She looked up as he entered the room with an arch smile on her lips
and in her eyes which, perhaps, did not reflect altogether
faithfully the feeling in her heart.
"Yes, I saw you, you naughty, inconstant boy, when you little
thought my eye was upon you. I saw you with--Ludovico, there is
something wrong," she said, suddenly changing her laughing tone for
one of alarm as her eye marked the expression of his face. "I am
sure from the way you look at me there is something amiss. What is
it, Ludovico mio? What has happened to vex you?"
"A great and terrible misfortune has happened, my Paolina; and I
have run to you in all haste that you might not hear it from any
lips but my own. You were going to say just now that you saw me with
Bianca Lalli, were you not? Where and when did you see us?"
"In a bagarino, driving towards the Pineta. I was up at a high
window in the church on the scaffolding prepared for my work," said
Paolina, deadly pale, and breathless with apprehension.
"Ah! you saw us from the window. I took her there at her request to
see the Pineta. We started on leaving the ball-room. In the forest
she became sleepy: I left her sleeping on a bank, and meaning to
return to her in a few minutes. I could not find the spot again for
some time; and when I did find it she was gone. After searching the
wood in vain for hours I returned to the city, and--at the gate--not
an hour ago--I saw her brought in--dead!"
"Dead! La Bianca dead!" cried Paolina, much shocked; and with every
vestige of the half-formed suspicions which had been tormenting her
suddenly erased from her mind by the terrible tidings and the
sadness of the end of the unfortunate Diva.
Pages:
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447