human
I was thinking to myself, and I believed I was speaking aloud. Do you think I look twenty-five?
gpt
No, indeed, my lady, not by many years. You look younger than I do.
human
And you are not eighteen, Dionetta.
gpt
Not yet, my lady.
human
Dionetta, she said, presently, after a pause,
gpt
I have had a curious dream.
human
I saw you close your eyes for a moment, my lady.
gpt
I dreamt I was the most beautiful woman in all this wide world.
human
You are, my lady.
gpt
Nonsense, child, nonsense--there are others as fair, although I should not fear to stand beside them. It was only a dream, and this but the commencement of it. I was the most beautiful woman in the world. I had the handsomest features, the loveliest figure, and a shape that sculptors would have called perfection. I had the most exquisite dresses that ever were worn, and everything in that way a woman's heart could desire.
human
A happy dream, my lady!
gpt
Wait. I had a palace to live in, in a land where it was summer the whole year through. Such gardens, Dionetta, and such flowers as one only sees in dreams. I had rings enough to cover my fingers a dozen times over; diamonds in profusion for my hair, and neck, and arms,--trunks full of them, and of old lace, and of the most wonderful jewels the mind can conceive. Would you believe it, child, in spite of all this, I was the most miserable woman in the universe?
human
It is hard to believe, my lady.
gpt
Not when I tell you the reason. Dionetta, I was absolutely alone. There was not a single person near me, old or young--not one to look at me, to envy me, to admire me, to love me. What was the use of beauty, diamonds, flowers, dresses? The brightest eyes, the loveliest complexion, the whitest skin--all were thrown away. It would have been just as well if I had been dressed in rags, and were old and wrinkled as Pierre Lamont. Now, what I learn from my dream is this--that beauty is not worth having unless it is admired and loved, and unless other people can see it as well as yourself.
human
Everybody sees that you are beautiful, my lady; it is spoken of everywhere.
gpt
Is it, Dionetta, really, now, is it?
human
Yes, my lady. And you are admired and loved.
gpt
I think I am, child; I know I am. So that my dream goes for nothing. A foolish fancy, was it not, Dionetta?--but women are never satisfied. I should never be tired--never, never, of hearing the man I love say, 'I love you, I love you! You are the most beautiful, the dearest, the sweetest!'
human
Dionetta, she said presently,
gpt
It is the Shadow, my lady, that was seen to-night, replied Dionetta in a whisper;
human
I cannot get it out of my mind.
gpt
But you did not see it?
human
No, my lady; but it was there.
gpt
You believe in ghosts?
human
Yes, my lady.
gpt
You would not have the courage to go where one was to be seen?
human
Not for all the gold in the world, my lady.
gpt
But the other servants are more courageous?
human
They may be, but they would not dare to go; they said so to-night, all of them.
gpt
They have been speaking of it, then?
human
Oh, yes; of scarcely anything else. Grandmother said to-night that if you had not come to the villa, the belief in the shadows would have died away altogether.
gpt
That is too ridiculous, interrupted Adelaide.
human
What can I have to do with them?
gpt
If you had not come, said Dionetta,
human
But your grandmother has told me she did not believe in the shadows.
gpt
My lady, I think she is changing her opinion--else she would never have said what she did. It is long since I have seen her so disturbed.