Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/275

 into an arbour. From the day of his arrival she had observed in the stranger a vein of melancholy, which the charms of her little Tempe had failed to remove. The Signora, though wise and learned, was still a woman, and all her wisdom and learning had not raised her above the ordinary weakness of the sex, curiosity; and although, according to the testimony of her herb woman, all the spirits of air were subject to her commands, they had, it should seem, given her no information relative to her guest. She neither knew who he was, whence he came, nor whither he was going, and having a vast inclination to be enlightened on these various points, she availed herself of this tête-à-tête, to turn the conversation in that direction; and the Count no sooner saw what she aimed at, than he proceeded fully to relate the story of his life, detailing the rise, progress, and result of his passion for Lucretia, and, in short, opened his whole heart to his new friend.

Highly gratified by this confidence, the lady in return gave him a full, true, and particular account of her own history, whence he learned that sprung from a noble family in Padua, but early left an orphan, her guardians had compelled her to marry a very old, but very rich physician, who, though deemed a profound master of all the secrets of nature, died shortly after from the effects of a drug he had taken, for the purpose of restoring him