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"Yes, sir; I was engaged by that lady for the evening engaged to drive her to the ball as well as to drive her home." "Where did you take her from?" "From a very extraordinary place from the gate of the Campo Santo burial-ground." During this colloquy, Finello and D'Arbino had been standing with Fabio between them, each giving him an arm.
In the meantime, my dear, don't go away from the palace on any account until I give you permission. I am going to send a message immediately to Signor Andrea D'Arbino to come and hear the extraordinary disclosure that you have made to me. Go back to read to the count, as usual, until I want you again; but, remember, you must not drop a word to him yet of what you have said to me.
During this conversation they had sat down together, with their backs toward the door, by the side of one of the card-tables. While D'Arbino was speaking, Fabio suddenly felt himself shuddering again, and became conscious of a sound of low breathing behind him. He turned round instantly, and there, standing between them, and peering down at them, was the Yellow Mask!
For my part, I think she has given us quite enough of her mystery and her grim dress; and if my name, instead of being nothing but plain Andrea D'Arbino, was Marquis Melani, I would say to her: 'Madam, we are here to laugh and amuse ourselves; suppose you open your lips, and charm us by appearing in a prettier dress!"
We shall most likely catch him just putting up his horses." The porter turned out to be right. On entering the stable-yard, they found that the empty coach had just driven into it. "You have been taking home a lady in a yellow domino from the masquerade?" said D'Arbino, putting some money into the coachman's hand.
Brigida, thunderstruck, looked at her in silence for a moment; gasped out, "That girl!" then stopped again, breathless. "That girl was at the back of the summer-house this morning, while you and your accomplice were talking together," said the doctor. D'Arbino had been watching Brigida's face intently from the moment of Nanina's appearance, and had quietly stolen close to her side.
The merry laughter of the girl, and the lively notes of the guitar were heard distinctly across the still water. "Edge a little nearer in shore," said D'Arbino to his friend, who was steering; "and keep as I do in the shadow of the sail. I want to see the faces of those persons on the beach without being seen by them." Finello obeyed.
A little before four o'clock they sent for her again into the study. The doctor was sitting by the table with a bag of money before him, and D'Arbino was telling one of the servants that if a lady called at the palace on the subject of the handbill which he had circulated, she was to be admitted into the study immediately.
Signor Andrea D'Arbino, searching vainly through the various rooms in the palace for Count Fabio d'Ascoli, and trying as a last resource, the corridor leading to the ballroom and grand staircase, discovered his friend lying on the floor in a swoon, without any living creature near him. Determining to avoid alarming the guests, if possible, D'Arbino first sought help in the antechamber.
"The grand difficulty with him," he continued, turning to D'Arbino, "remains precisely what it was. I have hardly left a single means untried of rousing him from that fatal depression; yet, for the last fortnight, he has not advanced a single step. "I suppose, poor fellow, he is not in a fit state to be reasoned with?"
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