"Eccellenza!"

"Run and see if Tonino has mayhap returned.
I must have the answer from Casa Canacci before
I go to court."

"The New Year's gift which Salviati had sent
to Caterina had been, indeed, a splendid one—a
tiara and necklace, that might have paled with
envy the cheek of a duchess. It had been
intended to meet her eyes the first thing on the
New Year's morning, and the giver was greedily
impatient for his share of the pleasure in the
receipt of her acknowledgments. A little word,
moreover, was expected to accompany these
acknowledgments, assenting to certain proposed
arrangements for a meeting after Salviati should
have discharged his duty to the grand-duke by
appearing for as short a time as he could make it
at the state court-ball in the evening. The duke's
unwillingness to start on the obligatory gala
business of the day before getting the expected
answer from Casa Canacci will, therefore, be
readily appreciated.

"Eccellenza!" said Luigi, returning with the
gorgeous new court coat in his hands, as if he
hoped that the sight of it might divert his
master's thoughts from the lagging Tonino's tardiness
for a few minutes. "Tonino has not yet returned.
Doubtless he will be here before your excellency
can be dressed. Your excellency's new suit was
sent home in good time this morning. I think,
though it does not become me to judge, that no
cavalier at the Pitti, let him be Strozzi, ay, or
the grand-duke himself, will match that, this
morning." The experienced valet held the
glittering garment artistically, so that the sun's
rays glistened and shimmered on the profusion of
gold embroidery, encasing pearls and diamonds
in its network, as he spoke.

"Good!" said Salviati, glancing at it without
much attention, not that he was generally careless
of such matters. But Salviati's mind was
busy with yet more interesting thoughts.

"Well," said he, "I must get me dressed the
while. I shall be late at the Pitti else. Has my
lady duchess sent in my linen?"

"Not yet, my lord. I have not yet warned my
lady's women that your excellency was stirring."

It must be understood that amid all the
gorgeousness of state and ostentatious magnificence
characteristic of that period, no lady,
however high in rank, if she cared duly to discharge
the duties of her station as mistress of a household,
would deem herself dispensed from giving
her personal superintendence to the fine and
costly tissues of linen and lace, which made so
important and ornamental a part of the male
costume of that day.

"Well, let la Francesca know that I shall be
ready for the things presently. And, Luigi, tell
Carlo to run to the brow of the hill and look out
if he can see Tonino coming up the road. By the
holy rood, if he has been letting the grass grow
under his horse's hoofs, I will crop his ears for
his pains."

Meanwhile, the New Year's moming had opened
on another scene in the apartments occupied by
the duchess.

She had been up and dressed from the earliest
dawn of day. Indeed, her women, cross enough
despite the holiday face de rigueur appropriate
to the festival, and their hopes of New Year's
presents, at the strangely early call on their
services, declared to each other that their lady
had not been in bed at all. Had she been
spending the night in devotional exercises?
May be! Who knows what maggot she will
take into her troublesome head next? At all
events, there is no sign of her prayers—if prayers
they have been that have occupied her night—
having brought her temper into a Christian frame.
Truly, as Francesca had observed to Luigi, while
the latter was waiting the summons to his
master's chamber, truly her excellency's humours
grew more cantankerous every day. There was
no understanding her; and if things went on in
this way much longer, she, Francesca Berti,
should think of looking out for a service in some
pleasanter and better regulated household. And
now she wished anybody could tell her what was
the meaning of it! There was her lady not
dressed for court at all. There she was, dressed
all in black, as if it were All Souls' Day instead
of the New Year's morning.

In truth, the bearing and appearance of the
Lady Veronica were little "like the time."
When, at daybreak, she had summoned her
women, they found her already partially dressed;
and the bed, though in some degree disarranged,
showed signs of not having been slept in. There
was a something, too, in the eye and face of the
duchess which, although her women would have
been at a loss to describe it, impressed them
disagreeably. There was an expression of ferocity
in the eye, mixed with a kind of dreamy absence
of manner, which was unlike her usual moody
sombreness. Her first words, too, were strange
and lugubrious.

"A happy New Year to your ladyship, and may
the Holy Virgin and the saints give your excellency
many such!" said Francesca, performing
the recognised duty of the day, in the hope of
receiving the usual largess.

"Oh, brava! Francesca," returned the duchess,
with a kind of sneering bitterness. "Many
years to return like this, and many a New Year's
Day of similar colour and quality! What a
charming wish! Girl, one such day as this is
enough for a lifetime! There be pleasures, they
say, which pall on repetition. Thy master sent
a messenger to the city this morning. I would
know if he has returned."

"He has, my lady; and has brought with him
the tailor, bearing his excellency's new court
dress assuredly the richest and sweetest fashion
that ever graced a noble gentleman. 'Tis——"

"Hold thy fool's prating!" interrupted the
duchess, fiercely. "Thy master sent a
messenger this morning to Casa Canacci, in the Via
del Pilastri, and thou knowest well, girl, that it