Her artful cousin, who knew her character
to the full extent that vice can comprehend innocence, watched her
colorless cheek and contracting eye with secret triumph. At the first
moment she had believed all that she insinuated, but second thoughts and
a view of the visible distress of the frightened girl gave a new
direction to her suspicions.
"But I tell thee nothing new," she quickly added. "I only regret thou
should'st find me, where, no doubt, you expected to meet the Duca di
Sant' Agata himself."
"Annina!--This from thee!"
"Thou surely didst not come to his palace to seek thy cousin!"
Gelsomina had long been familiar with grief, but until this moment she
had never felt the deep humiliation of shame. Tears started from her
eyes, and she sank back into a seat, in utter inability to stand.
"I would not distress thee out of bearing," added the artful daughter of
the wine-seller. "But that we are both in the closet of the gayest
cavalier of Venice, is beyond dispute."
"I have told thee that pity for another brought me hither."
"Pity for Don Camillo."
"For a noble lady--a young, a virtuous, and a beautiful wife--a daughter
of the Tiepolo--of the Tiepolo, Annina!"
"Why should a lady of the Tiepolo employ a girl of the public prisons!"
"Why!--because there has been injustice by those up above. There has
been a tumult among the fishermen--and the lady and her governess were
liberated by the rioters--and his Highness spoke to them in the great
court--and the Dalmatians were on the quay--and the prison was a refuge
for ladies of their quality, in a moment of so great terror--and the
Holy Church itself has blessed their love--"
Gelsomina could utter no more, but breathless with the wish to vindicate
herself, and wounded to the soul by the strange embarrassment of her
situation, she sobbed aloud.
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