By this cruel trick they
mean to crush him and reduce him to their own sensual level. Even
letters which Jules has received from the supposed princess have been
written by these perversions of human beings--who call themselves
artists.

In her lovely innocence Phene is thrilled by Jules' tenderness. Her
intuition tells her that something is wrong as she falters in rendering
the lines the cruel painters have given her to read to Jules.

We see the blow fall upon the young dreamer as he makes the fearful
discovery. In the agony of his disappointment he is about to renounce
Phene forever as the artists, waiting outside to sneer at him, expect.
The poor, innocent being, in whom his kindness and tenderness have
stirred to life for the first time her womanly nature, is about to be
cast out to a life of degradation and misery, when Pippa passes,
singing. Her song awakens Jules to a higher feeling, to a more human and
heroic determination; and the painters, waiting outside, are
disappointed.

In the evening Pippa passes Luigi, an Italian patriot. He is meditating
over the afflictions of his country and upon a plan to help it, while
his mother is trying to dissuade him from the daring undertaking. The
police and spies are waiting outside. If he goes he will not be
arrested; if he stays they have orders to arrest him at once. At the
moment of his wavering, when he is almost ready to obey his mother,
Pippa's song arouses anew his patriotic being, and he resolutely goes
forth to do a true heroic deed for his country. Thus Pippa saves him
from imprisonment and death.

Night brings the last scene in the dramatic events of the world
influenced by Pippa's songs. A room of the "palace by the Dome," of
which Pippa seems to stand in so much awe, opens before us. Here we look
into the face of the Monsignor, for whom she expressed reverence in the
morning, and we find that the Monsignor and the dead brother whose home
he comes to bless, are in reality Pippa's own uncles. The poor little
girl, with only a nickname, is a child of an older brother and the real
heir to the Palace, though of this she has never had the remotest
dream. We see an insinuating villain tempting the Monsignor to allow
him to do away with Pippa in a most horrible manner, and thus leave the
Monsignor in sole possession of his brother's property.

During an intense moment Pippa passes and her singing outside causes her
uncle to throttle the villain and call for hel