She bent forward, and laid her small rosy hand upon his throbbing forehead. The touch was electric, the fiery glow of passion flashed in her glance. "Light of my eyes!" she whispered, "it were vain to deny that my heart is thine. But our love is a flower on the precipice's brink."
"I fear not the fall," Federico impetuously exclaimed.
"For your love, everything!" was the enthusiastic reply.
"Listen, then, to the difficulties that beset us, and say if they are surmountable."
"Hark!" she exclaimed--"what is that? He comes! Be still! be silent!" With wild and terrified haste she seized Federico's hand, dragged him across the room, and opened a door. The student felt a burning kiss upon his lips, and, before he knew where he was, the door was shut, and he was in total darkness. All that had happened since he entered the house had occurred so rapidly, was so mysterious and startling, that he was utterly bewildered. For a moment he thought himself betrayed, groped round his prison, which was a narrow closet, found the door, and, grasping his stiletto, was about to force his way through all opposition, when he suddenly heard heavy steps on the other side of the tapestried screen. Motionless, he listened.
"Bring lights!" said a deep commanding voice; "the lamp burns dim as in a bridal chamber."
"It anticipates its office," replied another male voice, with a laugh. "Is not your wedding-day fixed?"
"Not yet; in the course of next week, perhaps," answered the first speaker, striding up and down the apartment.
"You are in small haste," returned his companion, "to enjoy what all envy you. Never did I behold beauty more divine and captivating."
"Beautiful she certainly is," was the reply; "but what is woman's beauty! The vision of a day; snow, sullied and dispelled in a night."
"You are in exceeding good humour," said the friend of this morose and moralising bridegroom.
A pause ensued, during which Federico's heart beat so strongly that he thought its throbbings must surely be audible through the slight barrier separating him from the speakers. A servant brought lights, and a slender bright ray shot through a small opening in the tapestry, previously unobserved by the student. Applying his eye to the crevice, he obtained a view of the apartment, and of the persons whose conversation he had overheard. One of these wore a uniform glittering with embroidery; the other was dressed in black, with several stars and orders on his breast. Both were in the middle period of life: the one in uniform was the youngest and most agreeable looking; the dark features of the other were of a sombre and unpleasing cast.