ut her transformed her into a sort of
personified rainbow. This was Lisetta's Carnival attire, and very proud
she was of it.

"Why, Lisetta, what do you want, and what makes you so happy?" called
Mae.

"O, Signorina, the cousins are here,--and others,--all in mask. They
fill Maria's rooms quite full. It is very gay out there, and they all
want to see you, Signorina. I have told them how well you speak Italian
and how you love Italy, and to-night, they say, you shall be one of us.
So come." All this while Lisetta had been leading Mae swiftly down the
corridor, until as she said these last words, she reached and pushed
open the door. A great shout of laughter greeted Mae's ear, and a pretty
picture met her eyes--gaily decked youths and maidens clapping their
hands and chattering brightly, while the padrona was just entering the
opposite doorway, bearing two flasks of native wine, and some glasses.

"'Tis genuine Orvieto," she called out, and this raised another shout.
Then she caught sight of Mae and bowed low towards her. "Here is the
little foreign lady," she cried, and a dozen pairs of big black eyes
were turned eagerly and warmly on Mae. She bowed and smiled at them,
and said in pleading tones, "O, pray do not call me the 'little foreign
lady' now. Play I am as good an Italian as my heart could wish I were."

This speech was received with new applause, and the padrona handed
around the glasses saying: "We must drink first to the health of our new
Italian. May she never leave us."

"Yes, yes," called Lisetta, lifting high her glass. "Yes, yes," cried
all, and Mae drank as heartily as any of them. Then she shook her head
and gazed very scornfully down on her dark, stylish clothes. "I am not
thoroughly Italian yet," she cried. "Here, and here, and here," cried
one and another, proffering bits of their own gay costumes, and in a
moment Mae had received all sorts of tributes--a string of red beads
from one, a long sash from another, a big-balled stiletto from a third,
so that she was able from the gleanings to trim herself up into at least
a grotesque and un-American Carnival figure. Then the Italians with
their soft tongues began to flatter her.

"How lovely the Signorina would look in a contadina costume--the home
costume," said Lisetta gravely. "It is so beautiful, is it not?" And
then those two or three privileged ones, who had seen Lisetta's
home, went into ecstasies over its many charms. Lisetta, next to the
S