“‘That may be,’ replied he, still smiling.
“‘But,’ said I to him in a low and expressive voice, ‘think you an uncorrupted body in the vault is a common phænomenon?’
“He appeared staggered: and I thus continued in an under tone of voice:—
“‘For that matter, ’tis very possible to account for it naturally, and therefore it would be useless to contest the subject with you.’
“‘We are wandering from the point,’ said the countess a little angrily; and she made me a sign to begin, which I accordingly did, in the following words:—
“‘The scene of my anecdote lies in Venice.’
“‘I possibly then may know something of it,’ cried the duke, who entertained some suspicions.
“‘Possibly so,’ replied I; ‘but there were reasons for keeping the event secret: it happened somewhere about eighteen months since, at the period you first set out on your travels.
“The son of an extremely wealthy nobleman, whom I shall designate by the name of Filippo, being attracted to Leghorn by the affairs consequent on his succession to an inheritance, had won the heart of an amiable and lovely girl, called Clara. He promised her, as well as her parents, that ere his return to Venice he would come back and marry her. The moment for his departure
