Page:Francesca Carrara 1.pdf/115

Rh affection. But Francesca's eye was quick to remark that Mademoiselle Mancini's manner to Guido was wholly changed. Some emotion was perceptible—a hurried voice, a slight tremor, a heightened colour; but these signs were instantly checked, and her air indicated a degree of superiority, even patronage, very different to the simple and warm welcome of her sister. So many guests thronged the apartment, that exclusive attention to any was out of the question; and after a hasty presentation to the Duc de Mercœur, the strangers were inevitably left much to themselves.

Francesca gazed round, as we gaze in some half-waking dream, of whose illusion we seem aware, and yet partake. The glittering crowd, whose high-sounding names ever and anon reached her ear—the magnificent room—the splendour of the dresses—the diamonds shining amid the elaborately curled tresses she had been accustomed to see in their native darkness, their summer ornament the half-blown rose, and their winter-wreath the myrtle-branch—all oppressed her with the sense of change. She saw at once how wide a gulf had opened between herself and her early friends, and she felt that they never again could be what they had been to each other. There might be benefit on one side,