pressing the hand of his lovely companion affectionately to his lips
at times, with a gentle and affectionate tenderness far more
eloquent than words; while the response that met this token from her
expressive face might have told the most casual observer how dearly
and how deeply she loved the young artist, and how the simplest
token of tenderness from him was cherished by her.

La Signora Florinda was a grand-daughter of the house of Carrati,
one of the oldest and proudest of all Italy. Having been placed in a
convent in the environs of Florence for her education, the Grand
Duke by chance met her while quite young, and learning her name, he
at once knew her to be an orphan, and now under the care of her
uncle Signor Latrezzi. By his own request he became her guardian,
and from that time Florinda became an inmate of the palace of the
duke, and the constant companion of the duchess.

Her parents deceased, as the reader has already gathered, while she
was yet a child, leaving her an immense property, which was now in
the hands of her protector, the monarch himself. About the time, or
rather some months previous to the commencement, of our tale, the
duchess had died of consumption. Florinda for more than a year had
been her intimate and dearly loved companion, and for this reason
alone was dearly prized by the Grand Duke, who still sincerely
mourned his wife's death.

The deep devotion and constancy of this monarch, Leopold of Tuscany,
to his wife, evinced an affection rarely found in marriages of
state. Inconsolable for her death, he shut himself from the world
for a long time, weeping in secret the affliction he had sustained
in her loss. To this day there ornaments the private apartments of