by death not many years previous to the time of which we write-two
circumstances which had rather tended to augment his unhappy
disposition.

At times he was moody and thoughtful, and some matter seemed to
weigh heavily upon his mind. He was, however, a peculiar man, with
few personal friends and no confidants, and there were some dark
hints thrown out touching his honesty in the matter of a sum of
money entrusted to his care and disbursement by the government. But
policy had led to this report's being hushed up on the part of
government, for he was of noble blood.

This nephew, Petro Giampetti, was a handsome youth after the style
of the Italians, possessed of all the noble and revengeful passions
so common to his countrymen, yet by no means an evil-disposed
person. His dark, swarthy countenance was rendered handsome by a
remarkably deep, piercing eye, about which there was a certain
something which, while you could not exactly describe, yet left an
unpleasant effect upon the beholder; a certain expression that
seemed to say that when an object was to be gained, the means would
sometimes be disregarded.

He had been much with Florinda from childhood, and he was taught to
consider her as his future wife. As to love, he might be said to
admire her beauty of person and mind, for none knew better how to
appreciate both than Petro; and, taken in connection with his
anticipated union with her, he perhaps loved her as the world goes.
But she had never excited in his bosom that latent passion which
smoulders in every heart, and which chance, earlier or later, will
eventually fan into a flame.