THE

CONVENT AND THE HAREM.

CHAPTER I.

WHEN Nino returned for the repast which we should now call dinner, from the hour, Beatrice and Bianca perceived that he was somewhat excited and disturbed. On anxiously inquiring the cause, they could not but perceive that he evidently wished to conceal it but Beatrice, who became but the more anxious to learn it, and who excelled in cross-examination, elicited at last that the surprise which had been slightly felt the evening before, at no news of any sort having arrived of the departed army, was now converted into a sort of vague alarm and anticipation of some disaster having occurred, arising no one knew where, nor founded upon what.

VOL. II.

B

"Pooh!" exclaimed Beatrice.

"Either you

are not telling all, or I must say you are very silly to put on such a countenance and manner for idle surmises; but that indeed "—and by these last three words we would endeavour to express that untranslatable Italian già, to which not only no word, but scarcely any sentence in our language can compare in force and expression, for this reason, that that apparently simple, and certainly short monosyllable, is made to serve for almost every purpose to which language can be applied, and serves them well, as all will bear witness who have passed some time in Italy. I say in Italy, for it is confined to no town or province, so essentially is it a part of the language itself. Without the slightest exaggeration, the single word già as they use it, is capable of expressing the fondest love, the fiercest hate, the highest compliment, the most odious suspicions, and who that has ever heard can forget the world of sympathy, conviction, accordance, and all else that, while one is relating a circumstance to an Italian, is expressed in the, to us, inconceivably rapid but varying intonation with which they reiterate

già, già, già, già,' sometimes five or even six times together."

As Beatrice now uttered it once and paused, no one could mistake that she meant to say that silliness in her husband was nothing to create surprise. Too well accustomed to such compliments to notice them in any way, Nino merely replied that it was perfectly true that no one seemed able to account for the panic that had seized upon the people, but that such was too general not to have some foundation either in fact or in presentiment.

"Presentiment!" repeated Beatrice, scornfully. "So long as it be confined to that it is all nonsense; and therefore, I do beg, Nino, that you will not spoil our ball by going round and entertaining our guests with such presentiments."

Nino shrugged his shoulders, another essential part of the Italian language, and showed his disposition to oblige his wife by drinking more wine than usual.

When the ladies retired to dress, Bianca found Adelaida full fraught with the same news, only differently related-she having been assured that at daybreak a spirit in white was seen flitting from belfry to belfry of all the churches, and