To-morrow--ten o'clock--the
wicket-gate at the back of the Ascoli gardens. Believe in my
truth and honor, Nanina, for I believe implicitly in yours."
Having written these lines, he took from among his bunch of
watch-seals a little key, wrapped it up in the note, and pressed
it into her hand. In spite of himself his fingers lingered round
hers, and he was on the point of speaking to her again, when he
saw the waiting-woman's hand, which was just raised to motion him
away, suddenly drop. Her color changed at the same moment, and
she looked fixedly across the table.
He turned round immediately, and saw a masked woman standing
alone in the room, dressed entirely in yellow from head to foot.
She had a yellow hood, a yellow half-mask with deep fringe
hanging down over her mouth, and a yellow domino, cut at the
sleeves and edges into long flame-shaped points, which waved
backward and forward tremulously in the light air wafted through
the doorway. The woman's black eyes seemed to gleam with an evil
brightness through the sight-holes of the mask, and the tawny
fringe hanging before her mouth fluttered slowly with every
breath she drew. Without a word or a gesture she stood before the
table, and her gleaming black eyes fixed steadily on Fabio the
instant he confronted her. A sudden chill struck through him, as
he observed that the yellow of the stranger's domino and mask was
of precisely the same shade as the yellow of the hangings and
furniture which his wife had chosen after their marriage for the
decoration of her favorite sitting-room.
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