194 LE LUCOIOLE. 



panions at the festival Bianca to return to the abode of her 

 father, an old vine-dresser, who had lived from his youth 

 upwards on the estate and in the service of the Marchese 

 Bassano. His cottage was in the midst of an olive grove, 

 which adjoined the garden of the villa, and communicated 

 with it by a gate opening on a terrace walk which overlooked 

 the sea and town. It was here the lovers had been walking ; 

 and Marco, having accompanied his innamorata through a 

 portion of the olive grove, they were repeating for the last 

 (perhaps the twentieth) time, their reluctant " Buona notte" 

 when Bianca started " Heard you not," said she, " a rustling 

 amongst those trees ? " 



"Not I, sweet one/' returned Marco; but as he spoke 

 he plunged into the plantation in the direction towards which 

 she pointed, and shook the boughs as if to detect the presence 

 of a suspected lurker. None appeared ; but from the shaken 

 branches arose a swarm of fire-flies which, checked in their 

 upward flight by the thick foliage above them, kept wheeling 

 in radiant streams and circles near the disturbers of their 

 rest. " There, silly one! now art thou satisfied?" cried the 

 young man, , returning to the pathway. " The Lucciole 

 have displayed their lamps on purpose to show thee the 

 emptiness of thy fears ; and see ! in honour of St. John have 

 we not here a brave illumination? a show of fire-works 

 shaming the brightest that are let off yonder? Aye, and my 

 loved one, thou shalt not want for diamonds in thy hair 

 gems which the proudest of yon city dames display not one 

 to equal." 



Marco, as he spoke, opened and closed his hand upon 

 several of the fire-flies which were flitting around him, and 

 sportively placed them in the coloured net- work which con- 

 fined the maiden's luxuriant tresses. Bianca shrunk almost 

 shrieked as she tried to arrest the playful action of her 

 noble lover. " Marco ! for the love of heaven, do not so ! 

 Those Lucciole if you knew how I dread them ! " 



