THE STORY OP A PICTURE.

pearls round Maria's neck; but I leave here in another
hour. But," he added, as he took up a gold cross that
had been lying on the table, and handed it to Giovanni,
"give her this to wear for the sake of an unknown
friend."
 My Maria's ornaments are not of gold," was the
answer, though had fortune dealt otherwise with me,
they might have been."
 Had you dealt otherwise with fortune, you should
rather say, Giovanni." And Signor Selvico changed
the subject as if it was altogether distasteful to him.
 Giovanni s visit to the castle did not last long.
The great estrangement between him and his brother
was not the less for such a slight interruption; but as
he returned home he rejoiced at the seeming probability
that Signor Selvico would leave to his nephew and
niece an ample fortune, and that thus the error which
had deprived him of rank and wealth, would not keep
his children long in poverty.
 The Florentine merchant, Signor Selvico, whilst
staying for a few days at the castle of Castaro, had
heard by chance that a man bearing his own name was
living in the village. The thought struck him at once
that he was likely to be his brother, and on further
inquiry, he learned that he had settled in the village
at the very time when Giovanni Selvico left Florence.
This he heard on the evening before the day fixed for
his departure, and, as it confirmed him in his opinion,
he lost no time in summoning him to the castle; for
now he longed to see the ruined brother, for whom, he
had thought, all brotherly feeling had ceased years
before. He expected to find him craving for a re-union
of friendship, but so different from this was his manner,
that Signor Selvico resolved to let the estrangement
"between them go on as before, but to take care that,