Teresa looked at him in undisguised astonishment. "I do not think I
understand you-is it your wish that I should enjoy the whole of the
proceeds of my singing?"

"You have said it."

"And what concession am I to make in return?" she inquired, as
though suspicious some greater enormity than he had yet been guilty
of, was intended.

"What return? O Teresa, cannot you comprehend and believe, that I
expect and desire none?"

"I know not how I should, since your whole conduct has hardly been
such as to impress me very profoundly with the idea that generosity
is a prominent characteristic of Signor Villani's!"

"Say no more-let us be friends, Teresa. I will do all I can for you,
and do not utter reproaches for what is a misfortune to me, although
it were a glory to any other."

His companion scarce credited her senses. Was it possible that
Villani, her tormentor and cruel persecutor, indeed wished her well
and desired to become her friend? It seemed strange, yet his manner
was more like truth than she had ever seen it before, and she felt
she had perhaps wronged him, that beneath all, a heart, human and
accessible to some generous emotion, yet beat, and her own noble,
ingenuous nature, ever ready to accuse itself and offer atonement,
impelled her to extend both hands to Villani and reply: