The Argosy — page 45: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Princess Eleanor. 35 evening en famille, that is to say, with Count Werdan, Arsent, and a young Florentine, brought here expressly, I doubt not, to set Werdan off. It is the Prince who excludes everyone else, in the hope, I imagine, of seeing his sister decide in favour of young Arsent. From him I had as yet nothing to fear, for he looked as innocent and foolish as possible. It was Werdan I thought dangerous. Well, one evening they all began talking of ghosts and spirits. The Florentine told us that a few days ago Veronica Cibo had again been seen in the vaults of Villa Salviati. “Explain your meaning,” cried Werdan. “If this Veronica Cibo is the owner of Villa Salviati, I see nothing extraordinary in her visiting the cellars of her house. I am quite ready even to keep her company, if her wine be better than her renommée.” For a few moments the Florentine enjoyed the delight in silence of being in possession of a story about which even the brilliant Werdan knew nothing. At last he began : “Veronica Cibo was the wife of Gino Salviati. No longer so beau- tiful as she had once been ——” “© When was she no longer as beautiful as she had once been? ” in- terrupted Werdan. This call to logic remained unheeded by the Florentine. Undisturbed he continued : “Veronica Cibo one day found out that her husband was faithless to her, and all for a little beauty belonging to the lower classes. She took her resolve, and one night entered the happy one’s bedchamber by the window, found her sleeping, and in a moment cut her beautiful head off, which she carried away with her in a cloth. Next moraing— it was her husband’s birthday—she brought him an elegant basket, the contents of which were concealed with flowers and veils. Gino Salviati looked gratefully at her, and raised the lid, beneath which he discovered his murdered love’s pale face, surrounded by a crown of golden hair. He took his wife to the Villa Salviati, where she is said not to have died, but to be still wandering about, much to the dismay of the servants and country-folks.” “Your statement,” remarked Werdan, “ leaves nothing to be desired in the way of precision and brevity. Whether it could not have been told in a more interesting and poetic manner, I leave others to decide. Now I should have told it thus :—In times when —— ” “Pray why did you not tell the story at once?” interrupted the Florentine. “Because I did not know it, and that is simply owing to my not having had the pleasure of being born in Tuscany, the land of terrible traditions. Still I am certain that I should have obteined a greater success had I told the story.” gle comicbooks.com