Page:Francesca Carrara 1.pdf/191

Rh broken heart. At first, Rome was the great theme of their discourse. Rome, the mighty mother of the Christian faith, whose amphitheatres had been red with the blood of the saints, and where the pilgrimage and the miracle still testified to the truth. But it was not likely that conversation between two very young persons should always keep to this exalted strain; the feelings are sure to follow close upon imaginings, and confidence is natural to youth.

Francesca had been so long accustomed to have every thought spring from the heart to the lip, that the restraint so familiar to those with whom she had of late associated, oppressed and chilled her. Reserve and distrust seemed equally painful and unnatural; it was too soon for the pride of art, which supports so many through winding and rugged pathways.

Louise, bred up amid strict forms and courtly observances, perhaps found the far greater relief. To talk of herself and of her feelings, with the entire conviction of affectionate attention in the listener, was a new sensation. Besides, there was now such a wide and such an irretrievable gulf opened between her present and the past, that she referred to the days of her youth with a delight like that of age, which recalls mournfully and