She is to be joined in loveless union to such a gross, unfeeling clod as Gian Maria.

Have you no pity for her ?" Fanfulla sighed, his brow clouded.
"I am not so dull but that I can see why you should reason thus to-day," said he.

"These thoughts have come to you since you have seen her." Franceseo sighed deeply.
"Who knows ?" he made answer wistfully.

"In the few moments that we talked together, in the little time that I beheld her, it may be that she dealt me a wound far deeper than the one to which she so mercifully sought to minister." Now for all that in what the Lord of Aquila said touching the projected union there was a deal of justice, yet when he asserted that the chief actors were to have no opportunity of selecting for themselves, he said too much.

That opportunity they were to have.