"You deceive yourself," said the cavalier, with a smile. "I am aware that I assisted to your merited success, and it is you who scarce know how. The why I will tell you: because I saw in your heart a nobler ambition than that of the woman's vanity: it was the daughter that interested me. Perhaps you would rather I should have admired the singer?"
"No; oh, no!"
"Well, I believe you. And now, since we have thus met, I will pause to counsel you. When next you go to the theatre, you will have at your feet all the young gallants of Naples. Poor infant! the flame that dazzles the eye can scorch the wing. Kemember that the only homage that does not sully must be that which these gallants will not give thee. And whatever thy dreams of the future — and I see, while I speak to thee, how wandering they are, and wild — may only those be fulfilled which centre round the hearth of home."
He paused, as Viola's breast heaved beneath its robe. And with a burst of natural and innocent emotions, scarcely comprehending, though an Italian, the grave nature of his advice, she exclaimed — "Ah, Excellency, you cannot know how dear to me that home is already. And my father — there would be no home, Signor, without him!"
A deep and melancholy shade settled over the face of the cavalier. He looked up at the quiet house buried amidst the vine-leaves, and turned again to the vivid, animated face of the young actress.
