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Rh disdain with any effect. That is the reason, I firmly believe, why Cleopatra poisoned herself, while Zenobia walked in the triumph of the Roman conqueror. The one knew she would not look well—the other knew she would."

"And can you be contented to pass through life unloving and unloved?"

"Unloved?—I don't know; unloving, certainly; but feared, admired, and courted. I believe we must all sacrifice quelque petit brin de sentiment; and, thanks to my early fancy for your brother, my sacrifice is made."

Francesca bit her lip, while the colour came into her cheek; nothing said of herself could have inflicted half the pain of this careless allusion to one whose feelings were so strong, and ought to have been so sacred.

Marie in an instant observed her change of countenance.

"Poor Guido! how like you look to him at this moment—with those large dilating eyes I never saw but in yourselves, I know you think me very unfeeling—and so I am; and yet at this very moment I am sadder than I seem. I shall never be so loved again—nothing can evermore call, even into momentary existence, the many kind