irl; but what part could she play in the life of a man of
his rank? The cadet of an impoverished house, it was unlikely that he
would marry; and should he do so, custom forbade even the thought of
taking a wife outside of his class. Had he been admitted to free
intercourse with Fulvia, love might have routed such prudent counsels;
but in the society of her father's associates, where she moved, as in a
halo of learning, amid the respectful admiration of middle-aged
philosophers and jurists, she seemed as inaccessible as a young Minerva.

Odo, at first, had been careful not to visit Vivaldi too often; but the
Professor's conversation was so instructive, and his library so
inviting, that inclination got the better of prudence, and the young man
fell into the habit of turning almost daily down the lane behind the
Corpus Domini. Vivaldi, too proud to betray any concern for his personal
safety, showed no sign of resenting the frequency of these visits;
indeed, he received Odo with an increasing cordiality that, to an older
observer, might have betokened an effort to hide his apprehension.

One afternoon, escaping later than usual from the Valentino, Odo had
again bent toward the quiet quarter behind the palace. He was afoot,
with a cloak over his laced coat, and the day being Easter Monday the
streets were filled with a throng of pleasure-seekers amid whom it
seemed easy enough for a man to pass unnoticed. Odo, as he crossed the
Piazza Castello, thought it had never presented a gayer scene. Booths
with brightly-striped awnings had been set up under the arcades, which
were thronged with idlers of all classes; court-coaches dashed across
the square or rolled in and out of the palace-gates; and the Palazzo
Madama, lifting against the sunset its ivory-tinted columns and statues,
seemed rather some pictured fabric of Claude's or Bibbiena's than an
actual building of brick and marble. The turn of a corner carried him
from this spectacle into the solitude of a by-street where his own tread
was the only sound. He walked on carelessly; but suddenly he heard what
seemed an echo of his step. He stopped and faced about. No one was in
sight but a blind beggar crouching at the side-door of the Corpus
Domini. Odo walked on, listening, and again he heard the step, and again
turned to find himself alone. He tried to fancy that his ear had tricked
him; but he knew too much of the subtle methods of Italian espionage not
to feel a secret uneasin