“I fear there are many who find a pleasure in these stuffs, chiefly because their use is forbidden.”

“’Twould not be out of nature!  Look; this box contains ornaments of the elephant’s tooth, cut by a cunning artificer in the far Eastern lands; they do not disfigure a lady’s dressing-table, and have a moral, for they remind her of countries where the sex is less happy than at home.  Ah! here is a treasure of Mechlin, wrought in a fashion of my own design.”

“’Tis beautifully fancied, and might do credit to one who professed the painter’s art.”

“My youth was much employed in these conceits,” returned the trader, unfolding the rich and delicate lace in a manner to show that he had still pleasure in contemplating its texture and quality.  “There was a compact between me and the maker, that enough should be furnished to reach from the high church-tower of his town, to the pavement beneath; and yet, you see how little remains!  The London dames found it to their taste, and it was not easy to bring even this trifle into the colonies.”

“You chose a remarkable measure for an article that was to visit so many different countries, without the formalities of law!”

“We thought to start in the favor of the church, which rarely frowns on those who respect its privileges.  Under the sanction of such authority, I will lay aside all that remains, certain it will be needed for thy use.”

“So rare a manufacture should be costly?”

La belle Barberie spoke hesitatingly, and as she raised her eyes, they met the dark organs of her companion, fixed on her face, in a manner that seemed to express a consciousness of the ascendency he was gaining.  Startled, at she knew not what the maiden again added hastily—­

“This may be fitter for a court lady, than a girl of the colonies.”

“None who have vet worn of it, so well become it;—­I lay it here, as a make-weight in my bargain with the Alderman.—­This is satin of Tuscany; a country where nature exhibits its extremes, and one whose merchants were princes.  Your Florentine was subtle in his fabrics, and happy in his conceits of forms and colors, for which he stood indebted to the riches of his own climate.  Observe—­the hue of this glossy surface is scarcely so delicate as I have seen the rosy light, at even, playing on the sides of his Apennines!”

“You have then visited the regions, in whose fabrics you deal?” said Alida, suffering the articles to fall from her hand, in the stronger interest she began to feel in their owner.

“’Tis my habit.  Here have we a chain from the city of the Isles.  The hand of a Venetian could alone form these delicate and nearly insensible links:  I refused a string of spotless pearls for that same golden web.”

“It was indiscreet, in one who trades at so much hazard.”

“I kept the bauble for my pleasure!—­Whim is sometimes stronger than the thirst of gain; and this chain does not quit me, till I bestow it on the lady of my love.”