152 LE LUCCIOLE. 



Bianca stood concealed, and with inward maledictions on the 

 noisy group which was drawing near, he turned to meet it. 

 Some of the party had caught a momentary glimpse of a 

 retreating female figure ; but the Lady Beatrice, as well as 

 her betrothed, having been missed from the ball-room, it was 

 only supposed that the lovers had stolen from the festive scene 

 for half /an hour's converse beneath the gentle moon. Maid- 

 enly bashfulness might explain the lady's flight, and her 

 preference for returning to the palazzo alone rather than 

 accompanied by the merry maskers. 



Having seen them all re-enter the building, Bianca issued 

 from her covert. As she left the moon-lit terrace, and regained 

 the olive grove, a thrill of terror, sudden as the transition 

 from light to darkness, shot through her frame; her limbs 

 trembled, and she was glad to seek the support of an aged 

 olive, the trunk of which, partially decayed, showed white in 

 the surrounding gloom. Not once that night had she thought 

 of the dreaded Lucciole not one had flitted across her path 

 but at the moment she touched the olive tree, they fell around 

 her from amongst its foliage in a shower of living sparks. 



Well now might the maiden tremble ; well might the drops 

 of terror mingle with the night-dews on her marble brow ; not 

 for the harmless glitter of the Lucciole, but for a glimpse of 

 gleaming, and no fancied horrors, which their light revealed. 

 She saw (for an instant) the sparkling of diamonds amidst 

 raven tresses the flashing of dark eyes distended with vin- 



