166
ROMANCE OF MONTE BENI.
She ascended two or three of the stairs, but again paused, murmured to herself, and shook her head.
"No, no, no," she thought; "and I wonder how I ever came to dream of it. Unless I had his heart for my own—and that is Hilda's, nor would I steal it from her,—it should never be the treasure-place of my secret. It is no precious pearl, as I just now told him; but my dark-red carbuncle—red as blood—is too rich a gem to put into a stranger's casket."
She went down the stairs, and found her Shadow waiting for her in the street.
