Leila

"Signorina!" called Giovanni the footman, entering the dining-room breathlessly, after looking for her in the garden, in the drawing-room, and in her own chamber. It was nine o'...

The next morning Massimo came down to the drawing-room at half-past six, to the dismay of the footman Giovanni, who left the floor-polishing in which he had been engaged amidst...

Don Tita Fantuzzo, archpriest of Velo d'Astico, said Mass as usual at half-past seven; and, after some lengthy prayers in the sacristy, proceeded down the stairs leading from th...

At Lago di Velo the news of the priest's impending departure had greatly distressed the inhabitants. Many, indeed, had been displeased that he had taken Carnesecca into his hous...

Donna Fedele arrived in her carriage at ten o'clock. A despairing note from Leila had brought her the news at nine. She got out at the entrance to the open verandah in order not...

The engineer Luigi Alberti, Massimo's uncle, descended from a family of solid and respectable Milanese burghers, had a small apartment on the third floor of a house in Via San S...

On the 4th of July at a quarter to one, Donna Fedele reached the Seghe station in her usual small carriage, drawn by the usual small horse. On hearing the whistle of the train o...

Three days later, on the Friday, Girolamo Camin, Auditor, Francesco Molesin, Doctor-at-Law, and Carolina Gorlago, Camin's housekeeper, reached Arsiero together by the first trai...

Donna Fedele had Leila carried, still unconscious, to a large, double-bedded room, and saw that she was undressed and put to bed. Presently the young girl came to herself, cast...

Friend Molesin did not believe a syllable of the story Momi told him--that he had not seen his daughter, or anything else. But the worthy doctor, nevertheless, pretended to gras...

Donna Fedele, who was in pain, was lying on her bed reading. The maid came in to say that the little girl to whom her mistress taught French had come for her lesson. Donna Fedel...

The service for the repose of the soul of Signor Marcello was to begin at ten o'clock. Donna Fedele was not well enough to attend. She had written to Camin, begging that Leila m...

On the following morning Leila received a letter from Donna Fedele complaining that she had not seen Leila since their little quarrel. She was going to Turin almost immediately,...

Leila requested Teresina to wait upon her at dinner instead of Giovanni, and talked to her very pleasantly on several unimportant matters. The maid, finding her in such good-hum...

The next morning at half-past five, half an hour before the train started, Leila was on the platform at the Arsiero station with Teresina and Giovanni, who had brought her portm...

Having made her hurried entrance into a first-class compartment, Leila detained the porter on one pretext and another, so that there was no danger of his running up against Sign...

"The night is still dark; I am very tired, but, nevertheless, I find it impossible to stay in bed. I have been feeling as if you were going away from me. I must talk to you. Las...