The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-12-15

At midnight my plan was com pIete."
 A $ he paused. and the conclu- A sion became clear to me, I N was taken with Q kind of stupor.
 "A few days later" he said, "as she stood gazing down through the twilight a man emerged from the forest, in face and dress the image of that other Antonio di Manzecca. At his signal. servants in the old time livery of the ManZecca ap- peared with a ladder, which they leaned against the ramparts. He set foot upon the platform. Her pallor turned deathIike; her eyes became blank; she fainted in his arms. When she recovered she was in the Castle of Manzecca.
 That shock had restored her reason.
 Now everything around her very artfully suggested the sixteenth century-the furniture, the most trivial utensils, the costume of the humblest person in the castle. Nuta attended her. The convales- cent was told that she had been i'll in consequence of the attack on her lover, but that he. instead of sue cumbing, had been spirited away and stealthily nursed back to health. Again whole, he had re- turned to avenge himself on his brother, whom he had killed. Mean while her father had died. There fore she had been brought from the Castle of F'oscone to the Castle of Manzecca to enjoy the protection of her Antonio. whom she was now free to marry.
 All this was what she wanted to believe, so she believed it"
 But Antonio's face was filled with new distress. He rose. to pace the floor with the gestures of a man who realizes that he is locked in a cell to which there is no key.
 "In the restoration of her mind." he groaned. my own peace of mind has been destroyed. Even this love, the strangest and most thrilling in the world, will never allay the heartquakes that I have brought upon myself.
 With her perception of time re- stored, she will now be subject to time like other mortals. As year follows year, her youthfulness will merge into maturity, her maturity into old age. here in this castle, where nothing must ever suggest that she has attained a century other than her own. For me that means a ceaseless vigilance and fear. My devotion will always be mingled with forebodings of some blunder. some unforeseen intrusion of the present, some lightning like revelation of the truth to her.
 At that he broke down.
 'Ah, if that happened, what hor- TOT should I witness?"
 The gale sounded like the hootfne, ot a thousand demons who were preparing for this man a frightful retributiOn. Yet even in that mo- ment I envied him.
 To her beauty, which had be- witched me at my first sight of her, was added another allurement-the thought of magical flight far be- yond the boundaries imprisoning other men. If romance is a striv- ing toward something at once unique and sympathetic, here was romance attained Moreover, in em- bracing that exquisite personifica- tion of the Renaissance. one might add to love the glamour of a terri biS SluNciS4lE- <ALlu the aQQ1t1On of glamour to love has always been one of the most assiduously prac- tised arts.
 A T the. bottom of the winding "A tower staircase, in the door A @ way of the hall where she had greeted us, we paused to compose ourselves.
 At least" Antonio besought me, when in doubt, remain si1ent.'
 We entered the hall. Under a wooden gallery adorned with carved and tinted shields the supper-table was laid
 They awaited us. shimmering in their fantastic fnery-the ladies Laura and Lima, my old friends Leonardo and Leonello, and the in effable Ffammetta di Foscone The visitors cheeks seemed hectic from the excitement of the hour; but her face was flushed. her eyes shone. for her own reasons. As ap- preached her my. heart beats suffo- cated me. Yes. fNvould have taken Antonio's place and shouldered all his terrors! Before me the fair conQueror of time disappeared in haze, out of which her voice em- erged like a sweet utterance from beyond the tomb
 'You are pleased with the castle, messere?'
 As I was striving to respond, An tonic said to her, half aside, in that quaint species of Italian which he had used before:
 He speaks our language with difficulty. Madonna. and in a dialect This disability will embarrass him till he finds himself more at home"
 Then let us sup" she exclaimed. For since this new custom of a third meal has become fashionable in Florence. no doubt you are all expiring of hunger. So quickly does habit become tyrannous, especially when it involves a pleasure.'
 In some manner or other I seated myself at the table.
 The servants bore in, on silver plattters, small chickens garnished with sugar and rose water, a sort of galantine. tarts of almonds and honey, carameIs of pine-seed. From the gallery overhead came the tinkle of a rota, a kind of guitar The musician produced a whimsical tune suggesting a picnic of lords and ladies in the garden Of an antique villa, where trick fountains