learn. He was the circle of hope, and her heart its centre; all lines
were equal to that heart, so that they touched him. It is clear that this
devotion prevented her, however, from fitting herself to be his companion;
she did not seek to accomplish herself, but to study him: thus in her
extreme love was another reason why that love was not adequately returned.

But Godolphin felt all the responsibility that he had taken on himself.
He felt how utterly the happiness of this poor and solitary child--for a
child she was in character, and almost in years--depended upon him. He
roused himself, therefore, from his ordinary selfishness, and rarely, if
ever, gave way to the irritation which she unknowingly but constantly kept
alive. The balmy and delicious climate, the liquid serenity of the air,
the majestic repose with which Nature invested the loveliness that
surrounded their home, contributed to soften and calm his mind. And he
had persuaded Lucilla to look without despair upon his occasional although
short absences. Sometimes he passed two or three weeks at Rome, sometimes
at Naples or Florence. He knew so well how necessary such intervals of
absence are to the preservation of love, to the defeat of that satiety
which creeps over us with custom, that he had resolutely enforced it as a
necessity, although always under the excuse of business--a plea that
Lucilla could understand and not resist; for the word business seemed to
her like destiny--a call that, however odious, we cannot disobey. At
first, indeed, she was disconsolate at the absence only of two days; but
when she saw how eagerly her lover returned to her, with what a fresh
charm he listened to her voice or her song, she began to confess that even
in the evil might be good.

By degrees he accustomed her to longer intervals; and Lucilla relieved the
dreariness of the time by the thousand little plans and surprises with
which women delight in receiving the beloved wanderer after absence. His