Page:In a winter city, by Ouida.djvu/286

Rh charm; he felt that this woman, with all her insolence and indifference and absorption by the world, was, in his hands, only a creature of emotions and of passions, who would flush at his touch, and grow unnerved under his gaze; he knew that he was very dear to her since, had he not been, for the audacity of his caresses he would have been driven out of her presence.

"Ama chi t'ama, e lascia dir la gente," he said to himself in the wise burden of the people's love-song; and he let destiny go as it would.

Meanwhile, she, dissatisfied, with a conscience ill at ease, and disinclined to look into the future, saw [him morning, noon, and night, but avoided seeing him alone, and usually had her brother near.

Lord Clairvaux could only stay a week, and was utterly unconscious that his presence was unwelcome; he was taken to see the two Arab mares of Della Rocca; he was taken to Palestrina; he was taken to studios and chapels, which had no more interest for him than they would have had for a setter dog: but he was quite ignorant of why he was taken.