curtains carefully over it. With greater caution she unfastens the
other door (the entrance) on the staircase. Peeping through the
curtains, she assures herself that no one is on the stairs. Then
she softly recloses it, and rapidly ascends the stairs to the second
story.

That day six months, on the anniversary of Castruccio's birth, which
falls in the month of March, she will return again to the state-rooms.
No one has ever accompanied her on these strange vigils. Only her
friend, the Cavaliere Trenta, knows that she goes there. Even to him
she rarely alludes to it. It is her own secret. Her inner life is with
the past. Her thoughts rest with the dead. It is the living who are
but shadows.




CHAPTER V.

ENRICA.


The marchesa was in a very bad humor. Not only did she stay at home
all the day of the festival of the Holy Countenance by reason of the
solemn anniversary which occurred at that time, but she shut herself
up the following day also. When the old servant (old inside and out)
in his shabby livery, who acted as butler, crept into her room,
and asked at what time "the eccellenza would take her airing on the
ramparts"--the usual drive of the Lucchese ladies--when they not only
drive, but draw up under the plane-trees, gossip, and eat sweetmeats