ervice," said she; "but I can assure you
that even that is something--to be thankful for!"

"I do not like to hear you jest about an affection so sacred as this, of
which you yourself prescribed the conditions."

"_Zitto_!" said she, stamping her foot, and looking whether her husband
were listening. "Never disturb the peace of mind of that dear man, as
simple as a child, and with whom I can do what I please. He is under
my protection," she added. "If you could know with what generosity he
risked his life and fortune because I was a Liberal! for he does not
share my political opinions. Is not that love, Monsieur Frenchman?--But
they are like that in his family. Emilio's younger brother was deserted
for a handsome youth by the woman he loved. He thrust his sword through
his own heart ten minutes after he had said to his servant, 'I could of
course kill my rival, but that would grieve the _Diva_ too deeply.'"

This mixture of dignity and banter, of haughtiness and playfulness, made
Francesca at this moment the most fascinating creature in the world. The
dinner and the evening were full of cheerfulness, justified, indeed, by
the relief of the two refugees, but depressing to Rodolphe.

"Can she be fickle?" he asked himself as he returned to the Stopfers'
house. "She sympathized in my sorrow, and I cannot take part in her
joy!"

He blamed himself, justifying this girl-wife.

"She has no taint of hypocrisy, and is carried away by impulse," thought
he, "and I want her to be like a Parisian woman."

* * * * *

Next day and the following days, in fact, for twenty days after,
Rodolphe spent all his time at the Bergmanns', watching Francesca
without having determined to watch her. In some souls admiration is not
independent of a certain penetration. The young Frenchman discerned in
Francesca the imprudence of girlhood, the true nature of a woman as yet
unbroken, sometimes struggling against her love, and at other moments
yielding and carried away by it. The old man certainly behaved to her as
a father to his daughter, and Francesca treated him with a deeply felt
gratitude which roused her instinctive nobleness. The situation and the
woman were to Rodolphe an impenetrable enigma, of which the solution
attracted him more and more.

These last days were full of secret joys, alternating with melancholy
moods, with tiffs and quarrels even more delightful than the hours
when Rodolphe and Francesca were of one mind. And he was m