The poor child was trembling in every limb. I pitied her and blamed her; for the apartment in which we were was not decorated in the most chaste style, and the antique bronzes and marble statuettes which embellished it, although selected with exquisite taste as works of art, were by no means suited to attract the glances of an enamored girl or a modest woman. And as I reflected that it was Alezia Aldini who had dared to find her way into that heathen temple, I was, in spite of myself, more hurt than grateful for her action, because I still loved her a little. Checchina, although she had dressed hurriedly, had omitted nothing to accomplish the object so dear to women, of dazzling persons of their own sex by the splendor of their costume. She had thrown over her shoulders a cashmere _robe de chambre_, at that time a very rare object; she had surrounded her dishevelled hair with a net of gold and purple, for the antique was fashionable then; and over her bare legs, which were as strong and as beautifully moulded as those of a statue of Diana, she had drawn a sort of buskin of tiger's skin, which ingeniously supplied the place of the commonplace slipper. She had covered her fingers with diamonds and cameos, and held her brilliant fan like a stage sceptre, while the stranger, to keep herself in countenance, played awkwardly with her own, which was of simple black satin. She was visibly dismayed by Checca's beauty,--beauty of a somewhat masculine type, but incontestable. With her Turkish gown, her Median footwear, and her Greek head-dress, she must have resembled the wives of the old satraps who decked themselves out with the plunder of foreign nations. She saluted her guest with a patronizing air bordering on impertinence; then, reclining carelessly on an ottoman, assumed the most Grecian attitude that she could invent. All this pantomime produced its due effect: the girl was utterly bewildered, and dared not break the silence. [Illustration: _ALEZIA VISITS CHECCHINA._ "_Well, signora or signorina," said Checca, slowly unfolding her fan, "for I haven't the slightest idea with whom I have the pleasure of speaking--I am at your service._"] "Well, signora or signorina," said Checca, slowly unfolding her fan, "for I haven't the slightest idea with whom I have the pleasure of speaking--I am at your service." Thereupon the stranger, in a clear and somewhat metallic voice, with a very pronounced English accent, replied thus: