ay be apter than my appearance would give reason to
think."

"I will trust thee, kind girl, and if the Sainted Virgin protects us,
thy fortunes shall not be forgotten!"

The pious Gelsomina crossed herself, and, first acquainting her
companions with her intentions, she went within to prepare herself,
while Donna Florinda penned a note, in terms so guarded as to defy
detection in the event of accident, but which might suffice to let the
lord of St. Agata understand their present situation.

In a few minutes the keeper's daughter reappeared. Her ordinary attire,
which was that of a modest Venetian maiden of humble condition, needed
no concealment; and the mask, an article of dress which none in that
city were without, effectually disguised her features. She then received
the note, with the name of the street, and the palace she was to seek, a
description of the person of the Neapolitan, with often-repeated
cautions to be wary, and departed.

CHAPTER XXIV.

"Which is the wiser here?--Justice or iniquity?"
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

In the constant struggle between the innocent and the artful, the latter
have the advantage, so long as they confine themselves to familiar
interests. But the moment the former conquer their disgust for the study
of vice, and throw themselves upon the protection of their own high
principles, they are far more effectually concealed from the
calculations of their adversaries than if they practised the most
refined of their subtle expedients. Nature has given to every man enough
of frailty to enable him to estimate the workings of selfishness and
fraud, but her truly privileged are those who can shroud their motives
and intentions in a degree of justice and disinterestedness, which
surpass the calculations of the designing. Millions may bow to the
commands of a conventional right, but few, indeed, are they who know how
to choose in novel and difficult cases. There is often a mystery in
virtue. While the cunning of vice is no more than a pitiful imitation of
that art which endeavors to cloak its workings in the thin veil of
deception, the other, in some degree, resembles the sublimity of
infallible truth.

Thus men too much practised in the interests of life, constantly
overreach themselves when brought in contact with the simple and
intelligent; and the experience of every day proves that, as there is no
fame permanent which is not founded on virtue, so t