick!"

"I go in two days."

"Then let me die!" said Lu