He clasped her in his arms and pressed a fervent kiss upon her lips. "What is that little box," said Giulia, "which you carry in your hand?" "My bridal gift, beloved! I come with a full heart, and may not do so empty handed." He opened the ebony casket: the most beautiful ornaments, a diadem with brilliants, necklets and bracelets of the most magnificent pearls, and beside them unset precious stones, sapphires, and rubies shone in such radiance that Giulia could not suppress a sudden cry of admiration. "It is all yours, it is the inheritance which has been bequeathed to the last Blanden by his mother and by the ancestral mistresses of this house, there being no living heiress who has the right to these ornaments. From henceforth you shall wear them, they have found an owner again who is worthy of them, and well they will suit your dark hair and fine features!" Giulia was dazzled with the brilliant gift, and yet-- Like will-'o-the-wisps, like snakes of fire, they flashed and quivered before her eyes! Was it not a robber's hand which grasped this family possession? But she overcame the slight shudder with which she saw the ghostly ancestresses of the house of Blanden, as they stretched out their bony hands in protest, or touched her brow and imprinted the sign of the curse upon her. She was only conscious of Blanden's love and goodness in confiding such a priceless heritage to her, and, thanking him cordially, laid her hand upon her heart. On that evening she would be queen of the feast, banish all gloomy thoughts; he should have a right to be proud of her. A mistress of the toilet, an art belonging to the stage, she would enhance her beauty by simple attire. Merrily adorned with a wreath of flowers, her hair, black as ebony, as it fell upon her neck, enframed a face whose fine moulding did not suffer from the pallor of its features, for that Venetian colouring appertained to the beauty of marble, to that idealism of form which was peculiar to her. Her tall slight figure was seductively enveloped in clouds of pink tulle, and as if of gleaming foam, bosom and neck, the glorious outlines of a Venus Anadyomene rose from out that mass of clouds. As she entered the dining-hall with Blanden, a buzz of admiration passed through the apartment. They were mostly elderly gentlemen who were present, the younger ones were still behind the scenes preparing the masquerade. Hermann von Gutsköhnen and Sengen von Lärchen had never seen anything of the kind; the former greeted her with a whispered monologue which reached its climax in a low oath; the latter held his finger thoughtfully to his nose, and after his address, "dear friends," had allowed a considerable pause to follow, "she is a most beautiful woman, tall, she has breeding, something Arab-like in her nostrils, and devilish black hair, but no healthy colour--she needs some Masuren breezes to blow about her cheeks."