Cast me aside if you will," he pursued, with increasing bitterness, "but having done so, do not ask me to serve you again.

Let Messer Francesco fight it out----" "Hush, Gonzaga!" she interrupted.

"Let me hear what he is saying." And her tone told the courtier that his words had been lost upon the morning air.

Engrossed in the scene below she had not so much as listened to his bitter tirade.

For now Francesco was behaving oddly.