was a young woman with a white linen cloth on her head, who came to meet us from the door! The intellectual glance, the long, dark eye-lashes, the noble form, yes, all made her indescribably beautiful! We both involuntarily took off our hats.

"This most beautiful maiden, then, is the possessor of this house?" inquired Gennaro. "Will she, then, as mistress of the house, give to two weary travellers a refreshing draught?"

"The mistress of the house will do that with pleasure! said she, smiling, and the snow-white teeth parted the fresh, rosy lips. "I will bring out wine to you here; but I have only of one kind.”

66 If you serve it, it will be excellent!

said Gennaro. "I drink it most willingly when a young maiden as handsome as you serves it."

"But Excellenza must be so good as to talk to a wife today!" said she sweetly.

"Are you married," asked Gennaro, smiling, "so young?" "O, I am very old !" said she, and laughed also.

"How old?" inquired I.

She looked archly into my face, and replied, “Eight-andtwenty years old!" She was much nearer fifteen, but most beautifully developed; a Hebe could not have been formed more exquisitely.

"A beautiful age,

which is very becoming to you! Have you been long married?

"Twenty years!" replied she; "only ask my daughters there." And the little girls whom we had seen playing came towards us.

"Is that your mother?" inquired I, although I very well knew that it was not so. They looked up to her, and laughed, nodded thereto an assent, and clung affectionately to her.

She brought us out wine, excellent wine, and we drank her health.

"This is a poet, an improvisatore," said Gennaro to her, pointing to me. "He has been turning the heads of all the ladies in Naples! But he is a stone, a queer sort of fellow.

He hates all women; never gave a woman a kiss in his life!"

"That is impossible!" said she, and laughed.

"I, on the contrary," continued Gennaro, "am of quite a different sort; I kiss all the handsome lips that come near me, am the faithful attendant of woman, and thus reconcile the world and her wherever I go! It is awarded to me also, and I assert it as my right with every handsome woman, and I now, of course, require here my tribute also!" and, so saying, he took her hand.

"I absolve both you and the other gentleman," said she ; "neither have I anything to do with paying tribute. My husband always does that!"

"And where is he?" asked Gennaro.

"Not far off," she replied.

"Such a handsome hand I have never seen in Naples ! said Gennaro. "What is the price of a kiss upon it?"

"A scudo," said she.

"And double that price upon the lips?" said Gennaro. "That is not to be had," returned she; "that is my husband's property!"

And now she poured us out again the enlivening, strong wine, joked and laughed with us; and, amid her joking, we discovered that she was about fifteen, had been married the year before to a handsome young man, who, at this moment, was in Naples, and was not expected to return before to-morThe little girls were her sisters, and on a visit to her till her husband's return. Gennaro prayed them for a bouquet of roses, which they hastened to gather, and for which he promised them a carlin.

row.

In vain he prayed her for a kiss; said a thousand sweet, flattering things; threw his arms around her waist; she tore herself away, scolding him, but yet always came back again, because she found it amusing. He took a louis-d'or between his fingers, and told her what charming ribbons she could buy with it, and how beautifully she might adorn her dark hair with them; and all this splendor she might have only by giving him a kiss one single kiss.

"The other Excellenza is much better!" said she, and

pointed to me. My blood burned; I took her hand, saying that she must not listen to him, that he was a bad man, must not look at his tempting gold, but must revenge herself upon him by giving me a kiss.

She looked at me.

"He has," continued I, "said only one true word in all his speeches; and that is, that I have never kissed the lips of any woman. I have kept my lips pure until I found the most beautiful; and now I hope that you will reward my virtue!"

"He is actually an accomplished tempter!" said Gennaro. "He excels me by being so accustomed to his work."

"You are a bad man with your money," said she; “and for that you shall see that I care neither for it nor for a kiss, and so the poet shall have it!"

With this, she pressed her hands on my cheeks, her lips touched mine, and she vanished behind the house.

When the sun went down, I sat up in my little chamber in the convent, and looked from the window over the sea; it was rosy red, and threw up long billows on the shore. The fishermen pulled up their boats on the sand; and, as the darkness increased, the lights became brighter, the billows were of a sulphur-blue. Over everything prevailed infinite stillness; in the midst of which I heard a choral song of fishermen on the shore, with women and children. The soprano of the children's voices mingled itself with the deep bass, and a sentiment of melancholy filled my soul. A falling star for a moment played in the heavens, and then shot downward behind the vineyards, where the lively young woman had kissed me in the day-time. I thought of her, how lovely she was, and of the blind girl, the image of beauty amid the ruins of the temple; but Annunciata stood in the background, intellectually and physically beautiful, and thus doubly beautiful! My spirit expanded itself; my soul burned with love, with longing; with a deep sense of what it had lost. The pure flame which Annunciata had kindled in my heart, the altarfire of which she was the priestess, she had herself stirred up and left; the fire now burned wildly through the whole building.

"Eternal Mother of God!" prayed I; "my breast is full of love, my heart is ready to burst with longing and regret ! " And I seized upon the roses which stood in the glass, pressed the most beautiful of them to my lips, and thought on Annunciata.

I could not bear it any longer, and went down to the seaside, where the shining billows broke along the shore, where the fishermen sang and the wind blew. I mounted the brickwork bridge, where I had stood during the day. A figure wrapped in a large cloak stole close by me; I saw that it was Gennaro. He went up the serpentine road to the little white house, and I followed him. He now softly passed the window, within which a light was burning. Here I took my station, concealed by the depending vine leaves, and could see distinctly into the room. There was, exactly on the other side of the house, a similar window, and some high steps led to the side chamber.

The two little girls, undressed to their night-clothes, were kneeling with their elder sister, the mistress of the house, as she really was, between them, before the table, on which stood the crucifix and the lamp, and were singing their evening devotions. It was the Madonna with two angels, a living altarpiece, as if painted by Raphael, which I saw before me. Her dark eyes were cast upwards; the hair hung in rich folds upon her naked shoulders, and the hands were folded upon the youthfully beautiful bosom.

My pulse beat more quickly; I scarcely ventured to breathe. Now all three arose from their knees; she went with the little girls up the steps into the side room, closed the door, and then went into the first room, where she busied herself about her small household affairs. I saw her presently take out of a drawer a red pocket-book, turn it about in her hand many times and smile; she was just about to open it, but shook her head at that moment, and threw it again into the drawer, as if something had surprised her.

A moment afterwards I heard a low tapping upon the opposite window. Terrified, she looked towards it and listened. It tapped again, and I heard some one speak, but could not distinguish the words.

"Excellenza!" now exclaimed she aloud; "what do you want!" Why do you come here at this hour? For Heaven's sake! I am angry, very angry."

He again said something.

"Yes, yes, it is true," said she, "you have forgotten your pocket-book; my little sister has been down to the inn to give it to you, but you were up in the convent. To-morrow morning she would have gone there to you. Here it is."

She took it from the drawer. He again said something, to which she shook her head.

"No! no!" said she ; "what are you thinking of? I shall not open the door; you shall not come in!

So saying, she went to the window, and opened it, to give him the pocket-book. He snatched at her hand, she let the book fall, and it remained lying on the window-sill. Gennaro put his head in; the young wife flew to the window behind which I stood, and I could now hear every word which Gennaro said.

66 And you will not allow me to kiss your lovely hand as thanks; not receive the smallest reward; not reach me a single cup of wine? I am parched with thirst. There cannot be anything wrong in that! Why not permit me to come in?"

"No!" said she; "we have nothing to talk about at this hour. Take that which you have forgotten, and let me close the window."

"I will not go," said Gennaro, "before you give me your hand, before you give me a kiss. You cheated me out of one to-day, and gave it to that stupid youth!

"No! no!" said she, and yet laughed in the midst of her anger. "You want to obtain by force what I would not give freely," said she; "therefore I shall not-will not, do it."

"It is the last time," said Gennaro, in a soft and beseeching tone, "of a certainty the last time; and can you refuse only just giving me your hand? More I do not desire, although my heart has a thousand things to say to you! Madonna wills it really that we human beings love one another like brother and sister! Like a brother I will divide my