As Zappa was speaking, Nina rose, and as she stood in the recess of the window, with the beams of the pale moon lighting up her countenance, which would otherwise have been cast in shadow, her figure appeared to grow more pure and ethereal, even to the eyes of the fierce and lawless pirate. Her fair and slender hands were clasped on her bosom, while she turned on him a look in which pain and reproach were mingled, as she answered—
“I would gladly do your will in all things; I would willingly afford aid to one in distress, to one who undeservedly suffers, who is torn from her kindred and friends; but speak not to me of jealousy, Zappa, I have trusted you too much, I love you too devotedly, as you well know, to be influenced by such a feeling. Let the lady arrive when she may she is welcome.”
Poor girl! even as she spoke, the first pangs of the deadly poison had shot through her heart, though she knew not what was the cause of the feeling which oppressed her. She thought it was the indifference of his tone, the light carelessness of his words which gave her pain, yet he was always accustomed to speak in that way, for to things serious or sacred he paid little regard.
“I will not, then, suppose you jealous, Nina, since you like it not to be suspected that you are even capable of the feeling,” answered the pirate, throwing himself back on the divan, and laughing; “I shall not, however, yet put you to the test, but when the lady arrives you will treat her as one to whom all courtesy is due.”
“I have promised to do so,” replied the Italian girl, still standing in the position she had assumed at a distance from him.
“Then do not look so cold, and glance your eye repulsively on me,” exclaimed Zappa; “one might suppose that I were a monster unfit for one so fair and pure as you to gaze on.”
Nina burst into tears.
“You are unkind and I am weak,” she exclaimed passionately. “You confess to me that you are a pirate and a robber, that your hand is stained with the blood of your fellow-men—of men not slain because they are the enemies of your country, but because they attempted to guard the treasure committed to their charge, and I ought to loathe and detest you, and yet I cannot—I love, I love you still.”
And she sank down on her knees at his feet, and hiding her face in the cushions of the divan, gave way to a flood of
