CHAPTER 1.II.
Fu stupor, fu vaghezza, fu diletto! "Gerusal.

Lib.," cant.ii.

xxi.
("Desire it was, 't was wonder, 't was delight." Wiffen's Translation.) Now at last the education is accomplished! Viola is nearly sixteen.
The Cardinal declares that the time is come when the new name must be inscribed in the Libro d'Oro,--the Golden Book set apart to the children of Art and Song.

Yes, but in what character ?--to whose genius is she to give embodiment and form?
Ah, there is the secret! Rumours go abroad that the inexhaustible Paisiello, charmed with her performance of his "Nel cor piu non me sento," and his "Io son Lindoro," will produce some new masterpiece to introduce the debutante.

Others insist upon it that her forte is the comic, and that Cimarosa is hard at work at another "Matrimonia Segreto." But in the meanwhile there is a check in the diplomacy somewhere.