d ambitious career for
yourself. You loved the great intrigues of state, and were well fitted
to conduct or control them. None such gifts were mine. I was and I am
still a mere creature of society. I never soared, even in fancy,
beyond the triumphs which the world of fashion decrees. A cruel destiny
excluded me from the pleasures of a life that would have amply satisfied
me, and there is nothing left but to avenge myself on the cause."

"My dearest Nina, with all your self-stimulation you cannot make
yourself the vindictive creature you would appear," said the Princess,
smiling.

"How little do you know my Italian blood!" said the other, passionately.
"That boy--he was not much more than boy--that Greppi was, as I told
you, the very image of Glencore. The same dark skin, the same heavy
brow, the same cold, stern look, which even a smile did not enliven;
even to the impassive air with which he listened to a provocation,--all
were alike. Well, the resemblance has cost him dearly. I consented at
last to Wahnsdorf's continual entreaty to exclude him from the Villa,
and charged the Count with the commission. I am not sure that he
expended an excess of delicacy on the task; I half fear me that he did
the act more rudely than was needed. At all events, a quarrel was the
result, and a challenge to a duel. I only knew of this when all was
over; believe me, I should never have permitted it. However, the result
was as safe in the hands of Fate. The youth fled from Massa; and though
Wahnsdorf followed him, they never met."

"There was no duel, you say?" cried the Princess, eagerly.

"How could there be? This Greppi never went to the rendezvous. He
quitted Massa during the night, and has never since been heard of. In
this, I own to you, he was not like _him._" And, as she said the words,
the tears swam in her eyes, and rolled down her cheeks. "May I ask you
how you learned all this?" "From Wahnsdorf; on his return, in a week or
two, he told me all. Ida, at first, would not believe it; but how could
she discredit what was plain and palpable? Greppi was gone. All the
inquiries of the police were in vain as to his route; none could guess
how he had escaped."

"And this account was given you--you yourself--by Wahnsdorf?" repeated
the Princess.

"Yes, to myself. Why should he have concealed it?" "And now he is to
marry Ida?" said the Princess, half musingly, to herself.

"We hope, with _your_ aid, that it may be so. The family di