g that he became attentive, she continued--

"Alas! Amadour, what can prompt you to seek after a thing that can
afford you no satisfaction, and thus afflict me with the profoundest
grief? You made trial of my inclinations in the days of my youth and
earliest beauty, and they perhaps served to excuse your passion; but I
am amazed that now, when I am old, and ugly, and sorrow-stricken, you
should seek for what you know you can never find. I am sure you do not
doubt that my mind is as it used to be, and so by force alone can you
obtain what you desire. If you observe the condition of my face, and lay
aside the memory of the beauty that once you saw in it, you will have no
inclination to draw any nearer; and if you still retain within you any
remnants of your past love, it is impossible that pity will not subdue
your frenzy. To this pity, which I have often found in you, I appeal
with prayers for mercy. Suffer me to live in peace, and in that honour
which by your own counsel I have resolved to preserve. But if the love
you once bore me is now turned to hate, and you desire, in vengeance
rather than in love, to make me the unhappiest woman alive, I protest to
you that it shall not be so. You will force me against my will to make
your evil purpose known to her who thinks so highly of you; and you may
be sure that, when she learns it, your life will not be safe."

But Amadour interrupted her.

"If I must die," he said, "I shall be the sooner rid of my torment.
The disfigurement of your face, which I believe is of your own seeking,
shall not restrain me from making you mine. Though I could have nothing
but your bones, I would yet hold them close to me."

When Florida saw that prayers, reasoning, and tears were alike of no
avail, and that while he cruelly pursued his evil purpose she lacked
the strength to resist him, she summoned the aid which she dreaded as
greatly as death, and in a sad and piteous voice called as loudly as she
could upon her mother. The Countess, hearing her daughter's cries,
had grave misgivings of the truth, and hastened into the room with all
possible speed.

Amadour, who was not so ready to die as he affirmed, desisted promptly
from his enterprise; and when the lady opened the door she found him
close beside it, and Florida some distance from him. "Amadour," said the
Countess, "what is the matter? Tell me the truth."

Amadour, who was never at a loss for invention, replied with a pale and
daunted f