answered, "Let us love each other and not die." In reply, she showed
him a sign her old duenna and two pages. The duenna slept; the pages
were young and seemingly careless of what might happen, either of good
or evil, to their masters.

"Do not be frightened as you leave the church; let yourself be
managed."

The young nobleman had scarcely said these words in a low voice, when
the hand of the old seigneur dropped upon the hilt of his dagger.
Feeling the cold iron he woke, and his yellow eyes fixed themselves
instantly on his wife. By a privilege seldom granted even to men of
genius, he awoke with his mind as clear, his ideas as lucid as though
he had not slept at all. The man had the mania of jealousy. The lover,
with one eye on his mistress, had watched the husband with the other,
and he now rose quickly, effacing himself behind a column at the
moment when the hand of the old man fell; after which he disappeared,
swiftly as a bird. The lady lowered her eyes to her book and tried to
seem calm; but she could not prevent her face from blushing and her
heart from beating with unnatural violence. The old lord saw the
unusual crimson on the cheeks, forehead, even the eyelids of his wife.
He looked about him cautiously, but seeing no one to distrust, he said
to his wife:--

"What are you thinking of, my dear?"

"The smell of the incense turns me sick," she replied.

"It is particularly bad to-day?" he asked.