better than Laura that the task was easy; she had but to
override her aversion to the show of trifling with a dead passion; and
when she thought of Angelo lying helpless in the swarm of enemies, and
that Wilfrid could consent to use his tragic advantage to force her to
silly love-play, his selfishness wrought its reflection, so that she
became sufficiently unjust to forget her marvellous personal influence
over him. Even her tenacious sentiment concerning his white uniform was
clouded. She very soon ceased to be shamefaced in her own fancy. At dawn
she stood at her window looking across the valley of Meran, and felt the
whole scene in a song of her heart, with the faintest recollection of her
having passed through a tempest overnight. The warm Southern glow of the
enfoliaged valley recalled her living Italy, and Italy her voice. She
grew wakefully glad: it was her nature, not her mind, that had twisted in
the convulsions of last night's horror of shame. The chirp of healthy
blood in full-flowing veins dispersed it; and as a tropical atmosphere is
cleared by the hurricane, she lost her depression and went down among her
enemies possessed by an inner delight, that was again of her nature, not
of her mind. She took her gladness for a happy sign that she had power to
rise buoyant above circumstances; and though aware that she was getting
to see things in harsh outlines, she was unconscious of her haggard
imagination.

The Lenkensteins had projected to escape the blandishments of Vienna by
residing during the winter in Venice, where Wilfrid and his sister were
to be the guests of the countess:--a pleasant prospect that was dashed
out by an official visit from Colonel Zofel of the Meran garrison,
through whom it was known that Lieutenant Pierson, while enjoying his
full liberty to investigate the charms of the neighbourhood, might not
extend his excursions beyond a pedestrian day's limit;--he was, in fact,
under surveillance. The colonel formally exacted his word of honour that
he would not attempt to pass the bounds, and explained to the duchess
that the injunction was favourable to the lieutenant, as implying that he
must be ready at any moment to receive the order to join his regiment.
Wilfrid bowed with a proper soldierly submission. Respecting the criminal
whom his men were pursuing, Colonel Zofel said that he was sparing no
efforts to come on his traces; he supposed, from what he had heard in the
Ultenthal, that Guidasca