The verses are my own." I was dumbfounded at this fresh and more intimate glimpse of her.

The beauty of her body was there for all to see and worship; but here was my first glimpse of the rare beauties of her mind.

In what words I should have answered her I do not know, for at that moment we suffered an interruption.
Sudden and harsh as the crackling of a twig came from behind us the voice of Messer Fifanti.

"What do you read ?" We started apart, and turned.
Either he, of set purpose, had crept up behind us so softly that we should not suspect his approach, or else so engrossed were we that our ears had been deafened for the time.

He stood there now in his untidy gown of black, and there was a leer of mockery on his long, white face.
Slowly he put a lean arm between us, and took the sheet in his bony claw.
He peered at it very closely, being without glasses, and screwed his eyes up until they all but disappeared.
Thus he stood, and slowly read, whilst I looked on a trifle uneasy, and Giuliana's face wore an odd look of fear, her bosom heaving unsteadily in its russet sheath.
He sniffed contemptuously when he had read, and looked at me.
"Have I not bidden you leave the vulgarities of dialect to the vulgar ?" quoth he.