Godolphin looked out; the crowd seemed collected round one person.

"Only a young woman fainted, sir!" said his servant seated behind. "She
fell down in a fit just before the horses; but they started aside, and did
not hurt her."

"That is fortunate!" said Godolphin, reseating himself by his new bride;
"drive on faster."

At Florence, Godolphin revealed to Constance the outline of Lucilla's
history, and Constance shared somewhat of the feelings with which he told
it.

"I left," said he, "in the hands of the abbess a sum to be entirely at
Lucilla's control, whether she stay in the convent or not, and which will
always secure to her an independence. But I confess I should like now,
once more to visit the convent, and learn on what fate she has decided."

"You would do well, dear Percy," replied Constance, who from her high and
starred sphere could stoop to no vulgar jealousy; "indeed, I think you
could do no less."

And Godolphin covered those generous lips with the sweet kisses in which
esteem begins to mingle with passion. What has the earth like that first
fresh union of two hearts long separated, and now blended for ever?
However close the sympathy between woman and her lover--however each
thinks to have learned the other--what a world is there left un-learned,
until marriage brings all those charming confidences, that holy and sweet
intercourse, which leaves no separate interest, no undivided thought! But
there is one thing that distinguishes the conversation of young married