doubt of her devotion to myself; she never left me or met me again
without kissing my hand; she always spoke of me by a title of respect--
as Don Francis, or your honour, or sir--and yet was entirely
unceremonious in what else she said to me, criticised my actions, and
quarrelled with me hotly upon many subjects. She took a plain view of my
feelings towards Aurelia, as the reader will have seen, and a very plain
view of Aurelia's towards me. But when she found that to have expressed
them would really have hurt me, she withheld the expression, but did not
change her view. One thing she never did: she betrayed not the slightest
symptom of love for me. I might have been her sister, or she my brother,
for any false shame she had--or for any sign of passion towards me. She
concealed nothing, she spared nothing, but she asked nothing that I was
not ready to give her--and this, as I then thought, was not because she
was determined to fulfil her bargain towards me, but because there was
nothing more that she wanted. She liked me, I suppose, very much; she
respected me--perhaps she might have been a little afraid of me. She
knew that I was a signore who could end my absurdities--so she freely
considered my conduct--whenever I chose; she thought me a little mad.
Meantime, as I was uniformly kind to her, she had never been so happy in
her life. On my part, I spent my time in the writing of great quantities
of poetry--which I read to Virginia in the evenings and which she
thought very fine--and in teaching her to read and write. She proved an
apt and willing pupil, quick to learn and with a retentive memory; but
she could never spell. I think it may be said that, on the whole, I gave
her as much as I got, for not only did she become happier and healthier,
but I was able to soften the harsh angles of her mind, to humanise,
reclaim her from savagery. I could not, however, make her religious
after my own fashion. She went to Mass with me, and once, when I
insisted upon it, confessed and took the communion. But she hated the
priests, though she would never tell me the reason, and could hardly