"You have given me the sincerest pleasure," she said, and looked
confidingly into my eyes. I ventured to kiss her hand. After that I saw
her every day during the gay carnival, and was more and more captivated
by her charm.

Annunciata left Rome on Ash Wednesday, and with her the brightness
seemed to have gone completely out of my life, my only pleasure being
the recollection of those happy days of the carnival.


_III.--Love and Adventure in Rome_


I saw Annunciata again when Rome had begun to fill with Easter visitors,
and had the happiness of dining with her the same day. She told me that,
although born in Spain, she had been, as a child, in Rome; that it was
she who preached that day at Ara Coeli, "an orphan, who would have
perished of hunger had not a despised Jew given it shelter and food
until it could flutter forth over the wild, restless sea." Next day I
showed her over the Borghese gallery; and on the day before Easter we
drove out to see the procession which initiated the Easter festival, and
in the evening to Monte Mario to see the illuminations of St. Peter's--
an unforgettable sight!

As I went into the little inn to fetch some refreshment I found myself
in the narrow passage face to face with Bernardo, pale, and with glowing
eyes. He wildly seized my hand, and said: "I am not an assassin,
Antonio; but fight with me you shall, or I shall become your murderer!"

I tried to calm him, but he forced a pistol into my hand. "She loves