only conceivable motive of my salute. I knew, immediately I had done it,
that I could not love Betty Coy, but I believed that I could prove the
tender husband.

Correspondence to this effect--all on my side--with her parents decided
mine to hasten my removal abroad. It had always been intended that I
should study in Padua, rather than in Paris or Salamanca, if for no
better reason than that that had been Father Danvers' University, and
that he knew many of the professors there--among others, Dr. Porfirio
Lanfranchi, who became my host and guardian, and had been class-mate and
room-mate of our chaplain's. These things matter very little: I was not
consulted in them, and had no objections, as I had no inclinations, for
any particular residence in the world. Before my twenty-first birthday--
I forget the exact date--the hour arrived when I received on my knees my
mother's tearful blessing, embraced my brothers and sisters, kissed my
father's hand, and departed for Oxford, where I caught the London mail;
and, after a short sojourn in the capital, left England for ever.

I conceive that few further prolegomena are necessary to the
understanding of the pages which follow. Before I touched the Italian
soil I was, in the eyes of our law, a grown man, sufficiently robust and
moderately well-read. I was able to converse adequately in French,
tolerably in Italian, had a fair acquaintance with the literatures of
those countries, some Latin, a poor stock of Greek. I believe that I
looked younger than my age, stronger than my forces, better than my
virtues warranted. Women have praised me for good looks, which never did
me any good that I know of; I may say without vanity that I had the
carriage and person of a gentleman. I was then, as I have ever been,
truly religious, though I have sometimes found myself at variance with
the professional exponents of it. In later years I became, I believe,