My
hair has not fallen, but for every hair of my head there has been a
thorn in my destiny.
'But why let my sad thoughts get the upper hand over me again? And why
let memory cause me pain? It is useless to lament over a grave which
never gives back its dead. Would to Heaven I could remember that, once
for all!
'Francesca is still young, and has retained the frank and charming
gaiety which, in our school days, exercised such a strange fascination
over my somewhat gloomy temperament. She has one great and rare virtue:
though she is light-hearted herself, she can enter into the troubles of
others and knows how to lighten them by her kindly sympathy and pity.
She is above all things a woman of high intelligence and refined tastes,
a perfect hostess and a friend who never palls upon one. She is perhaps
a trifle too fond of witty _mots_ and sparkling epigrams, but her darts
are always tipped with gold, and she aims them with inimitable grace.
Among all the women of the great world I have ever known there is
certainly not one to compare with her, and of all my friends, she is the
one I care for most.
'Her children are not like her, they are not handsome. But the youngest,
Muriella, is a dear little thing, with the sweet laugh and the eyes of
her mother. She did the honours of the house to Delfina with all the air
of a little lady; she has certainly inherited her mother's perfect
manner.
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