him. I became irritable, jealous, exacting. His daughter, who now came
to live with us, was another subject of discord. I knew that he loved
her better than me. I became a harsh step-mother; and Ludovico's
reproaches, vehemently made, nursed all my angriest passions. But a son
of this new marriage was born to myself. My pretty Luigi! how my heart
became wrapt up in him! Nursing him, I forgot resentment against his
father. Well, poor Cicogna fell ill and died. I mourned him sincerely;
but my boy was left. Poverty then fell on me,--poverty extreme.
Cicogna's sole income was derived from a post in the Austrian dominion in
Italy, and ceased with it. He received a small pension in compensation;
that died with him.

"At this time, an Englishman, with whom Ludovico had made acquaintance in
Venice, and who visited often at our house in Verona, offered me his
hand. He had taken an extraordinary liking to Isaura, Cicogna's daughter
by his first marriage. But I think his proposal was dictated partly by
compassion for me, and more by affection for her. For the sake of my boy
Luigi I married him. He was a good man, of retired learned habits with
which I had no sympathy. His companionship overwhelmed me with ennui.
But I bore it patiently for Luigi's sake. God saw that my heart was as
much as ever estranged from Him, and He took away my all on earth--my
boy. Then in my desolation I turned to our Holy Church for comfort. I
found a friend in the priest, my confessor. I was startled to learn from
him how guilty I had been--was still. Pushing to an extreme the
doctrines of the Church, he would not allow that my first marriage,
though null by law, was void in the eyes of Heaven. Was not the death of
the child I so cherished a penalty due to my sin towards the child I had
abandoned?

"These thoughts pressed on me night and day. With the consent and