"No, Giulia, he is an unprincipled spendthrift," returned the count, who never once took his eyes off his wife's countenance while he was speaking:--"an unprincipled spendthrift," he added emphatically,--"a man lost to all sense of honor--a ruined gamester--a heartless seducer--a shame, a blot, a stigma upon the aristocracy of Florence;--and now that you are acquainted with his real character, you will recognize the prudence of the step which I shall take to-morrow--that is, to inform him that henceforth the Count and Countess of Arestino must decline to receive him again at their villa. What think you, Giulia?" "Your lordship is the master to command, and it is my duty to obey," answered the countess; but her voice was hoarse and thick, the acutest anguish was rending her soul, and its intensity almost choked her utterance. "She is guilty!" thought the count within himself; and to subdue an abrupt explosion of his rage, until he had put the last and most certain test to his lady's faith, he walked twice up and down the room; then, feeling that he had recovered his powers of self-control, he said, "To-morrow, Giulia, is the reception day of his highness the duke, and I hope thou hast made suitable preparations to accompany me in the manner becoming the wife of the Count of Arestino." "Can your lordship suppose for an instant that I should appear in the ducal presence otherwise than is meet and fitting for her who has the honor to bear your name?" said Giulia, partially recovering her presence of mind, as the conversation appeared to have taken a turn no longer painful to her feelings--for, oh! cannot the reader conceive the anguish, the mortal anguish, she had ere now endured when her husband was heaping ashes on the reputation of her lover! "I do not suppose that your ladyship will neglect the preparations due to your rank and to that name which you esteem it an honor to bear, and which no living being should _dishonor_ with impunity!" Giulia quailed--writhed beneath the searching glance which now literally glared upon her. "Nevertheless," continued the count, "I was fearful you might have forgotten that to-morrow is the reception day. And while I think of it, permit me to examine your diamonds for a few minutes--to convince myself that the settings are in good order, as you know," he added, with a strange, unearthly kind of laugh, "that I am skilled in the jewelers' craft." The old man paused; but he thought within himself, "Now what subterfuge can she invent if my suspicions be really true, and if my ears did not ere now deceive me?"