She went downstairs with the lamp, and hearing Luiza moving about in her bedroom, “Does the senhora want anything?” she asked with interest.
“No,” responded Luiza.
Juliana went into the parlor; she closed the piano, and walking with stealthy step, glanced eagerly around. Suddenly she paused. At the foot of the sofa she saw something shining on the carpet. It was a brooch of Luiza’s,—an amethyst set in gold. She re-entered Luiza’s bedroom on tiptoe, and placed the trinket on the toilet-table.
“Who is that?” asked the sleepy voice of her mistress from the alcove.
“It is I, Senhora; I was shutting up the parlor. Good-night, Senhora.”
CHAPTER X.
IN THE TOILS.
NEXT morning Juliana entered her mistress’s bedroom with a letter in her hand, saying, with an air of mystery, that a servant from the hotel had brought it, and was waiting downstairs for an answer.
Luiza with a trembling hand opened the large blue envelope, with its monogram, “B. B.,” in purple and gold, surmounting a count’s coronet.
“Very well; there is no answer.”
“There is no answer,” Juliana repeated to the man, who was waiting in the little passage, smoking a cigar and twirling the ends of his black mustache.