love me less, Hedwig, because I am of the people?"

For all answer Hedwig threw her arms round his neck, passionately.

"Tell me, love, would you think better of me if I were noble?"

"Ah, Nino, how most unkind! Oh, no: I love you, and for your sake I
love the people,--the strong, brave people, whose man you are."

"God bless you, dear, for that," he answered tenderly. "But say, will
your father take you back to Rome, now that he has sent away Benoni?"

"No, he will not. He swears that I shall stay here until I can forget
you." The fair head rested again on his shoulder.

"It appears to me that your most high and noble father has amazingly
done perjury in his oath," remarked Nino, resting his hand on her
hair, from which the thick black veil that had muffled it had slipped
back. "What do you think, love?"

"I do not know," replied Hedwig, in a low voice.

"Why, dear, you have only to close this door behind you, and you may
laugh at your prison and your jailer!"

"Oh, I could not, Nino; and besides, I am weak, and cannot walk very
far. And we should have to walk very far, you know."

"You, darling? Do you think I would not and could not bear you from
here to Rome in these arms?" As he spoke he lifted her bodily from the
step.

"Oh!" she cried, half frightened, half thrilled, "how strong you are,
Nino!"

"Not I; it is my love. But I have beasts close by, waiting even now;
good stout mules, that will think you are only a little silver
butterfly that has flitted down from the moon for them to carry."

"Have you done that, dear?" she asked, doubtfully, while her heart
leaped at the thought. "But my father has horses," she added, on a
sudden, in a very anxious voice.

"Never fear, my darling. No horse could scratch a foothold in the
place where our mules are as safe as in a meadow. Come, dear heart,
let us be going." But Hedwig hung her head, and did not stir. "What is
it, Hedwig?" he asked, bending down to her and softly stroking her
hair. "Are you afraid of me?"

"No,--oh no! Not of you, Nino,--never of you!" She pushed her face
close against him, very lovingly.

"What then, dear? Everything is ready for us. Why should we wait?"

"Is it quite right, Nino?"

"Ah, yes, love, it is right,--the rightest right that ever was! How
can such love as ours be wrong? Have I not to-day implored your father
to relent and let us marry? I met him in the road--"

"He told me, dear. It was brave of you. And he frighte