"Not the bed, your ladyship," said Beatrice, "but all the other furniture of the room is exactly the same. These are the pictures which used to hang in it; and the marble busts; and those fine flower-vases, of which my lady was so fond. This cabinet contained her jewels, and many of them remain still. Some of the diamonds his lordship, the count, presented to the nuns of St Agnes la Fontagna. But the turquoises are here, that my lady wore mightily, for they became her complexion. And the pearls, too; but they are spoiled, quite black with age and want of wearing! That robe-chest, too--I pray your ladyship's pardon for the dust upon it--this house has been unused and empty so long--and servants will neglect where one is not always--that chest was her ladyship's, and I daresay contains choice fineries, for it stood always in her chamber, and has never been opened since she died." This last fact seemed more extraordinary than any of the wonders which had preceded it. "Has it really never been opened!" said the young Lady Olympia. "But what a pity that such beautiful ornaments should have been left to decay!" "Never opened, may it please your ladyship; nor could it, but by violence," returned the governante. "For it is a Spanish piece of work, and was sold to my lady by a foreign merchant, who told the secret of opening it only to her. It opens, your ladyship sees, with some spring--Heaven knows where! but there is neither lock nor bolt. Nobody could open it ever but my lady; and I am sure, since I lived in this house, I have tried a hundred times." There could scarcely fail, in such an assembly, to be some desire as strong as the governante's to see the fair Countess's hidden treasure; but the having to open the chest by force was a difficulty too formidable rather to surmount. To have performed such a feat (independent of any other objection) would apparently have required strong assistance; and therefore, whatever anxiety curiosity felt, modesty checked its expression; and the gay party proceeded on their rambling review, amidst various strange conjectures as to the manner of Di Vasari's death; or comments upon the conduct of the Count Ubaldi, and the unhappy fate of his fair lady. But at the close of the evening, when the song rose loudest, and the feast was still enlivening the hall, there were two female forms seen to glide with lighted tapers along the oaken gallery, and enter the light-blue chamber; it was the beautiful bride--the Lady Amina--and her favourite companion, Olympia Montefiore. The Lady Amina led the way, laughing; but there was a touch of apprehension mingled in her smile. "For Heaven's sake," said she, pausing in the doorway, "let us go back!" "What folly! what can we have to apprehend!" was the reply. "But Theodore may have missed us." "And if he has!--Is it not his wedding-night, and can anything you do displease him? Besides--to-morrow he will cause the chest to be opened himself."