“I am doing no such thing,” replied Ricardo, “I am in sober earnest! I have unintentionally done this girl a great injury. Through my means she is left without protection, lover, or family affection. I propose to remedy the evil by making her my wife, and providing for her as far as I am able.” “But not as your wife--Ricardo, my dear friend, think! think what you are contemplating! Make Hannah your servant--your housekeeper--your nurse--what you will, but keep her in the station to which she was born. Take other rooms, or a little house, and install her there as mistress of your property, but, for Heaven’s sake, do not contemplate such a mad, impossible self-sacrifice as to marry a woman like that!” But the Professor was firm. “What did you tell me the other day, that the world would say if I took Hannah as my servant, and sat, shut up with her alone, night after night? You said it would talk scandal of us, and doubtless you were right! As my wife, no one will dare to say anything against her or what I may choose to do! And do you not guess what is at the bottom of this resolution, Steinberg? I cannot part again with Leonora! She would be lost to me for ever! Where should I find another _rara avis_ like this girl, to bring her back from the grave? No! no! I must retain her services, and I see no other way to do it. Leonora has but just been able to manifest herself to us. You saw her beautiful face peeping through the mist last night, but as yet she cannot communicate with me--she cannot set this gnawing doubt at rest. Can I give up my researches just as they are beginning to reward me for my trouble?--just as I am on the brink of ascertaining what I have thirsted to know for so many weary years? No! Steinberg, I feel it to be impossible! I must go on now until I know the truth, and I know of no means of ascertaining it, but through Hannah Stubbs!” “But make her anything but your wife!” repeated the Doctor, “think of the dishonour--the degradation! _You_--Marchese di Sorrento--the scion of a princely family--to ally yourself with a common serving girl, a clod of the soil! O! it is monstrous. I cannot bear to think of it! It is an infamy--an anomaly--an insult to your birth and your ancestors!” “I cannot see it in that light,” said Ricardo. “In the first place, I am no longer Marchese di Sorrento! I have voluntarily abandoned the title, and Hannah shall never know that it was mine. To her, I shall be no more than Signor Ricardo, Professor of the Italian Language. Taking this away, I do not see that the advantages of such a marriage will be all on her side. I am poor and I am old----” “Nonsense! a man of fifty! Were you to acknowledge your true rank and status, you might marry a woman with money, to-morrow!” The Professor smiled faintly.