Page:Francesca Carrara 1.pdf/132

128 much the creatures of habit, that any great change has the effect of a moral chill. We dread the future, unless it comes upon us imperceptibly;—whenever we anticipate, unless under some strong excitement of joy, we always fear. There are so many dangers, so many disappointments, and so many sorrows, ready to beset the human path, that we cannot but expect some at least to fall to our lot. The truth is, the young Italian was in a state of the utmost depression; and those subtle emotions we call being in good or bad spirits are utterly beyond our control. The weight of one sad thought pressed upon every other; she at once saw the hopelessness of Guido's attachment, and fancied she understood Marie's inconstancy by her own altered feelings. She, who knew him with the entire knowledge of perfect affection, knew well what the effect would be—wretchedness, the most complete, the most lasting, and the most irrevocable. Could it be the Mancinis—the impoverished and forgotten inhabitants of the desolate palace by the pine-wood—who were now the glittering idols of a court, favourites of Europe's most powerful monarch, and whose intercourse with them was one of the most unrestrained familiarity?—witness his visit of that very evening. Again and again she marvelled what were Marie