fluttered. Then she lifted to me a stern pure face. "His deserts, my
lord, say you? Come, kneel you by me, and see whether he have them or
no."

Some impulse, I know not what, made me obey. I kneeled down by Virginia.
She opened reverently the clothing of Belviso, laid back the vest, laid
back the cotton shirt. Wonder, terror, a flood of shame came scalding
into my eyes. I had looked upon, but now could not see, the young
breasts of a girl. My proof had turned to my reproof. I was humbled to
the dust. "Poor child," said Virginia very softly, "poor sinner, who
died to save him that had once saved thee, I pray to God that thou
knowest now how innocently he did thee this wrong." She stooped and
kissed the cold lips, but I fell upon the cold bosom and wept bitterly.

She let me sob my full. Not until I was calmer did the noble girl touch
me upon the shoulder and call me by my name. "Francis," she said, "do
not reproach yourself any more. This poor soul has done what she must in
any case have done. Her heart was yours, and yours, she knew, could
never have been given her. She was loyal to you through all and deceived
you through loyalty. She is repaid in the only coin she could have
asked. God have her soul." [Footnote: Belviso's tragic masquerade was
not at all uncommon in Italy at the time of which I write. If a girl
were desirous of becoming a comedian she must, unless her talents were
extraordinary, appear to be a male. The salaries of women, to begin
with, were high and out of the reach of poor companies of players; and
secondly, as I have said in the text, some States, such as the Roman,
forbade the appearance of women upon the scene. Women's parts,
therefore, would be taken by castrati, or boys, whose sex it was
necessary for a woman to assume. There was another reason which, I
fondly believe, induced Belviso to adopt that name and appearance. A