race friend and extorted from
him full confession of his prank, asserting that it was
inconceivable that I could have had any part in it.

"My confusion was such that I accepted the explanation with
gratitude as an escape from the bantering of the Signor Chigi and
the displeasure of my uncle. But as days passed by and Raphael held
himself aloof, giving me no opportunity to thank him for his
tactful defence, I perceived that it was not so much the meaning of
the token which had been imputed to me at which my heart revolted,
as the shameless and public way in which it had been thrust upon my
friend. In this plight I still remain and turn to you for sympathy
in my trouble, to you sweet lady who cannot fail to think me sadly
love-sick and bold, but I pray you chide me not, seeing the matter
can go no further, for I learn that Raphael has been recalled to
Urbino by your ladyship's brother to execute certain commissions.
So that your ladyship will soon see him and will have an
opportunity of learning from him whether he at all regrets leaving
Siena, though I beg that you will ascertain this without so much as
suffering him to suspect that I have in any way signified that I
have met him. For it is perchance best that he is going, for were I
to see him often I do fear me that my heart might become so pitched
and set upon him, that I should in time most rashly and
inconsiderately fall in love, which were a bold and unmaidenly
thing to do, and I mind that you once said that no virtuous woman
would allow her affections to conduct themselves thus
insubordinately until the Church had by the sacrament of marriage
given her good and sufficient license thereto.

"And so Madam, praying Maria Sanctissima and Maria, the sister of
Lazarus, my patroness, to keep me constant in this mind, I rest
your ladyship's loving friend and devoted servitor

"MARIA DOVIZIO."

It must be understood that this letter came not to my knowledge until
long after its writing. I knew not then either the deep affection of the
writer for Raphael, or her aversion for myself. By an irony of fate we
had begun our acquaintance by loving at cross purposes. The "prankish
fop" and "graceless fellow"--whose affection had indeed been hitherto
no great compliment to a woman, being lightly caught and as lightly
lost--was to his