"Ah! they were your sister's diamonds that were pledged to Isaachar the Jew?" said the count, half ironically and half in doubt; for he was fairly bewildered by the matchless impudence of the young marquis. "Yes, my lord--my dear sister, who, alas! is ruining herself to supply me with the means of maintaining my rank. And as my sister and her ladyship, the countess, are on the most friendly terms, as you are well aware, it is not surprising if she should have communicated the secret of the diamonds to her ladyship, and also beg her ladyship to remonstrate with me----" "Well, my lord," interrupted the count impatiently, "your own private affairs have no particular interest for me--at this moment; and as for any business on which you may wish to speak to me, I shall be pleased if you postpone it till to-morrow." "Your lordship's wishes are commands with me," said Manuel, with a polite salutation. And having made a low bow to Giulia, he quitted the room--not by the private door, be it well understood, but by that which had ere now admitted the Count of Arestino. The moment the door had closed behind the Marquis of Orsini, the count approached his wife, and said in a cold, severe manner: "Your ladyship receives visitors at a late hour." He glanced as he spoke toward the dial of the clepsydra, and Giulia followed his look in the same direction; it was half an hour after midnight. "The marquis explained to your lordship, or partially so, the motive of his importunate visit," said Giulia, endeavoring to appear calm and collected. "The marquis is an unworthy--reckless--unprincipled young man," exclaimed the count, fixing a stern, searching gaze upon Giulia's countenance, as if with the iron of his words he would probe the depths of her soul. "He is a confirmed gamester--overwhelmed with debts--and has tarnished, by his profligacy, the proud name that he bears. Even the friendship which existed for many, many years between his deceased father and myself, shall no longer induce me to receive at this house a young man whose reputation is all but tainted, even in a city of dissipation and debauchery, such as, alas! the once glorious Florence has become! For his immorality is not confined to gaming and wanton extravagance," continued the count, his glance becoming more keen, as his words fell like drops of molten lead upon the heart of Giulia; "but his numerous intrigues amongst women--his perfidy to those confiding and deceived fair ones----" "Surely, my lord," said the countess, vainly endeavoring to subdue the writhings of torture which this language excited,--"surely the Marquis d'Orsini is wronged by the breath of scandal?"