"And so the honorable Count di Visinara has amused his leisure hours in making love to Gina Montani!" she cried, vehemently. "The lordly chieftain who——"
"Be silent, Gina!" he interrupted. "Before you continue your strange accusations, tell me the origin of them. My love has never wandered from you."
"Yet you are seeking a wife in the heiress of Della Ripa! Ah, Sir Count, your complexion changes now!" Gina Montani was right: the flush of excitement on his face had turned to paleness. "Your long and repeated journeys, for days together, are now explained," she continued. "It was well to tell me business took you from home."
"I have had business to transact with the Prince of Della Ripa," he replied, boldly, recovering his equanimity.
"And to combine business with pleasure," she answered, with a curl of her delicate lip, "you have been wont to linger by the side of his daughter."
"And what though I have sometimes seen the Lady Adelaide?" he rejoined. "I have no love for her."
Gina was silent for awhile, as if struggling with her strong emotion, and then spoke calmly. "My mother has enjoined me, times out of mind, not to suffer your continued visits here, for that you would never marry me. You never will, Giovanni."
"Turn to my own faith, Gina," he exclaimed, with emotion, "and I will marry thee to-morrow."
"They say you are about to marry Adelaide of Della Ripa," she replied, passing by his own words with a gesture.
"They deceive you, Gina."