pressed his white handkerchief to his lips, and, leaning on the
arms of Lamartine and Arago, hastily left the box.

"Ha! the Countess faints!" cried Debray, as the door closed on M.
Dantes. "Do they know each other, then?"

CHAPTER XIII.

THE ITALIAN LOVER.

It was early in the evening succeeding the day on which M. Dantes had
answered Giovanni Massetti's letter. Zuleika was seated in the vast,
sumptuously-furnished salon of the magnificent Morcerf mansion, now, as
the reader already knows, the residence of the famous and mysterious
Deputy from Marseilles. She sat upon a superb green velvet-covered sofa,
half reclining in an indolent, picturesque attitude; behind the sofa and
leaning over its back stood a young Italian, a perfect model of manly
beauty; his ardent black eyes were riveted on Zuleika's blushing
countenance with a look of the most profound and enthusiastic adoration,
while his hand held the young girl's with a gentle, loving pressure,
which was returned with unmistakable warmth. The apartment was dimly
lighted and huge, sombre patches of shadow lay everywhere. Zuleika and
her lover were alone together; for some time they seemed too full of
happiness to speak, but finally Giovanni said, in a soft, flutelike
whisper, as if unwilling to break with loudly uttered words the
delicious spell of his love-dream:

"Zuleika, darling Zuleika, so you did not once forget me during our
long, cruel separation?"

"Never for a single instant, Giovanni," answered the young girl, the
flush upon her cheek deepening as she spoke, her hand tightening about
her lover's and her lovely eyes filling with a soft fire. "But I
sometimes feared you had forgotten me!"

"You were always present in my mind and in my heart," replied the
Italian in a tone that thrilled her through and through. Stooping, he
placed his lips to her forehead and imprinted upon it a long and silent
kiss; then, flushing in his turn, he added, still holding his head
against hers: "From the very moment of our first meeting you have
reigned in my bosom, my own, my love, the queen of my destiny and my
life!"

"Oh! Giovanni, Giovanni," murmured the young girl, "I am happy, so
happy!"

He kissed her again, this time upon her upturned lips that with a slight
movement almost imperceptibly returned the kiss, sending his blood
tingling through his veins and causing him to tremble with delight from
head to foot. No longer able to restrain himself, he hast